What a nice space for a garden. I like the rock wall. What kind of light does this area get? Dappled sun and shade all year like in the photo, or either more sun or more shade during the growing season? What is your soil like? I find it difficult to tell how large the area is, so a ballpark estimate would help to tell what there is space for. I'd start with removing any non-garden plants growing here and then mulch (cardboard with cut-outs for the hosta with an organic mulch like chopped leaves or wood chips on top) and weed a lot the first year so that when you add plants your weeding and maintenance will be minimal. Since this area will be visible as folks go in and out of the door, having plants with year-round interest and/or some ornament such as sculpture or a birdbath will be important in making this area appealing. I think I would try to plant mostly lower growing items in the front part of the garden, or at least airy plants so that the stone wall is a visible feature. If some of these are evergreen/gold/red, they will provide interest in the winter. In the upper part behind the stone wall, if there is room I'd add background plants with year round interest such as a colored foliage evergreen, and /or variegated red-twigged dogwood, ones that would stand out well against the light walls. With any woody plants, check the ultimate size and be sure you have room to paint or do maintenance behind it if it isn't a plant like the dogwoods which don't mind being cut to the ground. If there is enough light, a pretty trellis with a clematis that gets cut back in the winter (type 3 pruning) would feature the clematis in the growing season and the trellis in the winter. I would probably put a row of low-growing or easily pruned evergreens such as one of the smaller boxwood varieties under the window to provide winter interest and then plant the rest of the area with perennials to give you more interest in the growing season. Particularly in a smaller garden such as this that is in such a prominent place, thinking about varying the foliage color and texture (as you are doing in thinking about adding coral bells) will help add interest to the garden when there aren't many blooms. In addition to the library as a resource, Pennsylvania has public gardens that might give you inspiration, both for plants and for design. Here is a link that might be useful: Pennsylvania public gardens

Thanks for the ideas, all! I hadn't thought about inexpensive ways to obtain plants. I do have plenty of seeds for this year, but only for things like strawflower, cosmos, poppies, and other things that I wouldn't put in full shade. I'll have to look into some other options! Very smart of everyone to point out that I will want to get my landlord's permission. My husband and I are lucky to have an extremely easygoing landlord, who has an exceptionally hands-off policy (although it's not that lucky when we're on the hook for various household repairs. I think of it as training wheels for a house). I did ask for permission to garden, back when we were signing the lease, and he was happy that I wanted to do so. We have carte blanche except for doing things like tearing up the big, lovely lilac in the corner of the yard. I do have a bad track record with pots, especially in the summer since I can't seem to water them every day. I have two self-watering windowboxes, and those do well but still need to be watered about every 2 or 3 days. It's true that I can dig up anything I plant, to take with me later, but I'm already planning to do that with six roses, a rosemary, and a couple odds and ends in the back yard--so I don't want to overextend myself. So I guess, to get more specific, what are people's opinions--would you choose to move the daylilies and find something else to put in the bed, or leave the daylilies and try to make the beds look tidier with mulch and possibly companion plants? I know that neither option is "right" or "wrong," but I'd be interested in the opinions of folks that have much more gardening experience than I do. ;) Thanks again for all the thoughts so far!

Well ladies, let me tell you some of my secrets...before my DH and I got married his mother did EVERYTHING for him, made all his meals, snacks, etc...I mean the man couldn't even pour himself a glass of milk...his mom would shoo him away and do it for him. He would take his dirty clothes off to shower and by the time he was done his mom had already picked all of them up and she was waiting to take care of his wet towel. Well, the first time he showered after we were married and left his stuff all over the bed and floor I informed him that I was his wife, not mother, and I would NOT be picking up after him. If he wanted to have someone pick up after him, he could move back home with his mom. It worked, he's never left wet towels or dirty clothes laying around. LOL As far as kids go, it's a lot easier to train them when they are little. Our last house was a ranch and since I would pass by their rooms all the time they had to keep them neat. My DD would complain all the time when she was young that she couldn't wait until she moved out so she could keep her mess out all over the place. She did keep her locker at school messy. When she moved to the dorm and had a messy roommate she discovered that she really did like having things neat and clutter-free! My DS was a little harder to train though...so I allowed him to have a "junk" drawer in his room and maybe 2 or 3 times a year I would make him clean it out. Now we live in a colonial and once I wake up in the morning, shower and dress I don't see their rooms cause I'm on the main floor or in the basement so a mess wouldn't bother me now but I have them trained so well that they still keep things neat and clutter free!!!! Sneaky huh? Sorry, it is harder for you Maria because they are already set in their ways, it will be hard to make them see the light and start keeping things clean! WHAT I CAN DO FOR SOMEONE IS....take pics of your mess and post it to photobucket or something like that, then send an e-mail to me with your link, and I will take a look at them and make some suggestions about how you could organize it. E-mail: OneBigDave@sbcglobal.net Of course, if you live close enough, I could come see you! Barb

I have to disagree with you, Emmarene, that the slope is too large for a single groundcover. A groundcover can be the LAWN where a mowed turf grass lawn is not possible. One must just pick the groundcover that works for such a size. Some "timid" groundcovers work best for tiny places. Some more aggressive groundcovers work well only when the area is large enough, considering that mainly, one is managing EDGES. An aggressive groundcover in a small area would be a constant battle, but in a large area it can be one's best friend ... making ground green when grass can't, or won't, do it. The place to begin is finding out what others in the surrounding area (town/county, etc.) are using to solve the exact problem in their yards. Then one knows it grows in the area and is probably well suited to the size & job. If one groundcover is used predominantly over all others, then it is the groundcover to use. This is not the place to "be different," trying to express one's individuality. This is especially true if there is groundcover in use in a neighbor's yard. It would be an impossible battle trying to keep two different groundcovers from mixing at a property line. If one type of groundcover flows from one yard to the other, then there is no edge to maintain at the property line, making one's list of chores less. As an example, while risking bringing the haters out of the woodwork on account of the mere mention of it, I'll say that if this property was in Atlanta, Ga., the clear cut choice of groundcover would be English ivy, as it is the one in predominant use there for hilly and shady large areas (and some surprisingly small ones, though that is not my taste.) While many froth at the mouth at its mention, it nevertheless proves to be successfully manageable by many. (For me personally when I lived there, I considered it easy to care for, a lifesaver ... more or less worthy of worship on a grand scale, as it was the most versatile, hardest working horse in the barn.) In the typical case, since it commonly flowed from neighbor to neighbor, there was not property line trimming of it. Where it met lawn, many people were happy just to let the lawnmower be the one and only edger. Where ivy grew into the lawn, the regular mowing kept it from being noticeable at any distance. That left the only edging to be done where the ivy met paving. There, it needed to be trimmed a couple times/month during the growing season. One trimming per year kept it from climbing trees if one so chose. At back alleys and buildings, its leading edge could be sprayed with herbicide (such as Round-Up) in order to keep its advance in check. Or it could be manually cut, if one preferred. (Another advantage of it is that it was extraordinarily cheap/free/easy to create massive quantities of it, if one learned some simple propagation techniques.) Insofar as dividing groundcover from lawn, one would mark out all space that is too shady for turf grass to grow, or too hilly for it to be mowed. And then apply some simple art to it in order to come up with a dividing line that looks pleasant. In this case I would leave an "L" shape of grass next to the street and the drive, where it is neither too shady or too sloped. A radius transition between the two legs of the "L" would work well around the tree. The tree would be in the groundcover section, a visually comfortable distance away from its edge. Speaking of the tree, it is well past time to remove the scruffy looking bottom limbs from its trunk. The "shade" should not be hanging down, obscuring any front portion of the house.