Kathy, I'm doing the same sort of thing here in suburban Maryland near Washington DC. I've been at it for about four years. Your biggest problem will be the apples and all the stone fruit, with sour cherries being the least troublesome of these. You will have to fight two major insect pests: plum curculio and oriental fruit moth. There are plenty of posts on these pests on garden web -- see especially Jellyman's and Scott Smith's posts, as they live in northern Virginia and Maryland and have a lot of experience. You may also have disease problems to deal with -- rot on the stone fruit, perhaps scab, fire blight, or cedar apple rust on the apples. Picking disease resistant varieties can help here; unfortunately there are no varieties resistant to insect pests. Your other fruits should be far less troublesome. Your main concern will be keeping the animals -- especially birds and squirrels -- off them. Netting the fruit is the solution unless the plants are very large. You will also need to make sure the soil the blueberries grow in is kept sufficiently acidic. And do not fertilize them with regular 10-10-10 or other standard fertilizers; if you use synthetic fertilizers, ammonium sulphate is good or you could use fertilizer formulated for acid loving plants like Azaleas. The Asian fruit trees -- jujube, persimmon-- should be pretty trouble free. Some other things you might consider growing: gooseberries, mulberries, elderberries (not for fresh eating but make good wine and a very good cordial that protects against colds).

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.

The government of Russia is not known for favorable responses to outside pressure. I would concentrate my efforts instead on locating and trying to preserve and disseminate their seed collection.

Deanna, I thought about straining out the juice, but if I had made the jam from the unfrozen fruit, it would have had the juice and I'm concerned that not using it would take away too much of the fruit's flavor. It doesn't take that much more boiling time to reduce the juice. It's the same juice that would be drawn out of the fruit by the sugar when you macerate it. I have thought about perhaps straining the juice and reducing it a bit then adding it back into the solids when making something like a pie or crisp to keep the crust from getting soaked from the already liberated juice and to keep the solid pieces from getting overcooked.