Here is another view of the yard. We get all the neighbors run off. Water moves from the mid left of photo toward back center. It works great with the exception of the water just stands stagnant. I wish that it collected on the opposite side of the path or I could feed toward the back corner (top right in photo). I had thought about a dry stream bed, but my husband really wants a little bit more grass in this area. Would there be a way for me to build up most of it, but leave one area lower, maybe north near the base of tree and create a dry bed that extends beneath hammock and to back of the property? That is where the actual maintenance ditch lies, and you can see how the land starts to slope downward.

Bill, I will try to get some pictures for you. Most of my peaches are in fact on zig-zags of 2-3' between trees due to the fact that I ran out of room for all the trees I wanted. On peaches those zigzags seem to work OK but it does add to the work a bit to try to keep all of them happy, and a few trees are a bit too squeezed. So the 3' straight is the best overall I would say. On plums the zigzags get more unmanageable, the trees push too much growth into each other. Frank, if you are just putting four plums in one location you could put them in a zigzag. The problem comes when you have a row of 20 plums in a zigzag. By the way the whole idea of a closely-spaced zigzag (two rows back-to-back and offset) was tried with success on peaches in Italy back in the 70's, so it is an old idea. They also concluded that in many ways a simple 3'-spaced row was better. See "Studies in Peach Double Row Planting" from Acta Hort., 1978. Note they also did not use dwarfing rootstocks in this study. Scott

Hi Kimberly, I am just north of you. I have a half acre, very wooded subivision lot that is crammed with all the fruit my husband will let me plant. (Most of my landscaping is getting replaced with ornamental bushes that fruit!) One suggestion that I would have for you is to pick very disease resistant, low-care trees/bushes/plants. My friend who lives around the corner from me has a large planting of apples, pears, cheries, etc., but has a lot of trouble with insects and disease. There are definitely varieties of apples and pears that are easier to grow than others due to disease resistance. Sweet cherries are going to be tough without a lot of spraying. I have two Carmine Jewel cherry bushes that are more like pie cherries but only get 6 feet tall, so they can be netted. Birds and especially squirrels are a big problem here. If I had your space, I would definitely do the cane fruits - Navaho and Triple Crown blackberries, Caroline red raspberries, Jewell black raspberries, etc. Easy - and if you net them, you will get to eat them. Some unusual and low care fruit trees you might consider are American Persimmon - Yates is supposed to be delicious and productive without a male. I am going to plant a Nikita's Gift hybrid persimmon in the spring. Also, an Illinois Everbearing mulberry gets lots of good reviews on this forum. The animals are the only thing you will have to fight for those trees. Both persimmons and mulberries are extremely nutritious, too. Good luck and have fun! Mary Kay

I agree with that suggestion for london plane or sycamore or california sycamore because I think deep down you want some fast growing tree to replace the elms but lets take a closer look at what your requirements are. *Something that will (relatively) quickly get to a similar, large size. Sycamores are amongst the fastest growing trees you can get. It is likely the most desirable of the rapid-growers that you can support in your climate. It combines the long life, ornamental appeal (bark) and stronger wood than other rapid growers. * Something that can (after a few years) support one side of a hammock (our hammock currently hangs between the two trees). You're not going to find a lot of support to hang hammocks from trees here but the bottom line is say you're able to find a 2" caliper tree and in 3 years, it's 4". That's still not really strong enough to support a hammock. Lets say you start out with a 4" tree. Well in 3 years, that tree will finaly be getting re0established. Look into a hammock stand. Then you can have your cake and eat it too. * Doesn't drop sap, slime flux (like our elms), seed pods, or other things that are unpleasant to have on the ground. Sycamores and planetrees ARE MESSY TREES. They are very beautiful and IMO very desirable in the right spot but they leaves of the sycamore are the size of a dinnerplate and they do drop some throughtout the season. You also want to make sure you are not allergic to th fine hairs that are present on the leaves. Once they get to about 4" in size, the bark starts peeling off which is the tree's signature feature and very beautiful. As the trees get larger, this will mean more and more bark stripping throught the season. Again, you will have to weigh the benefits against the clean-up. I myself have opted for the cleanup. I have 2 sycamores and 1 london plane at my home. * Ability to take a good amount of moisture: This will live in our lawn. Sycamores tolerate moist soil and prefer it. However it is best, not only to encourage drought tolerant trees, but to not waste water, that you adjust your irrigation so that you water your lawn to no more than 1" per week, only when it needs it. I can't imagine anything needing irrigation in your area but maybe it does. * Preferably something that loses its leaves in the Fall (in California), so that sunlight will come through unabated in the Winter. Sycamore will do this. OOoohhh, it will do this! * Good amount of shade in the Summer (for the hammock). Sycamore is more of a filtered shade. While the leaves are huge, they are not the most densely foliated trees. So this may not meet your req. On the other hand, it means you can grow a lawn underneath it. * Preferably something climbable for kids (who are now ~2 years old). There are not too many temperate trees I can think of that are truly good climbing trees. When I think of good climbing trees, I think of southern live oak and banyan trees and ficus like we had in florida when I was a kid. In maturity, sycamore will have a magnificent structure there but you may need a very large ladder or bucket truck to get your kids to those branches. I really am not sure about what good climbing trees your climate can support but you may look at some of the tropicals for this and those tend to be evergreen. Gingko Biloba CAN BE excellent climbing trees in maturity but those are slow growers and very slow to establish. Maybe in time for your kids 102nd birthday