Immediately, you can remove those rings of rock around the trees. :) And kill that Palo Verde: the volunteers are usually weak-branched messy things. I would also get rid of the Cape Honeysuckle in favor of something that is more 'deserty', like another tree. It's a big green blob right there. I would start by finding some books on desert landscaping and reading them (Sunset's Western Garden book ... essential and saves a lot of mistakes). Small desert shrubs mingled with the trees, if you can keep the dogs from laying on them, will settle the trees, as will perennial wildflowers like desert marigold, brittlebrush, etc. You can harvest seeds, start them in pots and set them out when the summer rains have started to minimize water use. I do activity-based area planning. Read the article at the link below: it's what I do to clients and have them do before we start talking about picking up a shovel. After you have the activities and how much room they will get, and where, the rest gets much easier. If you need to demolish anything, do it as early as possible. Landscape as if the fence you plan is already there. To continue the landscape out past the chain link fence, just repeat the plant material and lines across the fence. Instead of a line of anything along the fence, have an open group of them falling across the fence line. Beware of Cassias - some can become invasive pests. I'm still fighting Feathery Cassia seedlings from the ones we removed 5 years ago. Stick to AZ desert natives or plants that don't have a rep for running amok. For more shade, and we AZonians do really need it, how about a trellis or arbor along the "dog walk". Check zoning and building codes, but usually an unroofed arbor is OK. http://www.flickr.com/photos/38617480@N07/3614575147/in/set-72157619486607319/ shows my west-side arbor. It's growing a Queen's Wreath and some beans right now. Here is a link that might be useful: Make your own landscape plan

Glad that my suggestion may help, gatormomx2. The "pot-within-a-pot" system has the added benefit of protecting the tree from blow-over damage in strong winds. Also, you can incorporate a tree into a garden area without it looking out-of-place. For my Key lime, I used those circular storage tubs you can get from WalMart for about $5-6 each, and they have heavy woven nylon rope handles. Cut a few drainage holes in the bottom, and they're good to go. puglvr1 -- I use the large 10x12 frost blankets, and try to use them double-thickness when I can, although on the larger trees I have to spread them all the way out. As for heat, I, too, use Christmas lights on a couple of trees. But for my mango trees and citrus, I use a 140-foot heating cable I bought from Charley's. I planted six of my most sensitive trees (including three mangoes) near an outside outlet, so I can loop about 8-10 feet of cable around the base of each tree. The entire cable puts out 700 watts, so each foot is worth 5 watts...not much. As the trees get larger, I'm going to have to augment with Christmas lights (on a different circuit!) as well. The winter temps up here are brutal! This past winter, even with the heat and frost blankets, killed my jakfruit and knocked my Mallika mango back to an inch of the graft. It's so frustrating to try to grow nice things, and so incredibly labor-intensive too. I must have rocks in my head... -Bruce

Most importantly is the plant inside against the wall all the time? This Euphorbia Ammak is a large growing tree and needs bright sunlight to maintain itself. Soil looks to be dry but they should be in a gritter mix to increase drainage. Is the brown spots mussy or soft, and/or smells funny. It is possible that it is still okay. Needs better living conditions. Turning brown or black is sometimes part of growing this white ammak. If you must cut, Use a sharp knife and cut across where there is no rot and only good stem. Have a spray bottle of cold water to spray the white latex sap. Sap is toxic and a skin irritant and wash right after cutting it. If you get any in your eyes, wash out with tons of water then go to the hospital for treatment. Let the cut heal and dry for a few days before planting in pure grit or perlite. It takes almost a year for new roots to form. No water can be taken up till it grows new roots. Google 'cutting my euphorbia ammak' for videos and more instructions.

I haven't been on the forums for a while so am a bit out of touch. I've been busy in the garden, but it is already 90F at 9am so am taking it in small doses today. I got carried away with purchasing and trading morning glory seeds this past winter and ended up like many of you with not enough fence lines to grow them on. I raise sheep and if they can get to a plant it is history! I made some trellises this year with refrigeration tubing rolled into a shape like a spring (about 6" in diameter) then inserted one end of the spring in the ground or pot and the other end in a section of copper pipe stood on end in the soil with the plants around it. The plants seem happy enough with this arrangement but it is actually a little short for most morning glories and they are overreaching the tops now looking for additional support from neighboring plants. Another idea that I tried this year is actually working better--I had a section of loose chain link fence that I could get anyone to take away for me so I used a bolt cutter to cut off the part where the wires are twisted together at the top and bottom freeing the wire to be twisted out of the fence fabric. They are perhaps 6-7' long. I tried various configurations in pots and ground using 3, 5, or 6 wires. I twisted the wire into the soil and wired the tops together making some teepee type trellises. The plants LOVE this wire and have almost no problem climbing the trellises. In some pots (smaller type vines), I pushed both ends of the wires into the soil and it makes a nice fat balloon shape that are very nice when covered with vines. My visitors have all been very interested and complimentary of these trellises/support systems You just can't get any cheaper than the salvaged fence trellises. I would bet that you could find pieces of this kind of fence at the local landfill or recycling center. Good luck, spiderwoman