Thank you all for your help! I will defenitely go to Home Depot to try and get that dwarf tree. I agree it makes sense to have it all set for me, with the soil, fertilizer, etc. I cant wait to start. I used to have a wonderful veggie garden about 20 yrs ago! Im 45 now. Since then, I have not had a back yard. I have had really nice house plants though. I think this is a great forum, and you guys sound really supportive and kind here. OH, to the nice guy from Montreal, we almost got there last year, but my daughter was sick and we ended up staying in the Canadian town in ths suburbs just before the bridges to Montreal. We stayed in a Best Western, and never made it there. My boyfriend is Canadian, and haha met him on a Beatle site about 7 yrs ago! He is from Vancouver, Victoria, and Edmonton. I love Canada!Well, I love to go to the Botanic Gardens in Brooklyn Ny and love to go for the Japanese Festival, so that will perk me up too! Ill keep you posted on my tree! I wish you all well! Thanks, Mary

Plenty of post in here on wintering and they should be just fine...they will lose their leaves but thats to be expected and dont water as much as u normally would. Id wait till most of the leaves drop then prune back seeing how they will be inside. Check out all the other postings regarding wintering in here...you should be fine.

The word comes from the Latin for sleep. That's basically what deciduous trees do in Winter. Leaves fall so they're not pushing water around the tree, sap just ticks around slowly. A bit like hibernation. That's what your plum should be doing now.

Unless a person knows they will be in a house for a short time, I think it's better to plan for the long term, knowing that there may be a period of awkwardness until the final concept rings through loud and clear. In this case (if you're going to be in the house for a while) I would not let the stone and roof colors limit where I go with future house colors. Personally, I don't find the stone attractive enough to call it a "keeper." If budget allows, I'd consider replacing it. If budget doesn't allow, I'd paint it and that will be an improvement and open up color choices for other things. Roofs eventually wear out an need replacement. At that time, you could select a better roof color that goes with your improved house color. Eventually, you could transition to a whole new, improved color scheme. The new pictures help. To be perfectly frank, I don't think the stone columns and fencing help in the least to make the entrance more inviting and appealing. If a courtyard effect was still desired, I think it would be done completely differently than what is there now. So getting rid of those things would be an immediate improvement. The walk needs help, too. Ideally, it would be redone. But if that is not in the budget, then strategically adding to it would be a big help. It especially needs an area of expanded paving near the entrance door. The small "trees" inside and outside of the courtyard are not the right plants for those spots. Is the budget or DIY interest level sufficient to make some sizable changes to the entrance area?