The only thing I grow in a high tunnel are my early girl tomatoes. I plant them a month early, and get my first harvest in June rather than July. The photo of the single okra plant inside the hoop house was one taken as a freak storm was approaching. I threw that hoop house together with scraps of sheet metal, black plastic, old vis-queen, and what ever I could find, in an attempt to save this plant's germplasm from the freezing temperatures that were approaching. Unfortunately, high winds that night prevailed, and I lost the battle. Only 5 pods were saved to full maturity. These were distributed among friends at the Department of Agriculture, and a few OSU professors I knew. The dusty ground in that photo will attest to the drought conditions in which that plant prospered. I was only able to water it sparingly, as our well was close to going dry. The photo was taken in October of 2011 after a Summer of record heat. August 2, 2011 reached 115 degrees.

Whoa. I had no idea this forum post was updated. Carolyn, Definitely not looking for rot problems. The problem with getting recommendations for my region is that I have not found a reliable source yet - they just say "plums" and "apples" grow well here. I called my county's extension office and the guy was nice enough to email me some informative things but they didn't exactly answer my question about what is specifically known to grow well. Just now, I found an article online that says Frontier and Ozark Premier can be grown in the Southeast. On the other hand, Stark Bros. says Ozark Premier is "the best choice for the Ohio Valley and the Northeast, as well as the Midwest". So I've stayed in a state of flux and just used this forum mainly to see what people's experience with different varieties has actually been. At the time of this posting, I'd decided on Shiro and Satsuma. I want to get them from the same place and I want them the same size roughly so I've had a time locating a source. In the meantime, I've been trying to learn as much as I can and trying to see if there is a better choice to start with than what I have determined.

Reviving this awesome apple thread. I was reading through what I posted and I am amused by how quickly things change. at least half of the apples I listed have fallen off my own list. I've grafted over most of my spigold because it's really not that good after all. Mutsu is also somewhat uninteresting these days. Here is my new list of favorites: - coconut crunch is extraordinary in our climate and keeps really well - sinta, fruited for the first time last Fall, delicious strong pineapple flavor - Fiesta, really good for a Summer apple - Williams pride, my tastiest Summet apple after Viking - Orin, great storage apple that still has that tropical pineapple flavor in March - alkmene, yummy summer August apple that tastes lime a cox but even better - kidds orange red, superb in the Fall - Haralson, fruits well here in California and its good - transparente de cronkels, delicious and high quality I still love gravenstein, hauer pippin and granny smith off my old list. I am curious what will stand out this year, as it surely won't be the same as last year. -

Congrats on the new home! It is definitely looking better with your current work. Here are some random thoughts that occurred to me while looking at your various photos. I'm interested in seeing the photos Yardvaark requested, and also one that clearly shows the entrance from the sidewalk, when standing directly out from the door. I am another who wouldn't paint the brick since it involves increased maintenance, especially since you have chosen low-maintenance hardie board siding, but you are the one who will have to deal with it. However, I would wait to do this until you have worked out a planting scheme since it may turn out that the current brick color makes a better backdrop for the plants than the light color. Once you have a plan, then if you still feel it will look best, you can do the whitewash before actually doing the plantings. As others have said, I think one of your biggest challenges will be to find a way to make your almost hidden entrance easily seen by visitors. So you will need to keep that in mind with whatever you decide to do with landscaping. For instance, planting an evergreen at the left house corner may hinder the visibility of the entrance from some angles. IME, planting along the driveway edge won't prevent folks from driving off the edge, it will just mean that your plants get driven on. It also presents an issue with where folks walk when they get out of the car; if you have plantings lining the drive, and the cars fill the drive, there isn't anywhere to walk, so grass or a walkway from the street to the door might be your best choice for the driveway edge. Soaker hoses on a timer or with you turning them on as needed will help with keeping things watered. Since they go under the mulch, they won't be visible. Getting the timing right will need to be worked out based on what you plant and your soil, but here (with similar rainfall) I usually don't need to do much if any watering on established, mulched gardens. Rather than just getting plant ideas on line, go to the Chicago Botanic Garden, which is world class and grows research plots specifically to figure out what plants grow well and look good (disease free, etc.) in your area. Go often, like every 2 weeks so you can see what looks good at different times of year. Take photos of plants and their labels so you know what to look for when you have a plan. As for the mulch and paver edging dilemma, I might just add a light layer of a mulch color you like for now, with perhaps some annuals for color, either in the ground or in large pots. Your ultimate plan may have a bed that looks quite different, and once you have a plan of what the planting area will look like and what types of planting and hardscape changes you will plan to make, then you can remove mulch and edging. It just seems a bit of a waste of your time and energy to do much with this area for now. Early fall is a great time to plant, so if you don't get things planned and planted this spring, you can do prep this summer once the plan is in place and plant in September. The annuals will add interest for the summer so it doesn't look so stark.