What you all say makes a lot of sense. I was pretty sure that a lot of soil would be detrimental to the trees. I took a closer look and walked around a bit and have come up with maybe a better plan. The property is only about 35 feet deep and 60 feet wide. Most of the sunken parts are closest to the house and the mature trees are near the sidewalk. If we did terracing in three different levels, closest to the house could be about 6 inches. The next level could be about 4, and then within 10 feet of the trees we could get away with covering with only about 2 inches. That way it would probably give the illusion that we had built up more than we actually did. If you can picture this, do you suppose that would work? Or would it look stupid? Oh, and that way with far less soil to be brought in, we would only have to have the soil dumped near the edge of the property. We're very good with shovels and wheelbarrows =:) One more thing. If we terraced, I could put hostas, etc., into the levels and as the years went by and the soil settled, it wouldn't be as noticeable as it is with lawn. This project can be a 2 or 3 year thing if needed to hopefully get it right. Would the trees adjust if we added a few inches every year? Thanks for your input !

You can do any pruning you want now. It will form buds for next years flowers during the summer. Unfortunately some varieties do put out new growth at the same time as they bloom. This is not a desirable situation. This year is even worse in our area. We are having a very early spring in SE PA and it is pushing both the flowers and the new growth.

Wow...interesting forum. Never been here before. I'm glad to see LED lightning becoming more common. I have an absolutely crazy use for it. I want to be able to grow certain high elevation Chinese rhododendrons for the point of breeding with them, crossing them with very heat resistant species like R. hyperythrum so that their look can be imparted to plants that grow well in the eastern US. However, the summer climate here is too hot and wet and the plants die of phytophthrora. My house has a small utility cellar that does not cover the whole foot print of the house. In other words, 2 of the walls are against several feet of earth, a third is exterior but mostly covered, and only 1 opens to the outside. It stays VERY cool down there as long as the door is kept shut. (the ceiling is poured concrete, too, I think they wanted it to be fire proof in case the boiler exploded!) I think it would be a perfect place to set up a long term, air-conditioned grow facility. Yes it would still have be air conditioned in summer. I'm thinking of a using a portable 2 hose computer room chiller. They are expensive but can put out a _lot_ of a cold air. Ideal temp range will be about 70 day, 55 night. HID would just heat things up too much. I'm even thinking of building my own rectifier and running heavy low voltage DC AL wiring into the space, so that the heat of the rectifier doesn't warm the space too much. FWIW Longwood Gardens has a fully air-conditioned conservatory, getting natural light, for growing other, similar alpine plants. It has to cost a future to keep cool and admittance is only to staff, not public visitors. BTW I just posted to this thread because it seemed to be an active one...let me know if you have any feedback or thoughts. Or not, whatever. I doubt many people build their own power supplies but I do electronics tinkering and have built my own audio amp and repaired a couple others so I think I could handle it. Of course, switching power supplies are so cheap and efficient, I might just use a whole bunch of them bought as ready-made boards, parallel them, and build my own improved current and voltage regulation section. Or maybe someone makes a reliable remote ballast/PS unit.

I don't know Petey, the fad is getting bigger. While a lot of manufacturers are only doing it to appease certain states that are mandating a percentage of EEV's, they're becoming more popular. I've got a Volt and the dealerships (including the caddy dealer across the street) have a hand full of cars on the lot even here in Virginia. Charging stations are popping up all over the area (my favorite is in front of my local bar/restaurant). Still, unless one was really considering an electric car in the next two or three years, I'm not there's any economy in putting in the additional capacity in the "hope" it might be needed. Though It was less costly because I did the labor myself, adding my 30A (the Volt charger is a bit anemic) circuit to my garage wasn't a big thing.