Ted: I can suggest a few answers to your questions, but it would help to better understand what you mean by planting "along the road", the type of fence you have, and its spatial relationship to the road. Rootstocks like M9 and Bud9 will help to keep your trees small, with a little pruning, but often require external support since they are poorly anchored. Perhaps your fence could serve for this support, depending on what kind of fence you have there. Road salt is not good for any plant that I know of, including grass, but just how close to the road would the trees be planted, and how much salt is applied nearby? Has the grass or other vegetation in the planting area been affected by salt in the past? Apple trees are reasonably tolerant of alkaline soils, but everything has its limits. This appears to be a judgment call for you to make. If it were me, I would be planting rootstocks now or in the early spring, then would allow them to grow for an entire season before grafting. Placing the rootstocks in their final positions at the outset would obviously eliminate a later move and consequent setback. Yes, you can try to "benchgraft" new rootstocks immediately, but I think your chances of success would improve by allowing the rootstocks to grow and accomodate themselves for a year. There are no "must have" apple varieties, since everyone has a different take on this subject, but there are many wonderful varieties out there and I suggest you pick those that appeal to you. Grafting should be done with fully dormant scions, after the rootstocks have begun to push buds or leaves in the spring. Do not try to graft too early, or with scions that are themselves not dead dormant. Finally, suckers from rootstocks will be clones of the rootstocke that gave birth to them. Thus, suckers from a seedling rootstock would grow large trees of seedling size, but those from M9 or Bud9 rootstock would be clones of their parents, and behave in exactly the same way as the original. Viable suckers from these rootstocks are fairly uncommon, though some semi-dwarfing rootstocks like M7 often sucker freely. Too freely. Finally, healthy, well-shaped fruiting apple trees can be considered quite attractive, but their main appeal is the fruit they produce. Many cultivars of crabapple are considered decorative trees, and if that is more important to you than fruiting, you might prefer to choose one of those with purple leaves, heavy blossoming, or other characteristics that appeal to you. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Kamata Nishiki and Kamata Fuji have become confused in the trade. Kamata Nishiki is the more lavender purple; Kamata Fuji is more lavender pink. I bought what was labeled as Kamata Nishiki, but I think it's Kamata Fuji. Regardless, it's gorgeous!

Ah ha!! Gotcha : ) Here it is a bit smaller, and then a distant shot of the first, larger one. Now I'm thinking the larger one is fine and has more presence and definition. Maybe in between? I tried some of those curved iron accents I've seen at ending positions or posts (but can't remember the details, so it just shows the general look.) And, ya know, a piece of gray flagstone on top of those columns and even across the wall looks great and ties nicely with the roof and drive. I would think you could fit the moulding piece around the gutter area, hiding it. As a front cap sort of thing. It's a design problem to work out : ) Have to figure any water issues in. Do you have a closeup or drawing of the area, how the pieces and planes are currently fitting together? Should pull a distant shot of the larger size in also.

Pennydesign, No, they didn't really give a reason except to say that it happens occasionally. In our research we discovered that if the tempered glass isn't annealed (cooled down) properly during the manufacturing process that can sometimes cause the glass to eventually break. Another glass expert said there's a chemical that sometimes finds its way out, resulting in the glass breaking. The manufacturers tend to want to put the blame on the installer, but we had had the sink installed for well over a year, with the recommended drain, in the recommended manner, and had zero problems until it blew. We filed a complaint with... oh, I forget... consumer protection or something or other, and we had an investigator come out just a few weeks ago to talk with us and inspect the broken pieces of the glass. We had also gone to a local news station about it in an attempt to educate others about the potential, and they ran a story. It broke mostly like tempered glass is expected to break... into rounded pebble like glass. It was the "explosion" part that surprised us because not only did we find glass some 30 feet away from the sink, but I'd had the unfortunate experience to be standing with my head about 12-18 inches away from it when it happened (bending over replacing the trash bag) so I was peppered with bloody impact marks from the glass. Not because the glass was sharp, but because the glass was traveling so fast and it tried to imbed itself into my skin wherever it was exposed. Fortunately, I only had very minor injuries, but that's because as I was bent over my hair covered the side of my face and none of the glass hit my face, or more importantly, my eyes. We've had tempered glass explode prior to that (think oven doors) but it was always due to either an impact, or heat (self cleaning cycles). We didn't hit (or even touch!) the sink, and there were no temperature changes when it happened, it wasn't even being used at the time. Apparently, it happens sometimes. There are other cases of it on the internet. We wished we had known that before we bought it.