Joey, ouch! a well deserved attack on my pompous self. I apologize for the impression my postings leave, but it is sometimes frustrating when hobbyists with a few years experience speak with the same authority as someone with forty years full time experience in the soil. It was your assertion that your shelter is the only thing that works that coaxed my boasts, just to try to establish some authority for practical reasons. I have been frustrated when clients have created just such shelters that are a hassle to get into at pruning time and have unnecessary components. Yes, I am a professional fruit grower but also an amateur fruit grower who got into this for the same reasons as you. I don't feel I am in any way superior to any one else on this forum and I don't post my credentials to lift my ego up or put you down but it takes a lot of time to write these postings and I feel I need to establish the extent of my experience to help the questioner evaluate the quality of my advice. I don't want to see someone go to a lot of extra work that I know is unnecessary. I'm sorry that I critisized your lack of weed control, but I identify with your poor trees as much as I identify with you and I wrote without considering your feelings. This was wrong and stupid and selfish but I am new to this forum thing and am prone to the mistakes of my imperfect personality. Best wishes, Alan Haigh

There are differing opinions out there, but personally I think you're okay to prune a few branches now if you wish. I do still think it's best in early spring, but I also don't think you'll hurt the tree or catch diseases if you do some now. If it helps you to do what you need to do for winter protection, I say go for it.

My yard is surrounded by trees (mostly large oaks), and I've used them as mulch for years. I like to chop them up with the lawn mower, which deals with the matting problem that fruitnut pointed out and creates a nice fluffy mulch that breaks down slowly and adds much need organic matter to my clay soil. I also used chopped leaves for making compost/leaf mold to improve my vegetable beds. One negative, though, is that in a mild climate like mine (and yours, presumably, since you're in zone 7), leaves provide great shelter for slugs, snails, earwigs, pillbugs, etc. which, potentially, can do a lot of damage to tender vegetation. I've stopped mulching my vegetable beds for just this reason, but I still mulch around all of my perennial fruit trees, berry bushes and canes, etc.

thank you for the replies. I like the cocoplum, but I am worried it will die back every year. I am leaning towards the fakahatchee grass. I hope I can find it for relatively cheap. I will be getting some orange jessamine for accents along my privacy fence and some sweet viburnum for other areas. I think the fakahatchee grass will give the pool area a nice tropical look. I am still open to more suggestions so keep them coming. Thank you all!