So I've thought about this for awhile now, and I've decided 1) I don't have as much room as I "measured." 2) I don't want to eat figs enough to grow them in an espalier. I was kidding myself. 3) I really want something in the plum/apricot family, perhaps enough to spray a bit. 4) I'm allergic to sulfa medicine, and sulfur in dried food, and that might be an issue in spraying. So the new plan is 2011 to work on the soil (and survive other things)and just maybe get the prunus mume in the ground this year - for winter flowers. 2012 build the kiwi and rose pergola, and plant front yellowwood tree. Work on flower garden. 2013 replace sod with clover, dig out the dry stream bed and raise the grape hill. plant kiwi and rose. 2014 build the grape structure, and sprinklers or something for water. plant grapes. 2015 get the berries and currants going. And then once everything else is well established, go back to thinking about something like a hedge of espaliered purple leaf plum, which would be pretty. I'm not giving up on my apricot yet, but I can put it off and see if something new comes out.

The leaves do look like Shiro, and I don't think its a European plum. The fruits look far more green than my Shiros so I'm not sure its a Shiro. If they are Shiro you may be picking them too early, they need to go to yellow and then to darker yellow before picking. Even at darker yellow they are not the greatest plum, but they are much better than when light yellow. Overall I expect its Shiro because its leaves are distincitve and don't look like most other Japanese plums -- Shiro is in fact a cross of 3-4 different plum species. If it is not Shiro it is one of the other plum crosses (but, not a pluot based on leaf shape). I don't think its a Euro because the leaf tips are pointed not rounded, and the serrations are small; the fruit stem ends on Euro plums are also usually not concave. Scott

Dave, bait a trap with pecans, these guys will eat even the ones we'd put in the discard pile. Raccoons will do almost anything for a nice pecan, including come right up and take them out of your hand if you give it a little time. I have a couple of them on my property but they never bother my garbage cans because I don't put food waste in it until the actual day of pick up. I freeze all meat scraps, bones etc, and the big bonus is that my garbage men love me, lol, my garbage never stinks.

What part of SoCal do you live in? Example: Northern San Diego county or Southern Los Angeles county?