Mulberry tree is putting out amazing tasty fruit, goldfinger banana is coming back from the freeze as are the plumerias and dragon fruit. Newly planted Rajapuri banana in the back (with 3 pups, which will be replanted) 1 and one half solo papayas planted in the back (dog destroyed one, but it is coming back), new calomodin plant, new Big Jim Loquat, new Strawberry Guava. Room for some more plants, I lost the beautiful papayas that were fruiting at the time of the big freeze...

Hi CampV. We've been in Cottonwood for a couple of years now. We get cold air off Mingus, and temps can drop 30 degrees at night here in a few hours. It wasn't that one 12 degree night we had that did the damage, but the frequent sunny warmish days followed by night time frosts. That kind of weather is hard on fig trees, especially young first year trees. So next year I may be wraping tree trunks. Being new to the area, we are still experimenting with different varieties to see what will work best. We have 20 at present, 14 in ground, and the rest in pots. The tree/bush below died to the ground and is coming back from the roots. You can see the four remaining dead branches that formed this tree if you look close. (Ignore the stump in the background. That's a pine tree I cut down after we moved in). This post was edited by Centurion_ on Wed, May 29, 13 at 20:04

Hi Peg- you're too sweet. I will do so before bed tonight. Dave- personally I don't know much about electric fences (I mean, I get the general principle and all, but beyond that I'm entirely uninformed), but I googled "iguana" and "electric fence" and found that others have used them for that purpose. As far as I can tell, those who have report mixed results. It seems like a good idea if it could be done fairly cheaply (apparently, the condo association is low on funds right now). It's now on my research list-- thanks. There's this fellow up the coast about 40-50 miles from me, somewhere in Palm Beach Co., I believe--he has a website on which he talks about his trials and tribulations with iguana infestation on his property. Evidently, the iguanas scoffed at HIS electric fence...anyway, he now advocates this control method (which gets a huge OMG from me!): He sets up snares where they travel regularly, and when they ensnare themselves, he removes them from the snare with his bare hands, and then throws them in an old freezer!!! (He says that FL authorities have confirmed to him that freezing is considered humane.) I take no position on that last statement, but, I could just never ever do what he does. Call me a wuss, and I will accept the label LOL...I COULD NOT DO IT. Iguanas give me the heebie-jeebies!!!! At any rate, I know that this thread is probably making you all pretty weary. I understand--who wants to read depressing news (and there's more, but I'm sparing you all)? So, I'll stop, I think. I do want to say that there are more kind suggestions in this thread than I've been able to acknowledge or reply to, and I want to thank everyone for their thoughts and ideas. What is very clear to me now is that I will probably never solve this problem completely...but I'll keep trying, and when I find an effective solution--whenever that might be--I'll update everyone. Take care, and may your backyards stay iguana-free. Greg

By variety, so I can get a log going on yield and flavor, the best flavor so far was scintilla, oneal, and misty, bountiful blue has yielded the most but flavor is just ok and they have noticeably larger seeds. This is just my first full year with blueberries, the key for me has been selecting varieties that have low chill hours needed, keeping soil ph low and shading south and west in summer, first season I fertilized with ammonium sulfate at 1 tsp per gallon of water, per plant each week with supplemental watering in between as needed to gain size quickly, and have backed off to every two weeks this season. So far so good.