I think you are pretty safe if you prune early enough to miss the fall rains. In some ways we benefit from our rainless summers. Al

finally.. way too much grass... get a move on the rest of the garden.. lol Ken, I'm getting there :D I converted more than 2000+ sqft of lawn to instant bed this year. I'll do more next year because I got so tired. I still have tons of perennials and annuals to plant. Check out my garden plan. You will see the transition. Also, I don't recall if I posted a pic of left bed and right bed meeting at the middle. It shows on the drawing. However, I think something is missing on the crabapple area and the lime tree(honeylocust). Looks like I need to create a bed there too but can't figure out what shape to use. :D Thanks brandon. Here is a link that might be useful: my garden plan

Lynn, I am just so relieved to hear that the damage was minimal. (Although, of course, it never seems quite so minimal when it is your own place, and not someone else's.) If I were there with you now, I'd just give you a big hug and say how happy I am that you are OK, so consider yourself hugged long distance. : ) I know it is a terrible experience, especially as you're hurrying home and watching that big old plume of smoke, all the while wondering what has already burnt and what remains in danger. I am so proud of all the firefighters in Oklahoma--volunteer and professional--and the work they do. In our county, the 14 volunteer fire departments, the BIA and the forest service fire crews work together so well that it is just amazing. I'd like to second what you said, Lynn, about people supporting the volunteer fire departments. Most people assume that there is some kind of magical pot of money that the VFDs get from their city, county, state, or the federal goverment.....and that there is always enough money. That, of course, is not at all true. Most volunteer departments barely scrape by even though they are constantly working hard to raise money. On extreme fire danger days and extremely critical fire danger days, I am like a cat on a hot tin roof. I keep the fire radio turned on to the County Repeater so I can keep track of every fire in the county, instead of leaving it on the "pager" feature. And, I hate to get too far from home. We live in an area of rural mostly native pasture land too, and it can burn like mad. We've never had a fire as close to us as yours, but have had 2 on our land (but they were burning away from the house and outbuildings, and nowhere near fences of animals or anything). However, the ranch across the road catches fire at least a couple of times a year. (Their pastures back up to a highway and most of the fires start from the roadside.) For any of you wondering how to know when the fire danger is high, one of the easiest ways is to look at the NWS Enhanced Weather webpages. I check them daily, as they are informative and give info on all weather, and not just fire danger. On the enhanced weather page, the fire outlook is usually in one of the boxes along the right side of the page, near the bottom. Just keep scrolling down until you see it. You can click on it to enlarge it. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: NWS Enhanced Weather Webpage

What dimensions are you looking for? This is listed as about 8' x 8'. Perhaps if you started with a single trunk tree form from the nursery the that would help limit the spread.