The entire Prunus genus finds wet feet distasteful. Keep in mind that it really doesn't matter how large or how many the drain holes are, as long as they allow water to flow from them. Ultimately, it's soil structure/composition with a heavy emphasis on the size of the particles that make up the soil that determines how well the soil drains. Water retention is like cholesterol ..... there's the good kind and the bad kind. Good cholesterol is like the microscopic film of water on soil particles, water found inside of porous soil particles, and water that hangs around the interface where soil particles contact other particles make up good water retention. Water that fills the spaces between soil particles that, if the particle size was larger would normally be filled with air, is like the bad cholesterol. Al

I have gotten some pretty big trees from Cummins. But maybe it was just what I was ordering (French cider apples which were not selling very well I expect). Even the smallest trees were bigger than 12-24"ers. Trees of Antiquity I would agree is the very best. MHG, here is a picture of some covered figs that I took a year ago: I use a stapler to "stitch" together the sheets and I use ground staples to firmly attach it to the ground (a staple every 6" to 1' or so around the bottom). The rope cinch on the outside makes sure the cover will stay on in high winds. You can't see but inside the cover I use rope to pull the limbs in to allow a smaller cover. It took me a couple hours to make this cover and it takes 20 minutes to put it on and 20 minutes to take it off. It probably cost me about $50 worth of insulation; it has lasted four years and looks to be able to make it to about ten. I bought a new roll this winter from a guy on eBay selling slightly dented rolls for half price -- worked out great. All that said, if I lived in your climate I would probably just grow hardy varieties of peaches. Scott

There were roses everywhere when we bought this house, and we have been removing them one by one and giving them to friends. One friend lives on a street called Rose Circle, or something like that, and she has been good about taking the unwanted roses off our hands. I have been replacing the roses with drought tolerant plants, such as succulents and cacti, which I much prefer. Still, some roses still come back from roots that we were unable to remove, and so it is an ongoing process to get rid of them. We have kept one rose bush in the front yard that makes white flowers, and it seems to bloom all year, which is why we kept it. Also, the white flowers go better with our color schemes than the pink ones. We are trying to get rid of the pink that we inherited with the house. The first thing to go was an ornamental peach tree that attracted possums. We have replaced that with banana and heliconia - not drought tolerant plants, but they work with our existing watering system. I have a hard time throwing out orchid cuttings, but we have too many epidendrum in the back yard and no place to put all of them. I also have a bit of a hard time throwing out bromeliad cuttings, but I have no trouble at all throwing out roses, as the thorns are quite nasty. Some of the bromeliads are nasty also, and so I do not feel bad about throwing those out. If it pricks you, do not feel bad about throwing it out is my philosophy. It's nice when you can find homes for unwanted plants, but it is not nice to keep something that is getting in your way.

dcarch, I bought a traditional electric fencer for less than a third of the price of the solar one, and it works very well. Elery did the math and says it costs about 2 cents a day to run, and we spent a week and several hundred dollars running wire and sinking ground rods, so it's pretty much a done deal. If the power goes out, we'll have to hook it to the generator or else put the stock in the barnyard until power is restored. When I need a replacement I'll consider solar again, if they've improved enough. Because Elery is a licensed electrician and has spent 37 years working for a large power company and is NERC and FERC compliant and has a couple of degrees in that field, I think if it could have been manufactured to be reliable and economical and still work, he would have done it simply because he is stubborn enough to need to make it work, LOL, he doesn't give up easily. But he's also not stupid stubborn, so he won't spend a lot of hours and dollars rigging up something just to prove he can if there's an easier and simpler option. The other 98% of users who were also disappointed might try it again too, if they can actually make them work, so hopefully they'll get better. An "unused TV"? I don't even have television, LOL. As for the bug zappers, I don't use those at all, they actually attract bugs, which I have enough of already, thank you. I use fly predators at the farm and they are very efficient and take no electricity at all. Low tech, that's just the ticket for me. (grin) Annie