I have to give credit where credit is due. This is my son's next door neighbor's tree. My fig trees are still too young to show the results or where they are headed. Pruning is about as controversial as rooting so you seldom see one pruner doing anything but picking out the mistakes in someone elses work. I want to say this job is as good as I've seen. My family farmed about 500 acres in prunes, apricots, cherries, and pears. I don't think anyone in my family or any of the workers we had over the years could improve on this job. There is one thing I left out, always cut branches at the joint. If you leave anything other then a flush cut i.e. a 2-4" stub, it is referred to derogatively as an 'ethnic' flag. That is in my case another pruner would look at my work and if they found any stubs would say something like "What are you leaving all those Italian flags for?" Kind of good natured old school racial pruning superiority wag. Every country thinks they have the best pruners in the world. The tree appears to be a Mission fig. Dark purple fruit anyway. Note I am something of a fig rookie here to learn so... The tree produces a medium to heavy crops of fruit. More important IMHO is the size of the fruit is uniform, large, and blemish free. I'll try to remember to take a picture of it when it in fall with leaves and fruit. Possibly one of the things people may not want is the crop ripens over a 2-4 week period vs. maybe double that for a tree that is less uniformly pruned. FWIW: Told/showed my son the technique for pruning because he had a badly neglected apricot tree in his front yard. Just doing the cut [low, suckers, straight up, straight down, center, crosses] and leave no flags. He did a pretty good job and actually got a complement or two. Ended up a decent crop of fruit but neighborhood ladies picked them before he got a shot at them. I think I managed to get 4-5 before the neighbors stripped the tree! The technique is geared to a slightly lower yield of larger fruit rather then a heavy crop of peanut sized fruit. Some things will change figs depending on the variety and owner. For instance the farmer/crop method is used in part because of my family's selection of fruit, the main crop is 'on second year wood.' For figs the best ones are on the new growth so people often prune them back harder to maximize new wood. I'm kind of a knucklehead though: If it is any kind of fruit tree and I have a pair of shears in my hands, it will look like this. Kind of boring and monotonous when you think about it. Rick

gardengal13, I can only speak about my local fair, but there was no enrollment needed since I entered in open class for adults. If I were in a youngster in 4H I'd have to enroll prior, but not for regular open class. I wonder how your fair works? Call your local fair board, or start with your extension office if you don't know who to call. Do it, Stephanie! And then post pictures!!

My cheating man? My CHEATING man??? Do you know something that I don't???? Listen, mi amigo...if I find out my man is cheating on me, I won't need no steenkin' balsam apple wood to take care of HIM! *making a mean face and a big fist, here* I have been under the weather for a day or so, right in the middle of Mark's vacation, but I'm thinking the worst is over today. We were doing some yard work (Mark was laying bricks yesterday, while I was feeling lousy and didn't want to go anywhere or do anything). But we've been hitting the trails and doing a bit of hiking every other day, enjoying the cool weather. I hope we get another cool spell next week, after he goes back to work, so I can weed the backyard. The bidens is taking over...along with some more BALSAM APPLE, dang that stupid vine!! Anyone else have scarlet morning glory? I found a volunteer this spring that the hummer was visiting, and I left it. Now I'm wondering if it is going to get totally out of control? (Maybe I should start a new thread about it.) Marcia

Ezzirah, I don't grow raspberries because they don't like the heat here, but I would think that any high-quality potting mix would do. You want something that is light and fluffy and which drains well. Avoid the ones that are labeled as 'moisture-control' because they can hold too much moisture and kill plants. I grow blackberries which are very heat tolerant in the ground in clay soil that's been well amended with a lot of composted cow manure and they do great in that. However, if you're growing raspberries in containers, you can't use native soil because it packs down and strangles the roots. Containers need a well-drained soil-less mix. I usually mix up my own container mix from a few basic ingredients and I can 'make' it drain more quickly or more slowly depending on what I use and on which proportions I use. A soilless mix is generally composed of some combination of peat moss or compost, vermiculite or perlite or expanded shale and pine bark fines and often has other ingredients added to provide nutrition or enhanced ability to drain well. The next time you're in a store that sells bagged potting soil and garden soil, look at the bags. Usually the name-brand ones that are labeled container soil or potting soil will be a soil-less mix. The ones labeled Garden Soil or Vegetable Soil likely contain some topsoil or dirt and should be used only in raised beds or added to your native soil. The poor quality mixes often contain a lot of black clay and should be avoided at all costs. For seed-starting, it is best to use a sterile seed-starting mix which is very light and fluffy and has only tiny particles so there's no particles large enough to keep seeds from sprouting. When handling ALL potting soils or seed-starting mixes or soil-less mixes, ALWAYS wear gloves. People who handle these mixes with their bare hands can contract some very serious illnesses from them, including a fungal infection that can get into your body and become systemic and chronic. It is your garden. Plant what you want and plant as much of it as your want and just enjoy the whole process. If you burn out, that's OK, because everything you do still will be a great learning experience and will leave you better prepared for the next garden. If you have lost your marbles, you'll eventually find them again....and most likely you'll find them in the garden under a large and vigorously growing squash plant. Here's my feeling about 'planting too much' 'going overboard' and 'losing your marbles': if those three things are the worst thing you ever do, you'll likely survive and have a wonderful life. Look at the other obsessions some people have.....spending tons of money to attend athletic events or take trips to exotic locales or go on guided hunting or fishing trips or maintaining their own deer lease or bass boat....or buying a new pair of shoes every couple of weeks so you have shoes that match every outfit or whatever..... If you enjoy gardening, then throw yourself into it wholeheartedly and love every minute of it. For me (and y'all probably can tell this already), gardening is not my hobby--it is my lifestyle. It is great exercise, it beautifies your property, it gives you FRESH garden produce, fruit, herbs and cut flowers and it feeds your soul. I can't see a downside to gardening. I find that I hit the 'burn out' stage several times during the gardening year and when that happens, I force myself to 'take a day off' and not step foot in the garden for a day or two. It is surprising how quickly I miss playing in the dirt when I take that day off. Dawn