Thanks so much for all your helpful responses! I knew it was a good choice to ask here. This espaliering idea sounds very enticing =] I've never heard of it, I'll be sure to read up about it. I really like persimmons and would love to have one, but thought there was no way I would have room for one. Is any particular type of rootstock required for it (semi-dwarf or dwarf), or is a regular tree fine for the purpose? I am attaching an aerial view of my house, right side is North (amazing what the internet gives you these days): 1. Location of presumed apricot tree. 2. Now I am thinking of planting the Red Baron peach in this location to give it some breathing room. I think it would look more aesthetic a little removed from the apricot. What are your ideas? About 6 feet to the right is a flower bed directly next to the wall and I was thinking of also planting a Washington Navel semi-dwarf or dwarf there. But maybe that would be a good location for the espaliered persimmon instead. 3. I was thinking of planting a kumquat in this patch, do you think it would be a good idea? Backyardener, in those pictures the backyard indeed looks dim and wet, but during the day the side depicted gets a lot of sun and is quite bright, and then lawn had just been watered hence the wetness. I'm hoping I'll be able to pull of some of these trees (fingers crossed). Do you think it's possible to prune that old unruly grapevine all the way down to the trunk and re-train it? I'll take your advice and probably use a 4-arm Kniffin training. mudflapper, thanks for the blueberry tips. I'm a little discouraged that they won't have optimal conditions since they seem to be picky plants, but after paying $40 for both of them I'm damn well gonna try getting them to grow. glenn_russel, some really great ideas, I was thinking about raised beds too. I'll have to see just how and where I could implement them. ashleysf, wooooow that is impressive. 25 types of fruit! Thanks for the link, some really interesting ideas on that website with planting four trees in the same area and keeping them trimmed to a manageable size. tagtail, thanks a lot for the fruit tree list! I like the Fuyu persimmon choice, always ended up eating the Hachiya ones early and getting that nasty astringent throat. I'm impressed you were able to tell I have a fig tree in the background. When we first got the house I actually thought it was a guava for a while until I googled some pictures =) So you would pick espaliered fruit trees over grapes? I'm definitely excited about the idea and would like to try it on at least one tree, but I also don't really want to throw all five of my grapes away. Maybe I'll mix and match. How young of a tree should I get for espaliering? I'm guessing rootstock is preferable? Up till now I have been buying potted containers.

My goodness, it was very interesting to look back and see what's here and what's now gone. Yesterday I dug out the overgrown spiderworts and replaced them with echinaceas. I always have loads of echinaceas reseeding so they're a big fill in when I'm ripping out. The bed with the yuccas is full of some weeds--it must get a major redo this fall. For the most part it all looks the same except things have filled in and gotten bigger. I probably have two dozen crepe myrtles here, all grown from seed I traded for on the forums. I took seeds from all around the country and mixed them together. The seeds were WS (probably in late January) and they germinated well in mid spring. The seedlings were kept in a holding be their first year--I was surprise to see some lavender blooms. The second year they were transferred to a back fence border where they were another year, after that I started moving them about the garden. I now have two crepe myrtle hedges and some extras still in the back fence border. Crepe Myrtles have a varied hardiness, usually to zone seven but some species can do zone six quite well. If you want to increase your crepe myrtles then trade for seeds from around the country and WS them all together. After a couple of years you will know which of them are hardy for your garden. It's three years time between sowing and seeing a blooming and prunable hedge from your crepe myrtle seeds--for me it was a grand experiment to see if I could succesfully germinate them with WS here in zone seven; I am absolutely delighted with my crepes. They're just about to start blooming too so that's really nice to see. T Here is a link that might be useful: Crepe Myrtle Seeds (nice hardiness data)

As mentioned, we've been working hard to get this back for customers, and we're getting close to stocking it soon in the single loop. One upgrade will be to use a thicker wire than the old double loop fencing produced state side the last 150 years. Some of the pictures posted in this forum show the irregular weaving, which probably resulted from using thin 11-gauge wire on the old fence. For folks with an eye on quality, we think the 8 gauge wire single loop fencing makes a better pattern and elegant design possibilities for a premium bungalow style. We'll be shipping from the central United States. Call us at 866.514.2733 about your project.

Thank you everyone! If the poster that gave me three of the smaller Plumies would like to ID themselves here, they can, and I give them a big huge THANK YOU! =o) Juicy, I love that buddah belley! I got that over 5 years ago as a very small plant at Ikea of all places. It has to be one of the easiest plants on the planet to take care of, possibly even easier than Chamaedorea Elegans (parlor palm). Thank you Laura! If you are ever up this way during the warm months you are welcome to stop by and have a "cold one" on me under neath the palms and tropicals. =o) We STILL have not gotten down there yet, but we are still planning on coming at some point, hopefully before winter sets in. I'll keep you posted. MerryMike, I lift them all myself. They come inside and most go into the sunroom. It does get crowded in there, but it is worth it to me. Our sunroom used to be a porch that was built out so its all windows, faces south, and has the original hard wood porch floor. It is raised off the ground so under neath the porch is "open air" which makes the sun room cool down at night in cold weather to the upper 50s or so if we close the french doors to it, and it really heats up during the day. It gets full sun, ALL DAY, and is extremely bright. Dpolson37, were you the one that stopped by my place (old place) back in like 2007 and dropped off two Plumie cuttings to me? If so, back then I did not have the space I did now. One of them I rooted and gave away, the other one got damaged by a storm, wind, falling tree branches, then HAIL of all things. It ended up not surviving all that trauma. =o( Roper2008, the BIG palm is a Phoenix Roebelenii. That will come inside and go in the sunroom as it is not hardy here. It is about 6-7 feet tall at its leaf tips so it easily fits inside. Its BIG, but that palm is my pride and joy. Fortunately those to not gain height very fast, and also are very happy in rather small pots. The reason it looks so "tall" is because its got an extra 2+ feet on it because it is sitting on a table. The only palms that will stay out are the in ground Sabal Minor out front on the south side of the house, and the windmill in the pot. I do wrap the pot, and use either xmas lights or a heating cable around the pot itself to keep it from freezing. The sago palms stay out until night time temps go down to around 27 or lower. The banana to the left with the single white chair next to it is a Rojo "blood leaf" or "blood" banana. I have it since it was about 1' tall and for almost 3 years now. This is its third summer out, and it is putting up lots of pups, especially since he got a bigger pot this summer. Only two of the Bananas come in, the others are Basjoo and will go in the ground to overwinter, OR just get cold stored dormant in the basement. Thank you everyone for all the kind words and for looking! It's not the best but its what I can do given what I have. If I actually owned the house, it would look ALOT different, with many things actually in the ground.