Berms help peaches in most soils in the northeast as well, based on my own experience and, more importantly, quite a bit of research- they are often recommended in university guidelines for peach and blueberry production. I should think they can only be a disadvantage for most species in droughty (very sandy or hydrophobic) soils, but one as wide as your berm would allow the creation of individual "craters" to help each tree establish if this is the situation. If drainage is good this can be helpful even in the flat to make watering easier until trees are established. Chestnuts are full sized trees and need about 30' space as a minimum. I'm experimenting at keeping mine more compact with pruning but I don't know how that will work long term and it's a lot of work. Once they plug in they grow like crazy. If you plant chestnuts, I recommend you get your trees from a source that has grafted trees so you can get really good nuts from them.

If you have a spot with 7 or more hours of sun, I�d plant a Celeste fig. They like a fair amount of water, & you�ll need to use netting to keep the birds away, but they�re really easy to grow. Persimmons do well, are 0 maintenance, & are self fertile; so you only need 1. They need 6+ hours of sun. I�d plant a Fuyu for an eat while hard type; for a eat while soft type, my favorites are 1: giombo, 2: eureka, 3: hichaya. For 5+ hours of sun, I�d go with thornless blackberries. A Keiffer pear would do well, I really like them, but many people don�t. Im getting mixed results so far with my Asian pears. Hosui & 20th century are usually recommended. I really like my tomcot apricot; I have to spray once or twice; its self fertile, one will do Peaches are doable, but are a lot of work. Apples are a challenge, but are also doable. Jujube�s do well but they have an invasive root system, I�d keep them 30-40 ft away from flowerbeds & foundations. My persimmons have never been as good as store bought ones; but you have different soil so they might work better for you; sweet &desertnyi, show the most promise for me; texas a&m recommends wonderfull; eversweet does well but seems bland to me; Poms are a pretty bush in any event My favorite nursery is Womack�s. Doan's in Irving is pretty good too. Beware of nurseries that don�t tell you the rootstock, those plants often are on rootstocks that don�t do well in Texas. Some interesting reads can be found by googling "neil sperry tamu radio fruit north texas", and "dallas fruit grower". If you haven�t bought by next fall, you might want to visit a pick your own place in Mexia. Lightsey�s farm; you could taste what you�ll eventually be harvesting in 3-4 years; they have most everything I�ve mentioned

I wouldn't mention it. People who consider them an asset will readily notice them. People who consider them a liability may not notice them. We have fruit trees and enjoy gardening so its not a hassle with us. The do usually require some work and effort to get nice fruit though. Auntjen - I agree with your observations of the Bradford pear. They are an interesting tree. Once the were very popular as an flowering tree and a fast grower. Now the are banned in several communites in the midwest that I've live in. I learned this working for a landscape company in OH in the early 90s. It is because they are so easily damaged in storms. After learning this I would pay attention after a summer storm and noticed 90% of the downed branches were from BPs, I was amazed. Now when ever I see a BP, I'll look closely at it and they usually will have a large scar from previous storm damage.

Do you know what kind of avocado you purchased? I don't think the Hass avocado would do well in your climate or mine (which are the same.) The larger avocados at Publix are often sold under the rubric of "Florida Avocado." Clearly if you buy one that has fruit on it from a grower you would stand a better chance of getting some avocados soon. There are a number of places in Winter Garden that sell them. I believe the one that is mentioned most often here as being successful in our growing zone is the Brodgon. I would like to see your question of the likelihood of bulbs taken from the fruit growing into a flowering and fruit-producing plant. I have a seed or bulb that was taken from Silvia's tree and it is growing quite well now. I don't want to plant it and find out ten years later that it will never produce fruit. The site I linked will give you a lot of information about growing avocados in Florida. I noted that some varieties will start producing fruit within three years. I had a very nice one given to me but somehow I managed to kill it. I think I may have over-watered and perhaps over-fertilized it. Here is a link that might be useful: University of Florida link