I've just been lurking and learning, so, here's my 2 cents for the day in the form of a situational question: If you bought an old house that had 4 apricot trees in fair condition, too high with crossed limbs from not enough pruning and no shaping, and bad stubs left all over, etc., and those trees produced a lovely small fruit with a great flavor, but the squirrels got there first more than half the time, leaving an awful mess on the ground of fruit with one bite out of it, what would you do? The two largest are in the front and get good sun, the other two have a north exposure, between a 6 ft wood fence and the house (about 8 ft wide), so most of the fruit is above 8 ft up. The front trees fruit is larger than the side trees, but tastes the same. Is it better to take out the trees and start over with semi-dwarfs in the same or a different location, cut them back drastically to stay within the yard borders, or give up on apricots altogether? Appreciate your thoughts! Carol Carol J. Bova, bova@bovagems.com Sunland, CA Sunset Zone 19 USDA Zone 10 At 10:53 PM 6/24/2001 -0500, you wrote: >There has been no gardeners mail for at least a week now. If volume >doesn't pick >up soon we will disband the list for lack of interest. Come on folks we know >you're lurking out there. Is everyone busy gardening? > >George