It sounds like you already have a pretty good handle on the issues. I have an orchard I manage that I installed several years ago where the owner assured me that he'd brought in 100's of yards of top-soil. When I got to the site it turned out top soil meant soil from a major excavation from the top of a mountain. It was primarily a sub-soil of blue clay! The orchard looks beautiful now and includes a couple of healthy cherry trees (the only ones I manage with fruit this year after very untimely rain). Your soil can't be nearly this bad and I've seen successful commercial apple orchards in soil that was highly clay and water usually sat on the surface in early spring. But this was apples and not cherries. At the first mentioned site the soil was so bad that I ignored the literature and brought in about a quarter yard of sand per tree and an equal amount of completely composted horse stable waste (much more wood shavings than manure before it was composted). As you suggested I did my best to mix this well with about equal amounts of the clay with a larger ratio of clay deeper down. The raised beds created are about 7' diameter and held in place with ornamental block. This is not how I usually do it but the owner liked the ascetic and at least it holds the mounds up and you're not fighting erosion. Because I used so much sand it actually helped create a very nice top-soil (not the concrete in the lit warnings) of several inches that is much more a sandy loam than a clay. In your soil such a dramatic transition will almost certainly not be necessary but if you bring any sand in make sure it's enough to really transform the soil- even if it's only the top few inches. Probably all you actually need to do is to make the mounds from soil already there if other kinds of trees seem capable of growing in it. I recommend mounds that are 2' above surrounding soil and about 8' diameter for decent sized, free-standing trees (they will settle to maybe 18"). Put any compost on the very top and finish with mulch. Actually, the best thing would be to use a back hoe and raise the entire middles by moving the soil between rows of fruit trees into the area of the rows. this way the raised rows would not have to be as high and could be held in place with sod. If the rows ran down-hill it would help drain the water. Individual raised mounds have to be held in place by mulching every year unless you used something like blocks or rot-resistant wood to hold them up. Wood chips to raise mounds works fine, except that they rapidly settle as they decompose and the mounds disappear after a few years. An adequate amount of soil needs to be placed over them to grow the trees, of course. You should make these mounds when the soil is not too wet, so I'd get them ready in late summer for fall planting. In your zone you best be sure any fall planting is very well mulched- maybe the cherries should wait til spring.

Flood Prone Rob, How much water leaks into your basement per minute or hour or day? What amount of water are we dealing with for your system? Can you measure it? The answer to your question is probably yes. Check with you local govt. construction or water dept. See if it is not against any City ordinances. Next test a sample of your water at the water dept. or agricultural extension service. See what is in the water that is not visible. If it is highly acidic or alkaline(very low or high pH) or salty anything harmful to plants. This effort gives you peace of mind before you apply the water instead of hoping for the best. Aloha

I've done a lot of research on this because of the impact of the Biggert-Waters Act next month. First, flood insurance is handled through various insurance companies but is all (mostly) under the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). FEMA manages NFIP. The maximum coverage is $250K for the residence and $100K for contents. As with most insurance, you can raise your deductible to lower your premium. New policies in flood zones will all require an Elevation Certificate (EC) by a surveyor to determine your BFE and level of your home (explained later). The Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) determines if you are in a flood zone and the amount of risk. The FIRM maps are always being re-drawn, so you might be out of a flood zone one year and in the next. The result after FIRM is that building codes change to reflect the zones, so in "new" flood zones we have older, pre-FIRM homes built lower than newer post-FIRM homes. As you've figured out, you do not have to be anywhere near the water to be in a flood zone, and you can be right on the water and not be in one. (Really - a good friend has a waterfront home on Tampa Bay but is X, although his pool is VE). The amount you will pay is based on two main things - Base Flood Elevation (BFE) which is how high someone has determined your spot will flood. Mine is 11 feet. The variable is how high the top of your bottom floor is. Example: My house is a one-story pre-FIRM slab, so my tile floor is the top of the bottom floor at 8 feet. The raised, post-FIRM houses are only garages and rec rooms on ground level (no liveable space), and their "top of bottom floor" is at least 8' up. My "minus 3" from my EC is what determines my rate. Obviously, a "zero" or better (+) is going to have the lowest rate. The biggest question is where the BFE comes from. My neighbors are all upset because it has never flooded here in 40 years since it was built, even a little bit, through many, many tropical storms. Remember that is what most of the Sandy victims said, too, only many of them were there even longer. Also, keep in mind that 30% of claims every year are NOT in designated flood zones. I seriously doubt that all the homes being inundated in Colorado right now are in flood zones. I won't get into the impact that the Biggert-Waters Act will have on many homes unless someone asks, but the bottom line is that it's going to affect many of the communities that are still recovering from the BP Oil Spill and the recession in general. People just started going back to the gulf beaches this past summer and now all those businesses that were built before the FIRM maps were in place are going to get hit with a big insurance bill that could put them under and will stall our recovery. Hope this helps you understand a bit about flood insurance. It can be pretty scary, but it's managable for the most part.

All from those multiple feet of snow you had the month of April? My Uncle from SD went home today to a blizzard in the Black Hills. He made it to Wall where Interstate is closed, I hear they are getting a foot to two of snow! Weird weather.