Hi AR - thanks for your great post. I'm the furthest thing from a horticulturist so I'm not able to understand all the latin in your post above. It sounds like you have a done great job so far and congratulations on you and your bride seeing your long term dreams come to pass!! I do not know the best trees/shrubs along side a trout stream

Your post prompted me to try to see what hybrid of mulberry might be able to live where we are in Michigan and then if they even sell them around here. I've never seen a mulberry tree much less tasted their fruit but it sounds wonderful! The online info I found about mulberry says they produce enough fruit to nearly feed a pen of pigs just with the droppings of the tree over the pen, WOW!!

I'm very very interested in your note that SCUDS love the mulberry leaves. What other species of invertebrates do you keep as pets? I know fellow member Azteca would love to hear about your tiny pets too. I'd like to try to grow a mulberry just to feed scuds in my pond, or in a test cage within my pond. I would need a dwarf variety as I can't handle a 50-70 foot tree and certainly would have a hard time reaching the leaves to harvest them at that height. Is the Illinois everbearing a dwarf variety?

Also, as an aside we drove through W Virginia for the first time as a family this spring and we were so impressed with the rugged beauty. Driving through the mountain passes was stressful, especially when temps were approaching freezing at night and we were driving in the dark in rain that threatening to freeze with tires that we knew we should have changed before the trip but was hoping the weather would be 'warmer in the south'. Apparently the semi drivers felt very comfortable as they did not mind passing by at ruthless speed despite dark and rain.

We saw many beautiful sites but my hat is off to all the emergency first responders who find their ways on roads that are rarely straight for more than 100 feet and where there are endless alleys and driveways that wind into the hills and more variations of campers, converted tin sheds, mobile homes, and other improvised housing then I have ever seen in my life. To think they can find all those folks having chest pain and safely haul them miles away to the nearest hospital really impressed me!

Please post pictures if you can figure out the clunky interface for hosting them or upload them using the attachment manager. We would all love to see your trout streams, orchards and pond(s)