Fruithack, thank you for the link! Could persimmons be any more beautiful? Too big for the fig bed, but the notion of having one elsewhere on the property makes my heart go pitter-pat. Tcstoehr, thank you for your wonderful feedback. I was so fixated on the planting of semi-dwarf fruit trees on the other side of the house that i sort of inadvertently dismissed how large these fig trees would get unless i intervene. Having said that, i still want them to be trees, rather than bushes. I'll do a bit of research on how to maintain a tree-like shape ... Murky, i'm hoping there'll be enough sunlight on the blueberries as the figs mature, as the house is quite a distance from the bed. The pictures are a bit deceiving in this regard. As for orientation, the dogwood on the upper tier is east, the center azaleas in the foreground west, the deck south. Gads, i hope they'll get enough sun! Thank you everyone for your thoughts, suggestions and guidance ... :)

This post made me laugh. When I was in elementary school I started an avocado pit and planted it in the back yard. It grew into the most enormous avocado tree you ever saw, and in all the years we lived there it produced exactly one avocado, although it was a whopper. Then it evidently decided it had done its duty and that was that. I agree about grafting, if you're serious about getting fruit from it.

Yes, I think calling the extension agent is a good idea. The one in Cheyenne is more focused on trees; the one in Denver actually has a little bit of information on tomato diseases and mentions TSWV. Common Tomato Problems A cloud of thrips? How horrid. I just read that thrips and broad/fava beans go hand in hand. I have half a row of favas right next to this tomato row... Regarding the BER, yes, there's been a little while I've been trying to learn to water properly with black plastic down this year. I'm not positive if the triplet and the single above have BER, too, or if the rot from the cankers (for lack of a better word) has converged. From Cornell's Fact Sheet: Although an early study reported seed transmission of TSWV at a high rate in Cineraria and tomato, a later study found only 1 percent infection. The virus is present only in the seed coat and not in the embryo. Seed transmission is thus not considered important for disease spread. Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus Regarding the leaves, most everything I read today stated the problem starts with the leaves. I wonder if the problem generally starts earlier in the season, though, when there aren't any fruit present. Either way, if it is TSWV, I imagine it's just the beginning of the end here. I appreciate everyone's input. If I learn something helpful from the extension agent(s) tomorrow, I'll post it here.

What will be obvious is you have a very bright overhead light (but only compared to your neighbours), but being on the 4th floor unless you have an adjacent apartment/office/hill no-one will be able to see the 'floor' of your apartment (just walk outside and look up, lots of ceilings, no floors). CFLs would be just as "obvious", but from that distance it would be very difficult for anyone to tell what kind of light it was, just that it made a lot and was throwing out white light. It's worth remembering that the folks you don't want to be confused with are trying to hide what they're growing, either in tents or rooms with closed windows. I wouldn't worry too much. The RCMP can't bust down your door just based on a neighbour calling and saying "hey, my neighbour has a bright light in his/her window, go bust them for running a grow-op". They may be 'annoyingly bright', especially if you have hardwood floors which might reflect the light into your eyes, but you can always turn them off and they are supposed to send light *down* not sideways.