You took the words right out of my mouth . Where is here? I heard that they thought it might be hardy to around 20F which would mean that I would have to protect it occasionally and possibly loose it an a huge cold front. That is what shovels are for. I lost an 8 ' O. cochenellifera, and a bunch of opuntias during an unusually hard freeze a couple of years ago (12F). O ficas indica is hardy to just above 15. It came back from the ground. @ GS, Thanks I went again and the link did show it. Interesting discussion. Mine looks to be a bit different. These pads are flat elongated but more of the classic wide paddle form associated with opuntia, a darker green, The pony tails were spaced farther apart, but all in all, definitely similar. I have contacts on flicker that are involved in the Mexican cactus scene. maybe , I should shake their tree for information. @ Karen, Your cactus are also rooting and showing growth. Thank you again. Give me a couple of years and I might have some spare pads of this one , but taking into account that every person that passed me as I made my way to the car, asked me where were this plants in the store and if it was the last one, this plant will be making its way into the trade in a hurry. I think that it was grown somewhere near by because others had been munched on by the dreaded cactus coreid bug. I do not think that it is as much of a pest in Arizona and ponts west as it is here. I could be mistaken..

Actually, that was the side I didn't do anything to other than cut a few of the larger berry bushes at the bottom of the hill. That birch is in rough shape and without staking it up and waiting several years, it won't survive. I would just assume take it down since it's not really in a great location anyway. I hate to do it since they are becoming relatively scarce due to disease and insects. This picture http://minus.com/lbx4OfKnwRF4xc shows what are definitely blackberry/raspberry bushes. I wouldn't mind having them, in fact I would welcome having a ton more, just not here. Being on the slope they will not be easy to get to when the mature and have fruit. If there was a way to transplant them or something I would love to hear it. I had tried it in the past, but the only way I have ever seen them grow was by accident and negligence. Based on the size of a few of the lower bushes, I would bet they may produce a limited amount of fruit. The smaller ones at the top of the hill however are definitely not mature enough from my experience. Going off on a tangent... I loved having berry bushes growing up and we had a large sandy area on my parent's property that they grew like crazy in. They eventually began to die off and my dad chopped them all down. The began to come back by the time I went to college, but it took a while to get any amount of fruit from them. My last year at college I rented a small cottage on a back road that had the biggest patch of black raspberries I had ever seen. I started picking as soon as they began to ripen and then ever couple days for the next 3 weeks. I stopped for lack of room in the freezer for 1gal ziplock bags. I made at least a dozen pint jars of jam and a few quarts. I gave a bunch away but i'm hoarding the last few of the "good" batch for myself. :) So in other words, I would love to have berry bushes, just not where they are. A lot of what you see on the ground on the left side (looking from the house) is debris and not much in the way of live plants other than some weeds. Obviously it is still very early here and not much has come up yet though. The tree shown in the background of this picture http://minus.com/lbwhVJrx76OE9d appears to be planted from what is left of the mulch/preparation around the base. This shot http://minus.com/lvFny84VUSjeW shows a rock swail that comes down from what is left of the last owners fish pond sort of thing. There is a reddish low lying plant growing on either side that I failed to get a close up picture of. It appears that it will look nice later in the spring but needs some weeding and/or mulching. I will take your advice and try posting some pictures on the "name that plant" forum. In the meantime, would I benefit from getting some sort of tall meadow grass mix to put down in a few weeks? *whoops, I wrote a book

If I were you, I would choose the forum that best suits your plants. For example, I grow a lot of fruit and edible plants; I also trade plants and seeds and hvae a vegetable garden. I post on these forums, fruit, vegetables, plant trade, seed trade, gardening, edible landscape and Virginia.

I had a top mount sink with an offset drain AND faucet before and loved it. With the new remodel, just completed this week, I could not find an undermount,SS offset drain that fit my 30" base. I put the faucet in the middle to line up with the drain this time, but not sure I like it---seems to stick out too far and be in the way. I have a feeling that when I am working I will be turning the faucet to the side to get it out of the way. Too soon to tell yet if I really dislike it since I'm not really using it yet..have to get everything moved back in.