William's Pride is pretty good for its season- here it starts in the 2nd week of August and finishes by the end of the month. The first are a bit tart (probably border-line ripe) and by the end they get sweeter, sometimes with a bit of watercore. I like those late apples, but by then I'm getting better apples from Priscilla, with Sweet Sixteen (one notch down on leaf health, but note bad) around the corner. WP's flavor is a bit like Liberty, except much earlier. Liberty does build up higher brix levels (~16-17 vs 12-14 off the top of my head- I can look at my notes later). Priscilla is an interesting option for late Aug and early September. This is the 3rd bearing year for me. The first crop (on a 2nd year tree) was a small crop of tasty apples. Then last year, I had some more tasty ones, while other fell off early and were mushy. This year, they were uniformly good, with an interesting (a hint of anise?) sweet flavor and good crunch. Most were in the 14-16 brix range. While that is lower than Liberty, they have less acid and seem sweeter. The one thing which makes me a bit hesitant to recommend it to you is that I'm not sure if it was our cooler summer this year that kept them from falling off early- I'm guessing that your area may consistently have hotter summers.

In 6b I will be safe into January an if the weather forecast is for 15F or less my trees would come in. I grew my tangerine trees from seed for rootstock. They were un graft able so if they die, that is it. My yard is not suited for bring trees in and out with weather. My parents house was and I would have done things outside with carry ins. I have to work with what I have as others work with their settings. Unprotected citrus a 0F is a no go, I agree. It was after I planted my Meyer lemon out side that I found out it was Cuban Shaddock. Even that is its own blessing to work with.

Does your road ever get plowed to clear snow in winter? Ever get salted? If the answer to either question is yes, you don't want shrubs, especially evergreens like boxwood between the road and the fence. Also, how much room is there? I am not entirely sure that there is room for boxwoods in that spot unless you want to learn how to shear them when they start to get larger a few years down the road. Do folks ever park along the road? If yes, how would a passenger get out of the car? While what you have there may have gotten weedy and out of control, there may be other perennials that will do well there if you plant just a couple of types of hardy, dense-growing perennials such as one of the groundcover perennial geraniums. Regardless of what you have there, it will need something for weed control, but which plants you choose may increase or reduce the amount of weeding. The easiest is grass since all you have to do is mow and weed whack along the fence. Dense growing perennials of just one or two kinds might work. If no snow, some densely growing shrubs might work if well-mulched. Regardless, anything other than grass will need some weeding, at least for a while until it fills in, and even then will need some a few times annually based on my experience. For your backyard, are you interested in tall deciduous trees or evergreens, or do you want shrubs? Or some tall and some shorter plants? Is it more that you don't want to see all of the neighbors' yard or just all of the fence? Do you want year round coverage or is that not important?

Hello from east central Missouri! Metasequoia, if you have room for two get the cultiver Metasequoia Ogon also. Nyssa Sylvatica is a winner for fall color many folks skip. I'm trying one of these purple leafed catalpas this year. I'll report later if I like it. On a side note, got any prickly pear cacti? I'm putting some around my conifers that prefer it a bit drier. How about a Pecan? I saw one of these Jillian Oaks up at the nursery a few weeks back. Had excellent yellow/orange fall color. Not sure if that's typical or not. I should have bought it and found a place later. http://www.elsberrydemocrat.com/jillian-oak-no-better-name-for-nurserys-newest-species/ Oh, Cornus controversa. A wide spreading full sun tolerating tree dogwood import. Not quite the fall color of our native but it grows in places it doesn't.