Doesn't sound like you are having too much time to sit back :) I've tried poppies, love them. Used to have a deep purple annual poppy that came back every year, Patty's Plum maybe was the name? Anyway, it finally stopped coming back. I've tried planting others, but only an occasional one will grow & they don't reseed. The perennial ones don't seem to make it, maybe they don't like the humidity. I noticed some blooms on my Black & Blue salvia today, the annual red salvia bloomed earlier. I have Blue Hills, Blue Queen, transylvanica, & another perennial purple one are all blooming right now too. I love the early spring blooms of these, the fullest & prettiest they tend to look all year. I do cut them back & they rebloom, but not like right now. I picked up some phlox David & Laura, should have planted them today, but was lazy. I've been wanting some David phlox ever since I sprayed my last one accidentally with weed killer. I promise I will be much more careful this time. I have my tomatoes & peppers planted. Bought one of the reblooming azaleas & got that planted yesterday. I'm seeing lots of daylilies that are going to have to be divided this year. I divided all I thought really needed it last fall, didn't expect to have to do it this year. Ah well, it's always something in the garden. I've heard of mountain ash trees, but didn't realize they were fruit trees. I had to look them up. I've never seen any around here. They look pretty, wonder if they would grow here. I did buy a new cherry tree (fruit). The neighbors spruce trees grew so big they have put my tree into shade & it doesn't produce much fruit any more. Mulching has really helped so much with weeds this year! I just need to get enough mulch to finish 2 other beds. I don't feel like weeding is a never ending chore. The mulch I collected from all those spruce trees is doing so much better than the bark mulch I've tried in the past.

I think the two houses should be closer together to have TRES pair with BB's. I think they like it 15-20 feet apart, but you can check www.sialis.org for the exact distance. I have two about 30 feet apart and we always get a pair of each (TRES and BB) every summer. I will say the TRES are pretty ferocious about protecting both boxes for a while though. I don't know anything you can do to encourage a female BB to stay. A pair won't nest this year, but perhaps they will roost in the box over the winter. If so, they seem to bring the whole family. I had a dozen here the other day going in and out of both boxes. I see them in the winter head into them just around dusk. The first winter before I had a pair nest in my yard, I had a pair checking out the boxes in the winter. So, maybe the fact that she is checking it out is a good sign. If anything you could try putting some mealworms out in a dish near the box just to convince her that there is a ready source of food nearby. This time of year a source of water is always helpful as well. I have a heated bird bath, but you may not need that where you are. My blues do not eat mealworms this time of year though. They love things like cedar berries, so I have cut branches and stuffed them through the BB feeder and that has attracted them in the winter. Now mine eat crumbed suet cakes, but that took some convincing.

Update: Holes in the spa are looking much better. Service guy came out today and worked on them again. I think the end result when finished will be great. My concern would be will the fix chip off later since it is not the original finish. Steps are so much better. First, because I started buffing them MYSELF today with the buffing pad they left my husband the first day my pool was supposed to be "buffed" as advertised. Anyway, the installer came out today and started "buffing" them more...they needed it. There is a huge difference between a buffed area and a non-buffed area in your pool even if the installer of PT tries to tell you it is smooth enough. The steps are a slightly different color because they were redone. The only thing that I am not sure how to fix is the deep end....the finish there looked amazing the first time. After they drained the pool to redo the steps, and the pool is now filled up and balanced, the deep end looks splotchy. I repeatedly raised concerns about them leaving crappy, non-chemically balanced, stagnant water sitting in the deep end and in the spa in the hot sun for 2 days while they worked to correct the steps. I was told not to worry...well now I am very worried. We were told today to let the pool cure....I don't buy that BS....the deep end looked perfect after the initial fill and through 3 days of meticulously brushing and keeping the chems balanced. They let the spa sit stagnant and partially drained my pool. All kinds of crap was sitting in that nasty water.

Thank you for the advice. 'Jantar' is not locally available here. A similar alternative is Thuja occidentalis 'Yellow Ribbon'. which is available. Any experience with it? Right now it seems I'll go with staggered/random groupings of Thuja occidentalis 'Skybound' with a token Thuja occidentalis 'Yellow Ribbon' thrown in, planted in the spots I don't have trees. If the maple does not make it through, replace with an iseli fastigate. Anything else will eat too much space.