Hi All- My name is Jodi Larison and my husband and I- and our Mammoth Bulldogge- split our time between our home in the Catskills and condo in Southern Vermont in the Mount Snow region.  After quarantining, in January 2021, we have 'moved' to Vermont for the rest of the Winter.  My interest in gardening started when we purchased a home in 2002 in Nyack, NY- the Hudson Valley- which had lovely perennial gardens as one of the prior owners was studying to be a landscape architect.  One of my favorite areas of the gardens was the shade garden.  After moving full time to the Catskills in 2012, we developed a garden that includes a shade garden and in the past year, we greatly expanded the number of vegetables we were growing and added another fruit tree, as I am trying to create a small orchard in one of our side yards.  We currently have a pair of pear trees- interestingly- pear trees need to be grow in pairs and this summer we added an edible cherry tree- last year we added a cherry tree & then I learned that not all cherry trees produce edible fruit. Part of my small orchard includes a meyer lemon tree and a key lime tree- which given the climate where we live are both potted and spend most of the time indoors. We definitely have success with some of our food plants but not so much with others so one of the things I am hoping to learn through the Master Gardener course is more about the best care and practices related to food plants.