Thanks everyone for all the great ideas. Floral_uk, I would be happy to hear any suggestions you have, fruit bearing or not. And especially for something large sized that won't overhang my neighbor's property and be sheared off by his lawn service. MrsG47 and Steve333, I think I will try to plant some kind of blackcurrant or red currant in the empty spaces and see how that goes. I don't mind feeding the birds. I have thought about elderberries but maybe for my back yard which gets lots of water from the lawn irrigation system. That's also where I thought about planting the serviceberries eventually, I will look up the varieties you have named, milehighgirl and Drew51. And the peach is a good idea, I have also read that apricot has very attractive foliage. I realize that many years there won't be a fruit crop because of frosts during spring (like this year for example). Rhubarb is a good idea too but making pie and jam is bad for my diet :). But to get back to what Floral_uk said--in this spot next to the garage with southern exposure, I think I should plant something that will really take advantage of the sun.

Golden, There are two SACs along this fence. They are planted in the ground in heavy clay soil. The mound in the last picture is created by two hanging baskets on a pole (that have annuals like Portulaca or something like that in them) which gets covered up by the SAC late in the season. I could stop this cover-up, but choose not to. As for SACs living with other plants, the entire fenceline has planting gardens all along them. There is a shade bed under the tree with hostas, heucheras and the like, a large daylily bed with yarrows, catmints, salvias, knautia, and a small annuals bed with Iris being the only long-termer. There are a total of 6 other clematis on this side fence (plus the two inside the arbor that I mentioned before) in addition to the various annual vines. The only work involved in these two SACs is cutting them down in the spring (they make a nice winter block of my neighbors yard all winter) and weaving the very pliant stems (not as brittle as most of my clematis) in and out of the fence. I don't tie it in or do anything at all to make it stay in place. If an occasional stem won't weave, I chop it off. I have never fertilized them at all. Marilou, Yes my SACs are in full sun. They run north to south on the east side fence line, but other than the one tree between them there are no buildings, trees or shrubs to block the sun. My neighbor on this side waited 5 years to plant a couple of small shrubs around his deck and has nothing but grass everywhere else. That's part of the reason that I planted the SACs there on the fence. By the end of May (after cutting back in early April) I have 5-8 foot long length of living green fence right where his patio is, by August I have two 20 ft plus stretches of green, soon to be topped with flowers.

Honestly, a Cornelian cherry pie is the best cherry pie in the world. With vanilla ice cream, it's out of this world. I think of this fruit as the rhubarb of the "cherry" world. The taste is quite distinct and definitely not cranberry. Once you add sugar, the fruit is transformed. To make pie filling, I add sugar, red wine, a bit of lemon juice, touch of salt, ground black pepper, and some ground cloves. I use a bit of flour for thickener. People are skeptical when I extol the virtues of this pie, but once they've tried it, they're believers. Cornus mas is a huge seller in the Caucasus and Turkey, where it's routinely turned into jam (pits left in the fruit) and used to sweeten tea, especially when you have a cold or flu. It's a pain to pit it; a cherry pitter really doesn't do the job. I was in Tbilisi when I discovered the cherries years ago and pitted them while I watched the Clinton impeachment proceedings on television. I used a paperclip (and still do) to preserve as much of the whole, soft, very ripe fruit as I could. A friend in the Caucasus gently rolls the cherries over a grater to get the fruit off (she don't make pies with it; mine was the first she tried). Occasionally, for pie, I have a "pitting party": invite seven friends over, and in one hour, you will have the amount of pitted cherries it would have taken you eight hours to pit by yourself. As a reward, all pitters get a piece of pie. I boil the leftover pits to remove the clinging bits of fruit, which results in a strong Cornelian cherry juice that I turn into sorbet, using the same ingredients (sans flour) I use for the pie filling. A friend from New York told me I could make a fortune selling the sorbet there. (Sure, if someone invents a pitter.) The fruit also makes a wonderful sauce--delicious on chicken or ice cream or on anything else you would flavor with cherry. This cherry would make an excellent liqueur, I think.

There are a number of rose shrubs that take a couple years to really settle in and start "normal" blooming cycles. It would probably help to get it planted in the ground, however. This time next year, I bed they will all be blooming with abandon. Kate