If you can't get rid of them as normal blueberries, might I suggest making bonsai out of them (assuming they're thick enough trunked for that)? Its very easy to do, simply wait until they're dormant (like right now) and take pruning shears to them. Chop them way back until they look like miniature tree trunks, then let them leaf out. Just prune the leaves so they stay looking tree-like, then wait for them to bear fruit. Take pictures of them as fruiting little bonsai trees, then sell them as bonsai. Its amazing how people will pay two or three times as much for a "bonsai" version of what they could have gone to virtually any nursery and gotten a normal version of and cut back themselves. I picked up an extra blueberry at the end of last season when my local hardware store/nursery had them in the "please make these go away" markdown pile. Got the one with the most interesting trunk and chopped it back. Just waiting for the weather to warm up for it to leaf back out so I can do exactly this. What cost me $5 I can probably sell for $30-50 as an exotic novelty.

Ginny, Waiting longer, but not too long, should definitely help; how much help depends on the climate. Next year, try sampling two oranges every two weeks starting late Nov. This is an educational step teaching you when to harvest the fruit. Although this can change from year to year depending on climate and care, at least you get a baseline regarding the progression from very acid to ripened sweet. For my area, late Dec is usually the ripest time, but I always go by feel to find them when heavy in addition to sampling. Regarding your trees: Chances are your soil pH will be at least a little high which means the tree can't take up the nutrients it needs -- even if they are in the soil in abundance. The long-term treatment is clear: 1) keep the soil pH around 6.5 2) apply a fertilizer with a ratio *near* 5-1-3 NPK. It must have micro-nutrients labeled on it. 3) once a year apply 1Tbsp/gal Epsom Salts dissolved in warm water (as very few ferts have Magnesium (Mg) in them). If it's an *organic* fertilizer, the NPK ratio can be different and it's probably OK. But citrus use lots of N, hardly any P, and K in about half the rate of N. The second #, P=Phosphorus builds up in the soil and is becoming taboo. There are a few ways of lowering your soil pH, with many good ideas on the net. If you go the Sulfur route, you can apply the sulfur granules once/year when warm in spring at the same time you apply the Epsom salts. As you've done a great job so far answering our questions, you may want more opinions on exactly what the tree is deficient in. If so, take several more photos of the sections that are yellow; take some closeup, some a few feet away. Use your highest resolution and largest image size and upload it to Photobucket (don't post the actual photo here). By examining larger sections of the leaves, we'll know better what you need. As ashley has stated, applying some iron chelate in vinegar water is a simple test to see if iron is all it needs. But honestly it's probably academic anyway, since the care steps I listed above should resolve any issues long-term. We've covered the sweetness topic. Regarding the dryness topic, if you get a year where the majority of them are looking that way, take some pics and lets try to figure it out what happened. As I said earlier, there are some known effects for causing that particular condition: excessive N, lower K, but it can also be caused by excessive watering. It also can happen when they are over-ripe. The internal cells will burst and dry out; in some climates this can happen relatively quickly after their peak ripeness. Chris

I am looking at the house, the style of the house, the style of the shrubs and frankly I don't think lorapetulum fits here. The landscaping that exists is the more manacured type, and lorapetulum isn't that style of plant. I agree that the monkey grass could get fried, it would need regular watering to keep up with the heat, but it can work if you keep it cut back once a year. Color contrasts are a personal thing, and I know some people who love them, and others that dislike them. So Katy Bug, do you like colorful foliage? You have a wide variety of choices if you do. I like purples and lime greens, but some folks like a green or white variegation more and dislike the darker purple colors. Personally on a home like yours I do like either some lime or some variegation. I designed a garden in the Byron, Georgia area that had pale pink crepes, pale pink flowering indian hawthorne, pale pink flowering oleanders and also some fairly plain dark green shrubs like Japanese box and pittosporum (the windows were low). Added in some variegated pittosporum and aztec grass and it ended up being a simple landscape to care for but quite eye catching. We also used pink hardy chrysanthemums in some places and kept the same color scheme on the back patio and pool plants in huge containers. The home was a dark brick like yours.

You need to post more photos. It looks like maybe you could take out the grass growing in the bed next to the house on right side. A lot of people dislike 'meatball' shrubs but they don't bother me. I am not a fan of the center island. I would remove it and have grass there. Yes, I see there is a light there but it could be mowed around. Do you know the names of any of the plants? What USDA zone are you in?