If I were you I'd go to Vintage Virginia Apples. I bought several apples and a pear from them and was very happy with the service. Whatever grows well there will also grow well for you. (I wish I were closer so I could attend some of the seminars and tastings!) You will need pollinators. http://www.vintagevirginiaapples.com

No, I haven't run into that..yet. Last night we visited some friends who had a pool built by Maryland Pools. It's beautiful and they were happy with the pool project. They have a flagstone deck, but if they had to do it again they said they would use something else. They think it's too hot, plus they find little sharp pieces breaking off of the flagstone due to furniture movement. They initially contracted outside of MP for the decking, kitchen and other things, but ran into so many issues they ended up going back to the contractor recommended by MP. And, they showed us all their paperwork so now we have a much better idea of what 'additional' costs we may run into from both the county and pool builder. That's one of my biggest concerns.Thinking we can build this for $100K and finding that it's really $200K. Looking forward to hearing more as you interview contractors.

Ethiojazz your main factor when it comes to tile/coping this time of the year is going to be freezing temps. If the mortar is wet and it freezes overnight, the water in the mix will freeze, creating many little voids in the mortar - which can potentially lead to problems down the road. But - there are a couple "tricks of the trade" that can be applied here to prevent this from happening. In addition, temps in the area are kind of jumping around (i.e. one night it's freezing, next night it isn't). So there is still time ... On the other hand, the only real "damage" done if you wait is just in scheduling. If you're having a deck done, 99% of the time you'll need the tile/coping installed first. So this would hold up decking progress. If you're doing a regular concrete deck ... obviously this would not be much of a hold up. Now, if you're doing flagstone, or pavers ... yeah, you'll lose some time.

Hvae you done the shampoo thing? If you are concerned that the dirt is too hard, the surfactants in the shampoo will allow better water absorption. Have you had a soil test? By the way, I doubt anyone is reading this thread because it takes too darn long to scroll to the bottom to see what was said. And no way are they are going to read through the whole saga. I get an email alert that you said something (because I had commented) and I can click to the bottom. But anyone new to the thread would have to scroll down a long time. You might start another thread for future questions and concerns. And then someone other than me might have ideas for you.