HI! I got a lovely email that this thread had been retrieved so I'm here to give an update! Actually, I've been so consumed with this project that I haven't even been to the forum. The store is going to open October 1!!!!! It's called "Southern Seasons" and it's in Shelbyville, TX. I actually got my LLC with Moo's Garden & Market but I found that I had to spell and explain too much with this name. Plus I kept getting mail addressed to Moose Gardens (?) I found Southern Seasons explained that concept much better. If someone will post the "code" on how to paste a picture I'll be happy to show you the progress. It's quite a transformation! It has been my passion to make this store THE store that I would want to shop at. It must have everything that I find enjoyable in a store. I think I might have done it, for the most part. First of all, we are all about the seasons. When we open in October I'm having a half a semi load of pumpkins delivered for sale and display. Their premium pumpkins from West Texas in all sizes shapes and colors. These bear NO resemblance to your Wal Mart or grocery store pumpkins. There is big and tiny, red and white and blue and orange, tall and fat and even some with warts! My husband and I bundled up corn shocks from our garden for decoration, I'm going to Louisiana for a load of barley and wheat straw bales. We'll have mums and snapdraggons, panseys, and fall garden veggie plants. The day after Thanksgiving, all the Fall stuff goes to the cows to enjoy and in comes the Fraser Firs from North Carolina. I'm getting table top sizes for my older customers who find large trees too much to deal with. Then comes spring with hanging baskets and beddding plants, fountains and bird baths, feeders, wind chimes, sun catchers etc. Back to October- Inside the store is seperated into two sections which I lovingly call womans world/man's world. The theme of the whole store is based on entertaining at home. Whether it's a formal dinner party, backyard cookout, or a cozy evening at home alone, I have what you need! - Let me explain! The ladies side will greet you when you walk in with a huge centerpiece of fresh cut flowers (which are for sale) and often times a fruit and vegetable centerpiece like a pomegranate and lemon topiary or such. I also carry Colonial Candles, and sachets and poporri from Sentations, candle sticks & georgeous table runners. Wine, iced tea, rocks, shot, martini glasses, pitchers, stirrers, decanters, swizzle sticks both silly and classic. Trays to carry your cup and saucer, the BEST music CD's ranging from jazz to love songs, books from Southern Lady publishing on entertaining and tabletops and flowers. Magazines also like Southern Lady, Taste of the South (Not taste of home) Victoria and Tea Time. On the counter you will find fresh muffins, cookies, croissants, cupcakes, fruitcakes, pies and bagles. Fresh hot coffee (perhaps cappaccino, I'm working on that) and you can take your coffee and muffin and go out on the back deck (20x24) and enjoy your coffee looking at the gardens and reading a magazine or newspaper. There will be a nice fountain and seasonal decor, of course. I want people to LOVE to be here! Man's world has Salty snacks like Real Virginia peanuts both in a can and in the shell, fresh fruits and vegetables grown localy and in from the Texas Rio Grand Valley, glass bottled cokes, the real can sugar Dr. Pepper from Dublin, TX. Deer corn and fall plot mixes. A meat counter with actual USDA PRIME BEEF! Yes, it's pricey but it's so difficult to find that I decided we MUST carry it for those who want something special. We'll have delicious smoked link sausage by the pound, and other food items that I'm still working on. I'm sure there's so much that I'm forgetting! It's a lot especially when you see that the store is so tiny but it will be loaded to the rafters which is what I wanted! Also, different yes, but I will NOT decorate for Christmas until the day after Thanksgiving! This gives you a reason to come back often to see what is new with the decor and centerpieces and foods. Thank you all for your interest and please come and see me when we get open! It's going to be nothing if not interesting. I've got to go paint....again! Love, Moo!

If you do decide to wait, hopefully the peaches set and you can taste a few to see if it is worth it. A pit derived peach (seedling) is supposedly unlikely to give a good peach (that would be a rare thing likely worth preserving). But here is an opportunity to find out and then decide just before bud swell late winter if it is worth moving. I hope you get a winner and one with unique taste and properties...that I hope will be worth propagating down the road. Document and photograph the fruit if it turns out good. Of course if you wait the tree will be even bigger with summer growth by then (see fruitnut's comment on summer pruning of new wood). This post was edited by Fascist_Nation on Mon, May 19, 14 at 10:41

Y'all are thinking what I am.... mmm broiled scallops. Actually, I only use treats for, well, treating. I just say the command and when she does what I want, I praise her lavishly and pet her. Worked with Keegie and works with her, but I only have three commands, up, down, and no. She seems to have them down. Stuck her sweet white nose up to LF's dinner last night and I said Maggie, no. She walked away. She really got petted and loved up over that one. Bad habit, snitching bites. ;) Nan, her spot is her right hind quarter and she will lash out with all of her claws and even put her teeth on you. She never breaks the skin, but it is sudden and scary! Haven't seen it since last Wednesday, her first day there. She's even letting me put my face in her face now, so I think the trust is building. Oops, just thought of one more thing I have to train her to do, head butt. I just have to have head butts. When she does that, I will know I have her trust.

Thank You Jay! A very good possibility for additional sales, Locally Grown. I consider marketing the most important task I have, way ahead of taking care of such things as colorado potatoe beetles. My mind never rests from it. Your good sugestion becomes scary as this very idea is what I have been working on for the past few weeks. We already have a web page(klemmspikespeak.com) which is not being used to its potential. I have been laying out a vegetable reserve plan on paper and my dear wife will graciously get it on line(maybe). I will be offering future(july-aug.-sept.) produce for reserve in larger quantities besides the next week pick-up kitchen vegetables. I have closed down one farm stand location this year to cut expense and hope the NET will pick-up some of this lost volume cheaper. So I now have one farm-stand located 10 feet from the road and the growing patch and plan on getting a mobile(trailer) on the road for special events and one to two days a week. I am open 7 days a week with the main stand and would lose customers if I shortened that schedule. It is a lot of work but thats what we all like,,,right? I have started classified ad this week directing readers to our web page($18.95 p/wk.) Hopefully with about $400.00 of advertising I can increase my sales by $20,000.00. This direction I'am heading doesnot mean that I have it all figured out, I still NEED all of your good sugestions as I'am constantly trying to improve marketing effectively. bye tonytiller w