It shouldn't cost $6000 to create a plan for a 12 x 25 area. I'm thinking more like a few hundred dollars. Make a few more calls, and see if you can find another designer. I'm guessing the person who quoted you that high price didn't really want the job, and that was his way of discouraging you.

If you read a ton of books, at least a half-ton of them should have listed the hardiness zones for the plants they covered, as well as a map that would show you what zone you are in.

Lora,
You may want to take a look at the Far North forum - there are quite a number of folks on there from Winnipeg or other parts of Manitoba. They are very friendly and knowledgeable people & would be able to tell you what plants are suitable for that zone.
HTH
Margaret

Here is a link that might be useful: Far North Forum

Lora, You are likely looking at some sort of conifers against that fence as they will consistently hide the fence and are generally lower maintenance. Do keep in mind, though, that there is no such thing as the perfect world landscape-wise; in other words, low maintenance is generally not very exciting or interesting or charming.

One possibility is to go with some sturdy conifers that do well in your zone and go hog wild one weekend in the late spring every year planting containers full of annuals. All those will require is planting in a nutrient rich potting soil and giving a squirt of water every other day or so. Invest in some good sized and visually interesting containers and have fun.

Patty

You should be able to find a suitable columnar variety of arbor vitae Thuja occidentalis.

Ziggy

Actually saypoint, the $6000 estimate is for my entire yard & includes the required grading for proper water runoff. The 12x25 stretch it just one part of it, and by doing that part ourselves, I was hoping to save some of the cost.

We got 3 quotes from subcontractors that my husband deals with in his commercial construction business and they were all within that range. As for the books I've read, they dealt with issues such as hardscaping & layout - anything on plants was just general in scope.

Thank you serendipity, I will look for that forum!

And thank you too barefoot! I bought a couple of hardscaping books that had absolutely AMAZING yards, with very minimal plants, or I should say, just strategically placed plants. That's the kind of look I'm going for...it's just so hard when it's such a small space.

I would put in a patio (wood or stone). In the planting beds around it, add evergreens and a bark mulch. This is green, and takes almost no work - pull a few weeds until the evergreens get bigger.

Go to a large local nursery, and I am sure they will send someone out for under $100 to size up the space and sell you the evergreens.

If you want some flowers, keep some pace open - only as much as you have time for, and buy some perennials and spring bulbs. Once planted they take almost no work except weeding and watering. If you want hardy perennials, go to a local plant sale - usually put on by horticulture clubs or churchs. These are plants that people have donated - usually divisions of clumps that grow well. Tell them how much sun you have and they will pick some out for you.

I have a narrow shrub border around my patio, it is lovely and very low maintenance with the bark mulch. Some of my favorite plants have been "Robusta" juniper, Spirea, (can't think of the variety offhand, but it has yellow foliage with hot pink flowers and the new growth is red, it is the total show stopper in my yard.) I also planted "Miss Kim" lilac which has kept a nice tidy size, and a small japanese maple called "Fireglow" which I highly recommend. It is more columnar than some of the other japanes maples. There's also coralbark japanese maple which is also somewhat columnar. Mail order the maples if you have to. I did for mine and I was totally skeptical when the pathetic little sapling arrived, but it has thrived and shot up in growth.

I've also planted some dwarf evergreens, which is just my personal passion. Your landscape designer should be able to design a nice mixed shrub border, and if not go to any reputable nursery and they should be able to help. I really love the way flowering shrubs add a punch of color and are super low maintenance compared to perennials. But, I have perennial shasta daisies planted in between the shrubs to give a pretty burst of light in the summer and it is great when I sit out at night on the patio, those flowers show off.

There are also easy care landscape roses which are nice in a shrub border but they don't always sell these varieties in ye olde big box garden center. I've got a native rose, called "Virginia's rose" which I have to beat back with a shovel it is so hardy. It only blooms once a year though, and there are other, more continual bloom varieties that are also hardy. And they've really done a lot with breeding smaller varieties on weigela, which is another hardy flowering shrub. And there are also dogwood shrub varieties with lovely foliage and bark. Redtwig dogwood is one example.

So those are some ideas to get you started.

Goldmound spirea was the name of the show stopping small shrub in my yard, I just remembered it.

If you like hard scaping, there is an amazing yard I've seen where someone replaced the entire front lawn with stones and strategically placed plants. Sure beats mowing twice a week in spring LOL! If you want to do something similar, I'd suggest agressive plants in containers sunk into the ground. A 5 gallon pot of monarda would need occaisional thinning, or division, but it will choke out the weeds and still be trapped in the container for the most part

Ziggy