started as a stick with a loop. I have gown lots of branches. I have trained them. thickened them. and then decided to do away with them this spring I thought I would try to keep it intereting. There is literati. But the loop. did not look right to go that way. so this spring I decided to cut every thing I had grown except the one branch I trained downward. Also I found this piece of granite and had it bored out. to put the tree in last summer. I also had some work done to the slab I used to set it on. Curious to know with yearly root pruning can I keep it in this put for ever? They are one.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to respond and give me good advice. You pretty much confirmed that what we are doing is right--just "being there," keeping things light, not making a big deal out of this to DSS. KKNY, you don't know me, yet you read the worst into what I said, in the meantime, ignoring all of the clearly positive aspects of it. Perhaps I should read the worst into your post to point out that you did nothing more than take an opportunity to further what appears to be your "mission" to attack the SMs here. If you really wanted to help, as a BM, you could offer some constructive advice. But if you did that, you might actually help IMPROVE a step situation, which would REALLY run counter to your "mission," now wouldn't it?? For your information, and for anyone else who is wondering, I made the point that they are not "good enough" to make their middle school team (yes, they had try-outs and DID NOT make it) to show that this "team" they are on is just a step above "pick-up basketball" in the neighborhood. It is something they do for fun and exercise, but b-ball is not a sport that either of them particularly excel at, nor is this league something that is that important to them vs. time with their father, which they need, NOW MORE THAN EVER, IMO. It would be like DH telling them he can't do visitation one weekend b/c he has a church league b-ball game. If DH has to miss visitation for work (which almost never happens, as even though DH is a lawyer and works MANY hours a week, he puts in extra hours during the week so he can take off the weekends and be with DSSs), or if DSSs have to miss for school, church or some other activity that is really important to them, that is another matter. And this is not MY original sentiment--I am actually parroting what DH says, and HE certainly is allowed to make statements w/o having bad motives ascribed, ISN"T HE, KKNY??? The point I was trying to make is, there are some activities that really "justify" missing visitation, and others do not and are an "excuse" which is a symptom of a problem. If we suddenly agree to skip visitation everytime there is something going on that one of them could possibly do, we might as well tell them to "have a nice life" as I suggested above. I probably should have mentioned that DSSs have played in this league for years and have NEVER had a problem missing Sat. games for visitation, so it seems obvious it was an "excuse" this year. Also, they both are VERY VERY good at other things, and we support them. DSS 14's soccer team went to the state championships last year. DSS 12 has only lost a few wrestling matches IN HIS LIFE! So, when it comes to soccer and wrestling, we understand that they can't miss and work around those things. Someone mentioned "walking on eggshells" around SKs. That is the real irony of KKNY ascribing bad motives to me. For 9 years, I have gone out of my way to try not to say anything that would be upsetting to DSSs. When they do things that I would correct my son on in a minute (like eat chocolate chip cookies, brownies, etc. dropping crumbs all over the kitchen instead of over the counter, pouring a large glass of the last milk we have in the house so that there is none for anyone else) I do not say ONE WORD. I remind myself that I am glad they like my cookies, and I'm glad their drink of choice is MILK over soda. Of course, I would think nothing of telling DS 6 not to do that or anything else. But I don't want to do anything to make them feel "picked on" at our house. So it is almost LAUGHABLE to me that someone here would say I made a "dig" at DSS 14 over not being good enough to make the middle school team. Also, I feel badly for DH b/c he is truly one of the best dads one could imagine. Someone asked that recently on another thread. My DH is a wonderful DH and an amazing dad. When DSSs were little guys, he bathed them, dressed them, complete care. (He bathes our 2, does diaper changes, etc.) DSS 14 plays guitar and when his band played for his school recently, DH took the morning off work to be there. (4+ hours round trip for a 15 minute assembly, but again, he loved every minute of it.) He also takes DSSs INDIVIDUALLY on father-son weekends each summer. (For past 3 years, DSS 12 and he have gone to father-son wrestling camp; DSS 14 and he have been to father-son baseball camp and pro football Hall of fame.) DH loves to laugh and has a very witty sense of humor and always keeps things light. I just read this response to DH in its entirety and he agrees with everything I've said. I think I'm going to end this with the sentiment that the fact that DH and I are on the same page and have a STRONG, HEALTHY, HAPPY marriage will get us through this. Thanks again for all who posted on this. Have a good day.

Plants can be amazingly resilient; do give these a chance. If leaves are badly damaged, as in your fifth photo, go ahead and remove and destroy (don't compost) them, as they probably don't have enough chlorophyll-containing tissue to contribute to the upkeep of the plant. However, there is no need to remove the leaves if they still have a lot of undamaged tissue - just squish the borers inside the tunnels in the leaves; you might even be able to see them if you look closely. I know, yuk, but it's them or your zukes! Besides, that's what garden gloves are for, and they're inside the leaves anyway. I trust you made drainage holes in the bottom of that bucket; if not, you need to do that now. Be careful with the Epsom salt; don't over-do. The only yellowing I see in your photos is on heavily infested leaves, and may be a by-product of that infestation. On another social media site, someone shared a site with multiple charts illustrating how plants exhibit nutrient deficiencies. I'm posting it below in case Prof. Google hasn't already shared this one with you. (By the way, I've not had a chance tor review this yet myself.) http://bigpictureagriculture.blogspot.com/2015/12/plant-nutrient-deficiency-leaf.html Looking forward to more photos and wishing you the best of luck ... I've not even planted my zuke seeds yet! Heeled in some tomato plants in that spot and they appear to have taken over.

To start I need to see all four walls of the space and why is the furniture not facing the FP. IMO if there is a TV in the space I would remove all the shelving form the left side get a nice low cabinet and mount the TV above the cabinet so the TV and the FP can share the focal point.