I'm thinking it wasn't a good idea to use the pics of last year's flooding, because that was very much NOT a typical event. It's also clear that in the interest of trying to not bog down my question with too much information, I left open too much for interpretation. There is a storm drain located just around the lower left corner of the flood picture. Clearly it's not working well, and I'm addressing that with public works. The storm drain directly across the street works great. Much of the water on my property actually comes from the far side of my property, not shown in this picture -- if you went through the gate that's behind my granddaughter in that flood picture and walked straight over to the other side of the fence, the lot on that direction is very large, and there is just enough slope from back in there yard to way over by the side street shown in the pic that when we have a hard rain you can go in the yard and watch the water rushing over my yard. So it's actually exactly oppposite from what it looks like -- water doesn't come in from the street, it comes from the opposite side and stops at the street. Another of the problems we're addressing is grading the back yard to try and get THAT neighbor's runoff to stay in their yard. What happens during a "normal" very heavy rain (as opposed to the 12" we got the day of last year's flood) is that the water comes from all directions and tends to pool right where you see my granddaughter standing, which is at the top end of an old swale which goes to the storm drain - that's why it seems so deep there: she's standing in the deepest part of the swale. But that swale has gotten built up with dirt over the years as you get closer to the drain, and so the water backs up there at the gate. Getting that swale dug back out is yet another of the things we're addressing. Here are some pictures that show the area dry: The right side of our driveway, showing the difference in height between my neighbor's property and my driveway. The same side of the driveway, taken from next to the shed. This is the left side of the garage, where water pools the most during a hard rain. If you look through the gate to the fence in the background, the lot behind that fence is where much of the water flows from. FYI, the gutter was installed today - it used to have the downspout back by the gate, right where the problems were the worst, so we put in a new one that discharges on the opposite side, and someone is coming out this week to route it to a drywell. So, to summarize: We have water coming from the far side of our yard, flowing across our yard. We're grading there to cut that down. We have an insufficiently functioning storm drain. We're working with Public Works. We have an old swale that no longer is sloped the way it should, so water stops there by the side of the garage. We're digging that out and reshaping it to let water flow the way it's supposed to. AND we have a neighbor to the side of our driveway whose lot is significantly higher than ours, and whose downspouts are tied into pipes that discharge right at our property line so that most of his roof runoff comes onto my property. There is no code preventing him from doing that and I'm not willing to drag him into civil court, so I'm trying to deal with it on my side of the property. THAT aspect of our stormwater problems is what my original email was all about. Sorry for confusing things so thoroughly by not explaining all the sources for the flood waters I showed, and for not making it very clear that this picture is NOT our typical problem; I had mistakenly thought it would be a good picture just to illustrate the difference in height of my property vs. this rear neighbor's lot, now I realize it confused things considerably. Maybe I should just ditch this thread and start all over...

I'm no gardening guru, but i recommend just planting it in its permanent location. These plants are very easy to grow. If you are worried about stepping on it, you can put a small tomato cage around it. I like these marker flags you can get at farm supply stores - about 18 inches of wire with a piece of orange plastic - you can clearly see stuff like that without mowing over it. I put a hoop of chicken wire over shrubs that small to protect them from rabbits. I planted a tiny weigela in a quart container from Lowes 2 years ago - even after some die back its almost waist high and covered with pink blooms. Its a shrub even those with brown thumbs can grow.

I don't do anything to protect trees from frost, with one exception, that being very small plants that have not yet had a good strong growing season to get established. I am protecting one tree at the moment, a friend's 18" tall Eucommia ulmoides that was just about to break bud when the last few cold blasts (one down to 14 F and the other to 17 F) came through. It was planted last spring and only put on about four inches of growth. The species is hardy here but its foliage has shown some sensitivity to late spring and early fall freezes. With this new little one, I didn't want to chance it not having the energy reserves to grow a replacement set of leaves. What I am using is two 3 gal. plastic containers, the bottom cut out of one, and both lined with bubble wrap. Nested upside-down, they form a sort of teepee over the plant. So far this arrangement seems to have worked pretty well. There is a slight blackening on the edges of the tree's bud scales, but the buds overall remain plump and green. BTW Toronado, how did the Gum Bumelia tree do for you last season--the one Missouri Wildflowers sent you by mistake in place of the Nyssa you wanted?

Hi Lynne, I am very new to gardening. I lived in Massachusetts so everything pretty much had its season. Not that I was very knowledgeable there but this is more challenging, I think. We think the tall, short, tall thing might look nice from the street, as well as the porch. The porch is one and one-half steps up from the sidewalk since th city re-did the sidewalk. Friday they planted sod in the rectangle planting space. They were maybe concerned someone would fall into the area. I love all the tropical, no maintenance around here. Anything from palms to flowering plants, it doesn't matter. I might add the whole driveway/side of the property was cemented when we bought the house. We had the city cut a 14" x 15' swath in the cement along the prop3erty of the neighbor's concrete fence. It's southwest. We want to put something to hide the fence and be no maintenance. What about palms there? What ones? Thank you for any suggestions. I really appreciate it. Nancita