Hi: I've not been impressed with the look of viburnums in online pics; might have to rethink them. I have thought about evergreen Rhododendrons and might use some. Our soil pH is fairly close to neutral, as I recall. I don't want to completely hide the fence; that type of fence needs patching up from time to time, and I'm pretty good-sized; trying to crawl through a dense hedge would be a but much. I don't mind seeing some fence here and there; the shrubs through break it up & distract the eye from it. We have a septic tank & leach field the side of which extends out maybe to that last Euonymus bush (and then runs across the yard, not long-ways); I don't want things that get way high, since I figure their rooting systems will be more elaborate. Since the fence is about 5'4" tall, a shrub or small tree needing be very tall, and since many shrubs are about as wide as tall, I'm leery of getting big stuff. Basically, I like planting shrubs 2 or 3 feet from the fence; I don't want to have to plant 5 or 6' out from the fence, and take up a lot of yard space. The shrub row will also look strange if some shrubs are 4 - 6' tall, and a couple are 20' holly trees, for example. Hence my preference for a pyramidal short holly, rather than a round bush (plus I like the pyramidal look better). The Emerald Green Arborvitae get 12 - 14' tall, they say, but are there for a reason; kind of like I'm holding my hand up to block the view of that dog kennel. Richard.

Just sitting here nodding in agreement with a lot of posts. I think the most important thing at this point is to look at your property and decide the functions you will use it for down the road so you don't ruin the space when you get around to addressing it. Yes, leave access for getting trucks and machinery to various parts of the property, even on three acres. Especially on three acres you plan to fill generously with trees. Yes on considering some groves and avoiding onesie-twosies and when the tree bug bites you, and it will, it's very enticing to want 'one of everything' and three of nothing and the visuals on that can be busy and disjointed. You have a big house, and need to consider proportions so that the trees planted near it don't come off looking dwarfed and the house monstrous. We have an epidemic here of mini-mansions festooned with dwarf weeping cherry trees, the branches pruned abruptly like a bowl haircut. We also found it more logical to start close and move out with our plantings. Although we are not close to any other dwellings, I use plantings as visual blockades to scenes I don't care to see and for privacy, so do look out your windows in the general direction of any tree you consider planting to make sure it DOESN'T block what you want to see, and does what you don't want to see. Yes I do plant trees to block sun for the shading effect. If they are deciduous, blocking sunlight isn't an issue in winter and it has a tremendous impact in summer to keep our stucco over brick house cool. It sort of amazed me to see someone mention leasing solar panels. You lease from them for your power, or they lease from you for the exposure and buy the power you generate? In our neck of the woods, it would be a company wanting to sink an oil well, instead. LOL. I have a perfect south facing roof area, but any solar panels ever getting there would be self-financed and simply supplemental in their efficiency. I don't have central air, and having a boiler heat am not interested in retrofitting ducts to accomodate it. Trees size so much more quickly than you think. I have some aerial shots of our property taken fifteen years apart and it's astounding at the amount of canopy we have now, compared to then. Our annual rainfall is adequate for most of our plantings and we have installed some freeze proof spigots away from the house, but I got a chuckle over the remark of 100 gallon tanks for watering. Tried that one year and .........well....despite how large a tractor you have, you'd better have more than a trailer behind it to pull your water tank. The center of gravity shifts in liquid loads. It ain't purty. Yes on buying small for most trees. They establish more readily and catch up with the bigger, more expensive ones quite quickly. I've had just as good success with B and B, but really the only reason I got the ones I did was I couldn't find them container. This is going to take years and it never really gets done. That's as it should be and part of the adventure. I can honestly say I've never had to rip a tree out because of poor placement. Nobody shares the exact gardening philosophy and what's right for me might not be right for you as far as pleasing to the senses. Over the years I have found I've been much more pleased with a tree whose needs have been met than one unsuitable for the growing conditions. A healthy and robust, easy care tree is often more beautiful than one which you much struggle to keep happy. Remember it's a lot easier to attend to correcting things like improper branch angles than addressing the problems they cause down the road. Have fun with it and enjoy the journey, too.

I started a pumpkin patch for the first time and it's getting pretty big, flowers have bloomed and I have a few pumpkins already starting to grow. My question is, I've been walking around my garden and notice some of the leaves through out the garden are eaten , or split, dried. Not too many but a few and I didn't know if I should pull these off? Also is it safe to trim the vines? I went a little over board when it came to planting and on a very large plot I created several mounds and used a lot of pumpkin seeds so my patch has gotten to a point where I can't see too well in the middle area and I don't want to over look any growing pumpkins and not get anything underneath them so they don't rot. Any advice would be helpful, I want to do everything to keep my patch healthy and don't want to cause harm by trimming and not knowing what I'm doing.

Here's a possibility... It has... Two DWs, one on either side of the main sink. I really think it's better to have the DWs nearby b/c even if you plan to put different things in different DWs(like prep tools in one & dinner dishes in the other), inevitably things will be put in the "wrong" DW and then you have to run around finding things and/or putting them in the right place. If you want to use one for prep, the one on the left is still in the prep zone. The sink is no longer the first thing you see when guests come in from the Foyer, you will see the range, but if you get a nice hood it can actually be a plus that that's what you see first. Flow goes: From garage w/groceries to pantries & refrigerator From refrigerator & pantries to prep at the island/prep sink counter b/w sink & range (could also use b/w refrigerator & sink as additional prep)MW (reheat, cook frozen veggies, etc.) From prep to range or oven or MW From range or oven to either Breakfast Nook or island From island or BN to cleanup sink & DWs or refrigerator (leftovers) From DWs to being put away MW is next to the refrigerator and both are in the kitchen area but also on the perimeter where snackers can come through w/o interfering with the work being done in the kitchen Are you a baker? The corner and to the right would make an excellent baking center since it's so close to the wall oven and it has a deep corner for storing your mixer. There at at least 3 zones for prepping and cooking: b/w refrigerator & main sink b/w main sink & range on island...could actually accommodate 2 or 3 prepping/cooking b/c of its size! There's plenty of seating space for children & their friends or for just sitting around. Plenty of room for homework or projects on the island Still have a 48" range w/54" hood (the recommendation is that hoods be at least 6" wider than the cooking surface) 15" overhang on the island for seating I Moved the island north slightly so the island seats are completely out of the major traffic thoroughfare b/w the mudroom & the rest of the house. You still have a 48" to 51" aisle b/w the island and wall run of cabinets. 48" built-in or counter depth refrigerator. If it's counter depth, I recommend a finished end panel on the exposed end and a full depth (24") cabinet above the refrigerator. I think that's it.