I read in a few threads on this forum that when transplanting lemon trees it's essential to make sure to get rid of as much of existing soil as possible so that there aren't two different layers of soil which would restrict the root growing. Maybe they were only referring to repotting after a few years, not fresh out of the nursery? But also like Josh said, even before I was about to seriously meddle with the root, the soil kinda just fell off and a part of the root ball fell with it. After that I didn't dare to touch it much. I noticed that this plant doesn't really have a distinct trunk above the rootball. The tree starts branching off immediately on top of the rootball, giving me almost no space to pile soil on top of the rootball. I did my best to sprinkle soil on the root ball but they rolled off after a few days. As a result the top of the rootball is pretty much exposed. My soil is also mostly barks with perlite, but the rootball is too shallow to support the tree, especially when there's no soil on top of the rootball. I don't know if staking helps much because the tree is pretty straight after I put the brick on the rootball. So if I were to replace this tree, I should just repot (I need to repot it to a bigger pot or else it's really ugly) the new tree without losing any nursery soil into my new mix?

Cross referencing with your other thread, it seems your walkway is flared at both ends. From your drawing here I thought it wasn't. OK, so you aren't going to re-pour it, and I wouldn't either. If you were, I would not make that corner a right turn, but rather redraft the whole thing into a more gradually curvy swoosh reaching further down the driveway. You could leave the narrow bed by the garage wide enough for something, but to be honest, I think even with a redo I really would just pave to the wall - fill in the whole bed. Plants don't like growing in that situation anyway. With what you have I would tend towards a concept that works for me in my narrow beds: Basically a container gallery with plants at their feet. You could fill in the whole bed with pavers and put in a killer container gallery, or make it a container gallery among plants like mine. Your plants can be a single ground cover or a collection like hostas, hellebores, etc. In short, a bed like this only avoids being a plant line-up with a LOT of hardscape (can include wall art). If you really don't want containers, then study columnar conifers. Say, Taxus media 'Flushing,' Taxus baccata 'Golden Dwarf,' and the other usual suspects. Very structural stuff, including anything smaller you put in and can prune fairly flat (Cephalotaxus might be cool like that, has great foliage up close). But stay as far back from the door as you can with anything tall or wide. I would not do vines here. I would do structure. Structure is really missing from all the plants you have there too. Indeterminate blobs. You need big leaves. But I'm suggesting containers because to me your yard really needs hardscape. I know you have rocks, but they echo what I think is a bit of a design failing IN your beds (never mind their shape for a moment): kind of a tendency toward... spots? That captures what I don't like in your narrow bed now, what I don't like about the rose bed (and sorry, I hate those plants anyway - more indeterminate blobs with small leaves), and what I don't like about the rocks you've got. Plop. That's kind of the way I see a lot of those placement decisions. Collecting your boulders into groups might be much better. Collecting your plants into groups would too. I know all this doesn't address overall design, but that narrow bed isn't likely going to be part of any overall design anyway as it doesn't have "line" connection with anything you might do on the property (unless you can apply Woody's idea of running lines across the walkway...). I still like Woody's drawing but as far as overall design is concerned, I LOVE pls's concept. I wonder what would happen if you erased all the beds you've got and tried to sketch that out. Maybe boulder rearrangement could be guided by this concept at least. And it might enable you to keep some of the house wall clear. So I'm rambling a bit, sorry. Yes, I see bed shape as a problem here, but I think bed design/planting scheme is also contributing to the whole composition not working. Focal points, structure, hardscape, garden furniture... I think that is where you will need to go once you have bed shape worked out. It is not only plants that contribute balance, unity, repetition, etc. Actually now that I think about it, my plant zoo is actually irrelevant to my yard's design. I could move all my plants into different positions tomorrow, and the overall impression the yard makes would remain the same based on the hardscape alone. I think you are expecting the plants to BE your design, and that is maybe the fatal flaw. Karin L

Mikey your hilarious no sloppy Joe's for me anymore when I know I have to take public transit. Yippee you finally got rain you must have been excited I bet you were outside playing and jumping around in all the puddles just like we did when we were young . Mikey very hot and dry no rain here since the last big storm's about 3 weeks ago and Temps have been in the 90's the grass is yellow now . Mikey very excited about the GH do you know anyone that will put it up lol . Have you been getting this intense heat I know you just love it Sugar hates it instead of a half hour walk it's 5 minute walk until it cools off . Hope that your mom and dad and Bo are all doing fine . Have you had your vacation yet ? We are keeping a couple of weeks in September for the move . Take care my friend. Hoby that's crazy , we had a hail storm like that a couple of years ago but thank goodness it was in early October and all my ttrees were already inside the GH . I sure hope your weather improves wait a minute we Canadians know that both east and western Canada can't have nice weather at the same time I take that back lol. The pool is now a hot tub not very refreshing but it does help just a little bit if there's a nice breeze . Hobby it's not your fault we grow the tree's for the fruit and Meyers produce like crazy it will come back fast . I love Meyers they always have fruit at different stages of ripeness and flowers at the same time always something to watch with this tree. Pic of my Meyer yesterday evening. Brian

Almost every single thing has done beautifully this year. Flowers have been exceptional...echinacea, daylilies, gaura, zinnias, salvia, etc. All the veggies are doing well except the okra! It would be fine except in the spring, a raccoon (we presume) plucked almost every seedling, put them in a pile at the end of the row. I replanted but for some reason, most of the seeds didn’t germinate. So I don’t have many plants and some are way behind the original few that survived. So I have had to supplement my pitiful harvest with farmer’s market purchases. We were on vacation when the dreaded June beetles hit, so some of my flowers look a bit ragged but otherwise are surviving. And I have to give up a bit of low hanging fruit to the possums and raccoons that raid the tomatoes all the time. They never bother the cherry tomatoes though.