Doan's nursery in Belt line road in Irving has many cocktail fruit trees. I would suggest to check this nursery for fruit trees, flowering plants and tropical plants. Be prepared to wait to get help and also make sure that you are getting the right plants because many of the plants don't have labels/pricing. I also noticed that many fruit trees are from California growers, so not sure how they would grow in DFW. Moreover, they do not give any kind of warranty to the trees.

I can put whatever grass back there is appropriate. Not married to Bermuda but the majority of yards do around here. Previously it was a 6 foot fence with a tree. Now it is an 8 foot fence and no tree. The direction the Sun travels from the picture is back to front. The shade from our house is there from morning till noon and is unchanged from the project. The shade from those houses behind us is cast before the fence. Neither of these things prevented the Bermuda from growing before. Around the tree canopy shade area yes. Was starting to see some effects but now it's gone. :) The goal of the project was to raise the area and remove the tree. Basically we are doubling the size of our backyard in terms of usable (for kids) space. Other goal is to not create a drainage problem. Before it was excellent drainage but obviously by raising it, we must be mindful not to create a problem. For instance, I have put in drain pipe for all of the gutter feeds to that area and daylighted that directly out the wall. Before it was on the plane of the yard. Not ideal green thinking wise but it's done. Now that area only takes on water from the plane of the yard surface itself. I do have a drainage question related to grading which I'll post on the landscape forum. Is there another grass that I should be using back there? It's not out of the question for me to have something completely different since the entire area save for about 5 feet, is surrounded by hardscapes (driveway, wall, patio, house). I'm open to any suggestion.

Hi Weedy, Thanks for the reply-- We currently don't even walk on the deck, the beams meeting at the outside-left corner have completely rotted away and not supported by the posts... I swear it's inertia and friction holding the thing up this point... I like your idea of having just two retaining walls and leveling out the area, the trouble is that the lowest spot in my yard is not quite as low as I'd like the area under the deck to be, meaning in order to water away from the house I'd have to either build a retaining wall there or build up a small mound to provide grade. This is why I was thinking of building retaining walls on 3 sides to box in the whole area under the deck while incorporating a set of steps into one of the walls (probably right side) to keep access. For the footings, I figured I needed to 4' lower then the lowest point around me, just wanted to hear another opinion... this a lot of digging!! Regarding posts and retaining walls... my idea was that the footprint of the deck is exactly the same as the retaining wall--so are you suggesting making the deck larger then the footprint of the retaining wall, meaning the posts are set "outside" of the retaining wall? or smaller? I wasn't really expecting to gain much by incorporating posts into the retaining wall, just trying to maximize my space under the deck for storage. Currently the deck is about even w/ the window on the right side, and off by only a couple of feet on the other, so expanding the deck parallel w/ the house could only grow by 2-3' before it starts to overhang the windows (I think it's 8' now, so it could grow to maybe 10')... I could certainly grow the deck perpendicular to the house, that might be the best option, that would also allow me have more of the deck in the sun which would be nice. I'm doing a a "hybrid DIY" on the build, I'll be hiring a family friend who is a professional carpenter, so I do have hourly costs associated with the build, but all the same I'd still rather spend more now to get a better build :) Ideally I'll be getting "serious" around July 1st, applying for the permits, taking down the old deck, etc...

The comments here are very interesting, but there is not a lot of actual good advice. I built a concrete fence last year on the property line, so i actually do know the legal ins and outs about it. By-law officers showed up many times to check on things during construction. The first thing to note that is very important is that the neighbor building the fence, can apply to the city for a "right of access" permit at which point these is nothing that you can do to stop them accessing your property, depending on the city it usually costs about $250. these permits are very common and are normally issued for construction and maintenance purposes. however, that simply gives them the allowance to access a per-determined part your property and other specified things, like: to dig the trench. it does not allow ANY of the concrete to be on your property. the concrete can touch the property line, but cannot go over it. legally when completed they have to return your property to a similar or better state to how they found it, That's the Law. However, the real world is far more messy. There are a few things to consider here, ----------------------------------- The first to consider is the concrete footers, they are generally 5 feet below ground (where it freezes) and are needed to stabilize the concrete above them, they usually stick out 6 inches on both sides Now your can definitely stop them from putting any footers onto your side. BUT not having footers on your side can over time destabilize the wall, and make it move / lean / fall over / etc.. in the direction of the missing footer. remember ground is not rock, and it moves and shifts with time. So even knowing that you can stop the footer from being on your side of the property line, there is a very big question about what to do 5 years later when it starts shifting / leaning much more into your property... Personally i recommend, Negotiate! there are things that you can get out of this. ------------------------------------ Next is Fit and Finnish, the concrete that sticks out of the ground should be rendered to make it look nice. this will cost money, and so long as your neighbor doesn't do it on his side in the first month of two, he legally doesn't have to do it to your side, at all. this is considered the equivalent to him painting his side of the fence. ------------------------------------ Next is drainage, any concrete structure should be surrounded by a drainage pipe to help move water around the structure and stop water pressure underground from pushing on the structure causing it to move / fail. Again this will cost money, and legally does NOT have to be done. ------------------------------------ In Conclusion : obviously your neighbor can simply use the right of access permit like a big club to get what he wants. but at the end of the day, your neighbor will want you to be happy with the end results to avoid future problems. so Negotiate! let him build his concrete foundation, AND have the footers on your side underground. BUT mandate that he has to have your side nicely rendered, and place a drainage pipe on your side to make sure water will properly drain around this structure. ALSO mandate that you get to pick the look of the fence to sit above this concrete foundation. ----------------------------------- The last thing anyone want to to have to fight about how to fix anything in 5 to 10 years Here is a picture of my steal reinforced concrete fence. (it looks the same on all sides) (capping stones are waiting to go on the top, Covid-19 has delayed getting them on for months.)