I have to give credit where credit is due. This is my son's next door neighbor's tree. My fig trees are still too young to show the results or where they are headed. Pruning is about as controversial as rooting so you seldom see one pruner doing anything but picking out the mistakes in someone elses work. I want to say this job is as good as I've seen. My family farmed about 500 acres in prunes, apricots, cherries, and pears. I don't think anyone in my family or any of the workers we had over the years could improve on this job. There is one thing I left out, always cut branches at the joint. If you leave anything other then a flush cut i.e. a 2-4" stub, it is referred to derogatively as an 'ethnic' flag. That is in my case another pruner would look at my work and if they found any stubs would say something like "What are you leaving all those Italian flags for?" Kind of good natured old school racial pruning superiority wag. Every country thinks they have the best pruners in the world. The tree appears to be a Mission fig. Dark purple fruit anyway. Note I am something of a fig rookie here to learn so... The tree produces a medium to heavy crops of fruit. More important IMHO is the size of the fruit is uniform, large, and blemish free. I'll try to remember to take a picture of it when it in fall with leaves and fruit. Possibly one of the things people may not want is the crop ripens over a 2-4 week period vs. maybe double that for a tree that is less uniformly pruned. FWIW: Told/showed my son the technique for pruning because he had a badly neglected apricot tree in his front yard. Just doing the cut [low, suckers, straight up, straight down, center, crosses] and leave no flags. He did a pretty good job and actually got a complement or two. Ended up a decent crop of fruit but neighborhood ladies picked them before he got a shot at them. I think I managed to get 4-5 before the neighbors stripped the tree! The technique is geared to a slightly lower yield of larger fruit rather then a heavy crop of peanut sized fruit. Some things will change figs depending on the variety and owner. For instance the farmer/crop method is used in part because of my family's selection of fruit, the main crop is 'on second year wood.' For figs the best ones are on the new growth so people often prune them back harder to maximize new wood. I'm kind of a knucklehead though: If it is any kind of fruit tree and I have a pair of shears in my hands, it will look like this. Kind of boring and monotonous when you think about it. Rick

gardengal13, I can only speak about my local fair, but there was no enrollment needed since I entered in open class for adults. If I were in a youngster in 4H I'd have to enroll prior, but not for regular open class. I wonder how your fair works? Call your local fair board, or start with your extension office if you don't know who to call. Do it, Stephanie! And then post pictures!!

My cheating man? My CHEATING man??? Do you know something that I don't???? Listen, mi amigo...if I find out my man is cheating on me, I won't need no steenkin' balsam apple wood to take care of HIM! *making a mean face and a big fist, here* I have been under the weather for a day or so, right in the middle of Mark's vacation, but I'm thinking the worst is over today. We were doing some yard work (Mark was laying bricks yesterday, while I was feeling lousy and didn't want to go anywhere or do anything). But we've been hitting the trails and doing a bit of hiking every other day, enjoying the cool weather. I hope we get another cool spell next week, after he goes back to work, so I can weed the backyard. The bidens is taking over...along with some more BALSAM APPLE, dang that stupid vine!! Anyone else have scarlet morning glory? I found a volunteer this spring that the hummer was visiting, and I left it. Now I'm wondering if it is going to get totally out of control? (Maybe I should start a new thread about it.) Marcia

Just wanted to address the picture (my pics) issue really quickly. I have often been accused of over-sharing on the internet. I live on a corner lot, so anyone who frequents this forum could probably drive by and recognize my garden. If a pedophile is lurking here, they could see my kids and perhaps figure out where I live. That does concern me somewhat, but I watch my kids like a hawk, and I think that a true pedophile has many more extensive and disgusting sources of phtos than my baby butt garden pics. I can't help but share pics of my garden and my kids, they are my biggest sources of pride and I just love to share. I know I am naive but I feel in my heart that most if not all gardeners are good folks. I trust this forum and I feel safe here. As for my grow list: I am going to try to grow Nematode Resistant plants when possible. I am scaling back this year as far as varieties for this reason. I am currently on a seed hunt for: Pole Beans: Poamoho or Alabama No 1 Bush Beans Monoa Wonder or Harvester Lima Bean Nemagreen Bell pepper charleston belle or carolina wonder Wando Peas My herbs, lettuces, spinach etc don't seem affected by RKN so I will again grow tons of them. I hope to grow around 20 Nematode resistant tomatoes (assorted). I cannot find any nematode resistant cucs, squash, or soybeans, so I am unsure what I will do for those or if I will just skip them this year. I'd also love to grow carrots and beets but last year both were a complete failure (tiny stunted crop). Jo