Thanks - I did look around, and there are none nearby. However, I did look at the web site for the American Camellia Society, and it reminded me so much of the American Rose Society - huge emphasis on showing cut flowers in competitions, etc. Not my cup of tea at all. So, I have pruned my old camellias gently - as if they were old old tea roses. Not too much dead wood, but some. Found at least 6 old long wires that were tying the bushes to the now gone tree to support them. The bushes were leaning away from the tree - I presume to look for more light. Not a problem now. It turned out that there were 3 old turned off sprinkler heads in that bed - we turned them back on, because of all of the info I found about how camellias like to have a lot of water. Between the years & years of fallen leaf litter from the eugenie tree (they are evergreen but shed leaves continuously) and the sawdust left behind from when the tree was taken down, there is about 12 inches of "mulch" in that bed already! I am removing some of it, so that the base of the bushes are not buried. Next task is to weed all of the tree seedlings that are in that bed - not only eugenies, but privet, plum, oak, black walnut, & who knows what else. Luckily, many of them are rooted in the mulch layer, and come right up. The 3 ft wide planter we ordered to go on top of the 2 1/2 ft high eugenie stump is coming tomorrow, so after that gets put in and planted (I think mostly with trailing petunias, etc,) I will finish weeding and then feed the camellias. Hope to have the entire bed looking civilized & pretty within a few months. Thanks so much for your suggestions - Jackie

The tree in the pix ,is not out of control,yet. You can ,thin branches ,the way you like,because it will not harm the tree,if you want a smaller tree. You can do it right now ,no Problem.

tropical with an electric bill like that, obviously something is wrong. could be the AC, might be something else. I would cut the AC off, get a reading from your meter both now and two hours later. get the difference. this should at least confirm if it's the AC or another appliance pulling abnormal amount of electricity. what size is existing system and it's age? so your heat strips are defective and you have been without any heat for the moderate winters you have? you need an HVAC pro to perform a load calc for cooling and heating. you do want a new system that meets the tax credit qualifying standard of 13 EER and 16 SEER for a straight AC system. IMO

I agree with both of you, but the state of CA (which these rules came from) seems to have a theory that fires will not leap from tree to tree if the trees are not touching each other. You and I know, and anyone who has seen strong winds knows, that this is nonsense. If it is bone dry and over 90 degrees F, and the hot wind is blowing very fast, dainty pruning around the garden will not stop a large fire, no matter how much you prune. It might stop a fire if it was, as you say, very small and very shy, or if the fire was actually a single house fire, not a wildfire, and was being fought by 5 fire engines all for that one house, which happened to our house once. We do have friends who have enormous properties of 5-10 acres, and do not have gardens at all, but rather acres of watered and mowed lawns with tiny low flower beds around their houses, and only a very few trees. That will help, of course, but we live in an old neighborhood with lots and lots of mature lovely trees, and mostly older, large and/or historic homes on quarter acre lots with lots of bushes, etc. (One of the "rules" is to remove ...this and that... "out to 100 ft away from your house" My comment to the fire person was that to follow that rule, I would have to knock down 3 of my neighbors nearby houses, and I think they would object). The written rules if actually enforced would make everyone have to bulldoze their properties and cover them with concrete, so they don't try to enforce them as written - the fire person told us that our local fire department decided what part to enforce - I am glad of this, but it is NOT good governance. (One town actually passed a law saying 100% of the homes in that town had to clear a space of 5' entirely around their houses, and pave it with concrete. They decided to rescind that law after the outraged residents circulated a petition to get a measure put on the ballot to recall the entire City Council (which you can do for any ror no reason in CA). I regard the exercise as mostly cosmetic, but so far it has made me get some work done which was needed in the garden any way, and that is OK. Jackie