If your landscape is too barren, The National Arbor Day Foundation can supply you with trees to fill in the blank spots.

To join, dial toll free 1-888-448-7337. The membership fee is $10 and includes ten trees. Give name, address and credit card number, and be sure to ask for the 10-tree packet with maples and oaks for planting zone seven.

This package includes: two oaks, three maples, one white dogwood, one river birch, one Colorado blue spruce, one redbud, one white pine.

A membership packet with information on growing trees is shipped about three weeks later. Each one-year-old seedling is about one foot high.

Place membership order no later than March 7 for spring planting in Georgia.

The seedlings are sent as bare-root trees — this means the trees are in dormant condition, and there is no ball of soil around the roots. The trees need to be planted by April 1. If the trees could be planted within a few days of delivery, that would best. To store briefly, place in unheated area.

Yes, the trees are small. But the Arbor Day Foundation says it offers to replace any tree from the packet free if the tree doesn't begin to grow within the membership year.

The advantage to planting seedlings is that the holes do not need to be deep or large - just dig to a level immediately beneath where the roots extend downward, and then dig a circle twice the length of roots extending outward. When planting, keep the bottom of the trunk level with the ground. Fill in with good soil or added compost. Fertilize. Water trees regularly for the first few years and especially during dry periods. Protect trees from mowers.

Tree planting tip: Make multi-tree islands - design island and remove grass. Mulch island with tree leaves and cover with pine straw. Plant two or three trees in each island. Add extra leaves yearly to tree islands to enrich soil.