Brandon, It has been about 1 year since planting my first fruit trees in my backyard orchard. I am proud of my accomplishments, here are my insights. "1. Trees will be planted in East Tennessee (zone 6b technically, zone 7b realistically)." Virtually all Apples and Pears can grow good in zone 7. The most important thing is a least 8 hours summer direct sunlight for trees to overcome disease , insects and to bear fruit. "2. Trees will need to be no-spray or nearly no-spray varieties." Don answered this expertly, "The "low-spray" feature advertised on some apple varieties refers only to diseases..." "No apple is resistant to any insect pest. And there are a lot of those." "The only fruit tree I grow that requires no spraying is the Asian pear..." "3. Fruit needs to taste as good as possible." Check out a local farmstand/market, taste, ask questions. "4. Quality of fruit is much more important than quantity." I am growing a Flat Wonderful peach tree. The foliage is a specimen quality deep purple color and the tree is vigorous. I am told the spring blooms are a knockout, and the flat peaches taste extraordinary. My "no spray" Olympic asian pear has grown to 8 feet from 36" bareroot. The dark green leaves are 3 times the size of european pear leaves. The pears start in 3rd year are gourmet quality and store for 9 months. My Home Depot bought Shinseiki asian pears came with flowers and bore three nice pears each. Shinseikis can pollinate each other and the Olympic pear, this you will have to study up on. "5. Long shelf life would be great, but will not be a limiting factor." Fuji and Gala are the hits in the apple market. Even the supermarket ones taste great. Shelf life of a Fuji is up to one year. The asian pears can be eaten off the tree unlike the europeans, that have to be ripened. The Olympic pear has the longest life for the asians at nine months. "6. Trees that will produce over a long period of time are preferred over short lived/short production life trees." Standard pear trees can live to 100 years. Dwarf pears 35 years. Maybe 15 years for dwarf peaches, apples. Standard trees grow alot longer than dwarfs. Dwarfs bear fruit earlier. In some cases it can save a few years or more getting fruit on the table. Henry Fields has a sale till Thursday Oct. 4. The Olympic and a Flat Wonderful $20.22 each including shipping. I have ordered a 4 varieties grafted to 1 asian pear from Raintree Nursery to be delivered in March 2008. $67 each including $25 shipping. Grover

newbie in nj- How funny, deer on the west coast don't seem to care for daylilies at all, they go for roses. I was a DL nut (hemerocallis ~ hemnancy) and got up to 380 varieties at one point. But I have bad vole problems and found that voles love to eat the roots off. I got around this by putting lava rock in the bottom and sides of planting holes, and interplanting with daffodils and irises, which they don't like. Some really good DL growers also interplant lilies, clematis grown on poles with wire mesh at the top, roses, etc. They also cut the leaves to the ground after blooming so new fresh foliage comes in. My main problem with them is that I was once gone the whole month of June and lots of weed grasses went to seed, and since then I have not been able to keep up with the weeding. DL and irises have vertical growth so the weed grasses can creep in among the canes, so I am seeking to grow plants that grow in balls and cover the ground so the weeds will be shaded out. I also don't like the short bloom season of DL's where I live and like to grow a mix of plants to cover more of the growing season.

I just had time to read the first few responses so I apologize if I repeat what's already been said... or if I missed something new. I'm sure your son, along with the rest of the team(s) notice the 'girls' hanging out. Besides being awkward to ask him, he would probably say he's embarrassed to you but to his friends, he may be their hero... bringing something to look at to the games. (lots of kids that age are plain curious & will look at whatever is there) It's kinda sad that she feels so insecure and threatened to behave that way. (I know that she may not be insecure or feel threatened but everything she does would lead me to believe she is either insecure & feels threatened or she has absolutely no social skills or idea of what is appropriate) I also agree it could be worse but there's nothing wrong with feeling annoyed by her. She seems to be in your face, marking her territory, and maybe wants you to know she exists. Getting there before you might make her feel she has the upper hand... more like you are on HER turf because she was there first... you are walking into a space she has already gotten comfortable in. I disagree that she must care about SS to drive all that way to be there... she may be driving all that way to get in your face so you know she's there, especially if it's her only opportunity for you to see her. (I kinda see that because SD's BM goes to every practice & game for her BF's kids... even if she is on crutches or sick. She wants BF's exW to see her there, she also gets there before exW & seats herself with all the other mothers & starts up conversation so when exW gets there, she will sit somewhere else... it's not about rooting for the kids at all~ BM also is loud & in your face kinda person... and tries to be the sexy SM, so I relate to that part of your post) As your title says "probably won't do anything"... that's exactly what you should do... NOTHING. The more you ignore her and be yourself, it will probably drive her crazy. Whatever she is trying to get out of it... if she gets nothing back, it will frustrate her. As for talking to ex about smoking, I would simply mention that SS smells like smoke, the next time he smells like smoke... and instead of saying please don't smoke, say something like "I wonder why DS smells like smoke?" and see if he cops to it & offers to refrain around the child or shrugs an "I don't know". Then I would tell him that "I'd sure hate to see DS become a smoker, it's a nasty habit" I think that will work better than being an exW that comes across telling him what he can or can't do. I think you should have a right to when it comes to your son's well being but it does no good to complain if it's not going to be well received. If you get a dialogue going about concern for your son, then he might get the message. (what kind of parent would say "oh, it's no big deal if he decides to be a smoker"? That would be ridiculous and inappropriate.)

I haven't seen enough of the new shows this season to notice yet, but I'm sure you're right Flamey. It would be a darn good time for some of the actors to get a "job" done and have time to recoup. I'm just sick to see what some of them have done to themselves. Those Sturgeon lips and plastic looking cheeks are horrid.