Don't worry about leaf size just yet. The important things to develop are the branches first (thickness, taper etc). After the trunks and everything else are in place then worry about leaf size. Leaf size reduction is acheived by defoliation. Anytime you defoliate your oak, the leaves can come back are a third smaller. But do not defoliate every year, maybe every other year. Eventually they will be as small as you like.

Thanks, all! There are actually two planted beds right now - the 2nd one is hidden by the 1st one in that photo. So, a total of 5 for next year. Lorna - No dogs at our house, but plenty in the neighborhood. Every so often, one will run across the yard, but none have dug anything up so far - knock on wood. Annette - I'm considering doing raspberries in a raised bed, but not sure where, unless I use one of the veggie beds or something. Ideally, I want to make a long border along where I was standing, to hide the veggies from being the prime view out my living room window, and I don't think I want that border to be of raspberries! Gldno - Yes, I know asparagus is a lifetime planting. I'm pretty excited to finally make one - at our old house, we weren't planning to be there that long, so I didn't want to invest the time & energy. For strawberries, I want to do day neutral ones, which supposedly only live a year or two and don't send out runners as much as normal ones. But, then I can harvest gradually, and not all at once. We're pretty excited about all this stuff to plant up...it's easier to justify spending money on the veggie garden than the flowers, lol.

MorZ8, I've had exactly the same last July on splitting about 300 H. sternii pods, many of them before they were ripe in order to package up seed for the HELLEX seed exchange last year. I don't normally harvest until the pods split under very gentle pressure between finger and thumb, but this time I was being impatient to get these seeds in with others I was sending off. Any one who got H. sternii 'Beatrice le Blanc' in this years HELLEX exchange, I had days of numb, then itchy, then peeling skin off the fingers. It was very similar(though more extremedue to quantity) to the effect when cooking chillies, especially habaneros. So be patient and wait until the pods split under gentle pressure, rather than using your nails to force them open and shedding juice. I've never had this off any other species, but then I've probably never tried to harvest so early. Mary, your rash may be phyto photo sensitivity, many plants especially rue can cause this in conjunction with sunlight, my daughter had it quite badly when she was young. Any one know what the chemical basis of hellebore sap is. Cheers Greenmanplants.

DO NOT LISTEN TO YOUR BODY OR WAIT A FEW DAYS TO SEE HOW YOU FEEL. Get to the emergency room immediately and have them check you out. Soft tissue injuries or internal injuries can take days or even months to manifest, but if you delay even a couple days the insurance companies will fight you tooth and nail later. If you have it looked at now, that officially establishes the onset date for any future claim you may have to file. Ask any lawyer and they will tell you it is much easier to prove a claim, even if you mediacally check out fine right now. Many insurance policies even have a clause that says you are not covered if the original accident was not seen by a doctor with an specified period of time, which is typically about 48 to 72hrs.