Snowbunny, I am sorry you lost your beloved dog. What was her name? I have three memorial gardens for my lost dogs. The first is for Bridget, an incredibly smart, funny, Golden Retriever/Lab mix. Two years before I lost her, she helped me dig the water garden, me with my shovel, she with her paws. When the liner was installed, the water added, and the rock edging in place, we began and ended every summer/spring/fall day there. In the morning I would sit and drink my coffee, Bridget at my feet, and at night, we would sit and listen to the frogs and watch the fireflies. She is buried on the other side of the path. I put a shepherd's hook over her grave and hung her collar from it. Six years later, though faded, it is still there, as are my memories of my beautiful girl. And though they are covered with moss now, her beloved tennis balls can still be seen, here and there, among the plants. My little Homer, a rat terrier, died two years ago. His loss has hit me like a ton of bricks. On the last camping trip with him, I found a triangular rock that I brought home and less than a month later it became his grave marker. I hung a grapevine wreath on a tripod behind his grave and grow a beautiful vine with bell-shaped flowers over it. A friend gave me a small angel holding a tiny dog in her arms, and I put that there too. Because hiking and camping were Homer's favorite activities, besides loving me, whenever I go camping or hiking, I bring home fossils, special rocks, and small pieces of driftwood, and surround the angel with them. And lastly is the Big Dog Memorial Garden. It is in honor of Big Sunny (165 lbs), O'Malley (120 lbs), Badger (110 lbs), Byron (90 lbs) and Peanut (125 lbs), all whom were dearly loved. The plants in this garden are all huge, either in leaf or in height, and it is located by the large pond they all loved to dive into during the hot summer months or played on the ice of during the winter. My best to you. Whatever you come up with for your garden will be wonderful. Kate

Personally I would be hesitant to hire someone to prune your trees unless money is no object. I was referred to a great book, I think by Harvestman, called Ecological Fruit Production in the North. It has a chapter called "The Swiss Pruning Method", and the author goes into detail about how to rejuvenate fruit trees. It will most likely take at least four years for you to get the trees to full production. I would step back and take a deep breath and realize you are on a journey; this is not a task to just cross off your to-do list. Personally I envy you for having so many established trees. I have brought back only a single pear and am working on two apples. I have learned so much from everyone here. You WILL have those moments you have envisioned, but it just won't be this fall, or maybe even next. Realize that the trees will be there for many years. Learn one step at a time and don't get overwhelmed. I was mentioning my little back-yard orchard to a friend who didn't know about my passion. She was so excited and said her mother, who is from Italy, would love to see my trees. It dawned on me that there are probably lots of older people who have a great deal of knowledge and are unable to share it. Maybe you could find an older person who has the knowledge and wisdom you need and who would feel it a great privilege to come and help. When my parents decided to keep sheep many years ago we heard about a man who was in an "old folks home" that knew everything about sheep. He virtually LIVED to come and spend time with us. It was a blessing for him and for us as well. Your new neighbors might be able to refer you to someone who helped the previous owner out in the orchard. Maybe the children of the owner would have some ideas of a person who could help. Sorry, long-winded and rambling! Congratulations on your new home!!!! Here is a link that might be useful: Ecological Fruit Production in the North

My advice would be to find a prominent place you want the tree to be located and account for its mature size, then get it out of the pot and into the ground. Make sure you soak the pot thoroughly before planting. Make sure you soak the hole you have dug thoroughly. When you plant the tree, make sure you do not plant too deep, better to plant too shallow than too deep. Once you plant it you should not need to water it very often, Jacaranda like to get dry in between watering and you will kill it by over watering, the hard part will to be to resist watering. If its already damaged it will likely not improve immediately, be patient. I would water once a week or less since we are getting monsoon rains. Once we get into fall water it every two weeks. During winter and into spring I would only water it once a month just to keep the roots moist. Expect leaf loss in the winter and do not increase the water. You need to cover it the first couple years during winter if there is an expected frost. Once they get big enough to where you cant cover them you do not need to worry about it. You can take the top green shoot and train that as the new central leader. Im attaching a link to a picture to show what I mean, but basically you take a stick as tall as the tree ,and strap it to the main trunk, then take the green shoot at the top and strap that to the stick. Best of luck Matt Here is a link that might be useful: new central leader

Hi, I am a mother of two small children who are 4 and 6 now. They were 3 and 4 at the time. I got my kids two puppies to grow up with. They were 6 weeks old at the time. One day when they were about 7 months old. I had to leave, left them outside. I have one of those underground fences and they were trained by it. When I got home, it was dark. I got the kids in the house and went outside to call the dogs. I called and I called and no dogs came running. Finally after about 30 minutes of calling, I heard a rustling in the property next to me. I came in and got a flash light, went running over there, found them both, barely breathing, barely able to move. I brought them in the house and spent an hour on the phone with my vet explaining how they were acting. Finally after not getting an improvement, I loaded up my kids and the dogs and headed for the vets office. We get there and they ran tests for Parvo, sure enough, Parvo, I had to have them put down. My kids were both crying as well as me. We were all VERY attached to them. My vet asked me if I wanted them cremated or if I wanted to take them home and bury them for the kids. I decided to take them home and bury them for the kids. This was decided after talking with my children for 20 minutes. Now its like 4 in the morning. The vet and I loaded their lifeless bodies into the trunk. The drive home was 45 minutes of answerng questions about where puppies go when they die. Got home around 5am. Tucked the kids into bed and told them we would take care of the puppies later. When we got up, I let the kids pick out a place in the back yard. All three of us together dug a hole big enough to place them both in because my kids didnt want to seperate them. After the hole was dug, I pulled my car around and unloaded them into the hole. The three of us covered them back up with the dirt. I let my kids find some rather large rocks to place around the grave. I still have plans to make a little "graveyard" in that area. You will see why when you read the next part. My daughter received a cat for a 5th birthday present. The cat was an outdoor cat so I left it that way. A couple months went by and she ended up having 4 kittens. My kids were exstatic. We fed the kitties daily, went out and played with them and watched them grow for about 5 months. My neighbors dog got out on accident and my daughter watched as the dog grabbed up one of the kittens and literally shook it to death. The kitten it happened to grab was her favorite. So, I took her and calmed her down and explained to her that her kitty is now in kitty heaven with her puppies and that her puppies were watching over her kitty and they were all playing together. This time, her and I dug a hole together. She wanted her right next to the pups. We placed her kitty in the hole and covered her. Again my daughter went to the rock pile and picked out rocks to place around the grave. To this day she goes out and "talks" to her animals and tells them she loves them and misses them and hopes they are ok. I just started doing landscape work in my yard and am in the progress of designing something to have a "memorial" affect to it. I will post again when finished and pics are available. Shells