Bananas is right about keeping the soil strata as it is. If you don't have a terrible drainage problem your trees will be fine. I've seen commercial apple orchards in clay soil where in early spring the water just sits on the surface, but by the time trees begin leafing out they find enough oxygen for very vigorous growth. I used such an orchard as a nursery site to grow bearing age trees after making a deal with the grower. The trees grew great. If other species of trees (not willows!) are growing well in this soil, I'm sure you're fine, if not, run with berns made from existing soil. Testing the drainage as mentioned is also a great guide line, but I wonder how the soil in the orchard-nursery I mentioned would have tested out.

You're welcome. Green beans are popular, easy-to-grow and the flavor of fresh snap beans is so superior to that of canned or frozen beans that it isn't even funny. Bush beans would give you a pretty rapid harvest---some of the earlier varieties begin producing a harvest about 50 to 55 days after the seeds were sown. Sugar snap peas are the same way. Pole beans are trickier in terms of getting a harvest early. Some years, our heat here cranks up so high that you find the heat causing blossom drop almost as soon as the plants start flowering. In that sort of situation, there's nothing you can do but keep the plants watered and happy and wait for temperatures to drop in the fall. I usually plant bush beans for a spring and summer harvest and pole beans for a fall harvest. I cannot remember if any of us mentioned summer squash, but those also are relatively easy, at least until the squash bugs and squash vine borers find the plants. I love summer squash, but some people don't care for it. We like to grill zucchini outdoors when we're grilling meat for a meal. A lot of people hesitate to even plant squash because of all the pest issues, but I grew winter squash of all kinds and summer squash as well for a good 5 or 6 years before the squash vine borers and squash bugs even discovered our garden. It is a lot harder to get a good harvest now, but to me it is still worth it. I think my husband would be perpetually happy with the garden if all it ever produced was peppers, tomatoes, onions, melons and lettuce, but he'll eat just about anything I can grow. Once you get used to the superior flavor of vine-ripe food brought in from the garden to the house to eat the same day, you'll find it harder and harder to purchase produce at the grocery store. Once we got used to home-grown melons, we completely stopped buying melons at the store. Now we just eat our own fresh melons in season and rarely eat them the rest of the year. You mind find that y'all develop a taste for veggies that you think you don't like if you give them a chance. So many vegetables are so much better fresh from the garden that some people who don't like veggies suddenly discover they like them after all. I would have suggested sweet corn, but I wasn't sure how much space you have. Sweet corn from the garden is so yummy! I try to grow enough plants to harvest at least 200 ears per year. We eat all the fresh corn we can stand to eat, and freeze the rest the same day it is picked. I grow 3 or 4 varieties every year, choosing varieties with different DTMs so that the harvest is spread over a longer period. If I plan it well, and if Mother Nature cooperates, we have fresh corn for at least 2 months. Potatoes are one vegetable that a lot of people don't grow. Either they don't want to do all the digging involved in harvesting, or they feel like potatoes from the grocery store are so cheap that they'd rather buy them. However, the flavor of fresh potatoes is so incredibly earthy and good that they'll ruin you forever---you'll never want to eat another store-bought tomatoes. You know how much better home-grown tomatoes are than store-bought tomatoes? Well, home-grown potatoes are the same way. The first year I grew potatoes, their fresh flavor knocked our socks off. I think the trick is to try things your wife and daughters might like, and just continue to try something new every year until y'all figure out what it is you like to eat fresh from the garden. Everything I've tried has not been a success. Eggplant is an example. I love growing eggplant, and the fruit are available in so many interesting colors and shapes....but no one in our family (including me) cares for eggplant,so I don't plant it any more. Kohlrabi is another thing I cannot get anyone to eat, although it is easy to grow and looks interesting in the garden. Part of the fun of garden is experimenting and finding what you like. If you've never grown Sungold (or the similar Sun Sugar) cherry tomatoes for your family, I think y'all would like them. Everyone to whom I've ever given a Sungold tomato has just raved about how flavorful they are. Sungold and Sun Sugar have a sort of tropical fruitiness you don't find in any other tomato. Fruit is my favorite thing to grow, but the results can be a lot more erratic than those in the veggie garden. Partly it is that recurring late freezes experienced in our climate often kills the flowers or tiny fruit on fruit trees early in the season. The other issue is pests. Because fruit is so sweet, you really have to fight the pests, birds and varmints some years in order to get a harvest. I generally grow blackberries, plums, peaches and figs. I have citrus trees in pots I carry inside in the worst weather. Right now they're out in the greenhouse just loving these sunny days. Strawberries have been erratic for me. They do great in a cooler year with lots of moisture, but then along comes a hot dry summer like 2011 and kills the strawberry plants. I'm in a part of OK that gets less moisture and more drought than central and northeastern and eastern OK, so strawberries are hit and miss here. When you have the right soil and the right weather, though, they are delightful.

I garden not far from NHBabs, the colder edge of zone 5. Last night we had a Confection kabocha squash from Johnny's. It was so sweet! Unfortunately, Johnny's is replacing it with a "better" variety. I also like Delicata for an easy winter squash for 2 people. I don't care too much for the butternut varieties except there's a Baker's Creek Long neck butternut that was an excellent keeper. Didn't have the great flavor of Confection but I would grow it again. Favorite zucchini is Costata Romanesco, a striped variety. Productive and great flavor. Any swiss chard after it gets cold in the fall. We liked Provider Bush green beans until I started growing the filet varieties. Good production. I agree with Sugar Snap. They might get 7' tall and production is great. I've tried other varieties and don't get the same production. Tyee spinach planted as early as possible. Gilfeather Turnip, nice flavor but I think it's really a white rutabaga. Decided I like Hakurei turnips. Was surprised that they grew very well even though I hadn't thinned them probably. I had clusters of turnips. I really liked Fedco's Fingerling sampler except for the blue potatoes. I thought our grandchildren would love them but we can't get past the blue color. And this is supposed to be a very nutritious variety! Carmen for a frying pepper that usually turns red.

www.xerces.org has lists for various regions so, to certain extent, it depends upon where you live. In general, you should expand your plantings beyond veggies. Several small plants you can plant among, or around, the veggies include alyssum, oregano, and cilantro. Many more choices available. To obtain research-based info, do a search using the phrase "how to attract bees to garden site:edu" -- but without quote marks. That said,