Oh, sorry, I mainly have ironwood, beech, elm, oak, plum, quince, crab apple, sweet gum, hackberry, hawthorne, japanese maple, sugar & silver maple, gingko, dawn redwood, bald cypress. I also have a few evergreenes (deodora cedar, atlas spruce, jap black pine) Thank you, I know this is a long list, even just a general comment on how to treat deciduous vs. evergreen in terms of initial trunk chops and heavy pruning would be greatly appreciated. thanks again.

Mary - I am actually moving from NYC to LA in July so a trip to Arizona may be quite a delight. I was recommended to visit the Arizona forum for advice on my list of plants even though I do not live there. Thank you for the advice concerning the nursery. Zach

I'm transcribing this from a box of chewy granola bars for those of you who may hike, bicycle, etc. or otherwise go exploring and checking out new territory. I used to a lot more than the physical allows now and would wild harvest, collect specimen plants, cuttings, root divisions, or seeds, take photos, sketch, etc. while on walkabout. PLEASE practice wild harvesting and collecting with the strictest of ethics so that you do not have a negative impact on the ecology of any given species or environment or combination - plants and animals alike! Thought some of you might make use of this. Transcription begins: Go Farther for Free To help you plan your next hike, bike ride, fishing trip or even a scenic drive, Sunbelt (R) snacks has teamed up with Trails.com (TM) to give you a free three-month subscription to Trails.com (TM). Trails.com (TM) is the internet's most complee outdoor planning resource for North America, providing you with: 35,000 downloadable trails GPS tools, aerial photos, road overlays, etc. USGS hi-resolution topo maps 30 outdoor activities and more! Get your FREE 3-month TRAILS.COM (TM) Subscription At SunbeltSnacks.com/trails

Maple, thanks and thanks to everyone for their praises. The bricks were simply that I had run out of rocks and even chunks of concrete and had to block several traffic paths through the border in one go as a total embargo. The magenta flower sea is not Aster though looks very like them. It's Delosperma cooperi (Ice plant) which grows at a tremedous rate, is easy to chop back like fat noodles and can be planted from small sections. That border only has a few big rocks for show as no foxes now go onto the sea of various sedums. The border with all the bricks is at the first stage of groundcover growth and I've accelerated that by transferring some ice plant which is already spreading. I've been removing rocks and bricks where it's grown up to so far and that process will continue along with the flattest juniper here - Juniperus communis 'Goldschatz' (no 'Motherlode' in the UK sadly) and a multitude of sedums that I pick up every time I'm at a garden center. Eventually it'll just be good rocks but it's my USA only border and I want a dryish look for the Longaeva, Flexilis and Lasiocarpas. So there will be more rocks and I'll keep the groundcover back more than the other border. Mike, I was really bad at placing rocks to look natural and they always looked contrived. But this process has given a nice random element and I leave rocks where they've happened to sit well. The garden is very sloped so I use big boulders to make tiered planting spots. That again took some consideration but I'm happy with the efffect so far. I seem to have kept the deer out finally this year with a lot of barbed wire and many many thorn plants. It also works for house breakers that may want to venture up from the wood. I had to cut a hole in my fence to get out on a belly crawl to do my annual felling of trees that are volunteering in the wrong places and potential view blockers. That leaves the areas for brambles and thorn trees with the larger oaks and ash trees safely downslope enough to never rise up to become a screen. Elk, thankfully, we have none, if ever. I imagine they can do some sizeable destruction.