Well, I ended up buying another magic carpet spirea. It's nice and moundy shaped like I wanted, but the foliage can't substitute for strawberries, so now the bed is kind of out of whack, all the leaves look the same in that area. On the flip side, having more repetition has tied the two beds on the sides of my patio more together. I think I am almost there though. Just ripping out those strawberries with their copious runners did a world of good, making the whole think look neat, tidy and low maintenance, which I think will be a good selling point. Today back at work I noticed a patch of gorgeous sedums growing with beautiful pink flowers. I'd never seen that variety before. They would have made a good subsitute, with larger leaves. I can never find good sedums at the local nurseries though, and I don't have time or inclination to mail order. Someday if I ever get a house of my own again I definately want a little sedum patch! BTW, I think these "what to plant where" posts are an important part of landscaping, expecially in a small yard like mine. Tiny, micro yard landscaping is a bit like landscaping a japanese garden. Every plant has a specific role and function in the unified whole, and it takes a lot of work to balance color, form, leaf shape, bloom times, etc. to acheive a harmonious whole. I even threw in "something edible" as a function for some of my plants. I can't think it out on paper, I have to experiment. Some areas of my garden look just right, others need some work but sadly I'll never get to them. They look good enough for the average joe. I love these plants like thyme that do double duty, or others that are multiple seasons. You really have to select plants that are versatile in this situation. I took some pics and hopefully will be able to post eventually when I have the time to process them.

I have similar temperatures to you and acid, fine-sandy to loamy soil. I'm not sure if your soils will be similar in pH and texture. Some smaller fruiting & flowering trees that I like and should be fully hardy for you: Cornus alternifolia - Pagoda dogwood - Lovely spring flowers (sort of lacy, not like typical flowering dogwood), summer dark fruit with bright red stems that when ripe attracts the birds; nice, though not spectacular, fall color; beautiful winter silhouette Ilex verticillata - Winterberry holly - a deciduous holly that has bright crimson berries after the leaves fall. 'Winter Red' holds the berries the longest, according to research I've read. Be sure to plant the appropriate male in an unobtrusive place in order to get berries. Some of the smaller crabapples have lovely spring flowers and colorful autumn fruit. Some varieties will hold their fruit until early spring when they will attract many birds to gobble up the fruit: cedar waxwings, robins & grouse all have visited our tree. If disease is a problem in your area, research disease-resisitent varieties. I also love hardy hydrangeas which all have long-lasting flowers. There are H. paniculatas, like 'Pink Diamond', 'Pinky Winky', Limelight, etc. I also have 'Annabelle', an H. arborescens, and there are several other arborescens varieties. Flowers of all these are in the pale green/white/pink range, and most move from pale green through to white &/or pink. The H. macrophyllas that bloom on old and new wood like 'All Summer Beauty', 'Dooley', 'Penny Mac', and 'Endless Summer' continuously throw out new blooms from early summer until frost. Here in central NH they sometimes die back to the ground in years when it gets cold while there isn't snow cover, but they resprout and bloom on the new wood. Well mulched I think they would be fine for you, since we get as low as -22 some years, though not every year. A good resource on Hydrangeas in general is the book by Michael Dirr, though you will have to ignore a lot of plants that won't be hardy for you - maybe you can borrow it from the library. As others mentioned above, the 'Northern Lights' series of azaleas (deciduous) are hardy as well as some of the deciduous azaleas from Weston nurseries in MA. In addition to nice spring flowers some have colorful fall foliage. As noted above they need acid soil. The PJM group of small leafed evergreen rhododendrons may be hardy enough for you as well. Below I've given you a link to a discussion of clematis in the shrub border. They can be grown on obelisks or scrambling across the ground or can be guided to grow into shrubs or some combination of these growth styles. I grow type 3 clematis and trim them back in the late fall, so the obelisks provide winter interest, at least until the snow gets so deep they are no longer visible. If deer are an issue in your area, choose your evergreens carefully. Both yew and arborvitae are favorite winter deer forage around here and so are typically misshapen or even eaten down to bare stubs. Some of the smaller selections of spruce are nice and don't seem bothered by deer. There are some small or weeping hemlock selections that might suit you as well. I also have and like a couple kinds of clethra, several native viburnums (dentatum, cassinoides, and acerifolium), some old-fashioned once-blooming roses, including rugosas which have decorative hips and scent that is stunning, elderberry (Sambucus), weigela (nice flowers and some have nice leaf colors), Viburnum plicatum tomentosum (though I'm not sure this will be fully hardy for you), Physocarpus (ninebark) 'Coppertina', Aronia (chokeberry), Amelanchier (serviceberry or shadbush), some of the hardier magnolias, high bush blueberry (flowers, fruit and great fall color), lilacs, and an old-fashioned hardy forsythia. The leaves of my red-twigged variegated dogwood are pretty disease prone, so I'm not sure I'd recommend this. For additional seasonal color, I plant bulbs (especially iris reticulata, daffodils, alliums, and early species crocus) in my shrub borders as well as cranberry as a non-aggressive ground cover and several low-maintenance perennials: Siberian irises, iberis (perennial candytuft), a select few campanulas, heucheras, tiarellas, hostas, variegated solomon's seal (Polygonatum), cimicifuga AKA actea, Baptisia, and lady's mantle (Alchemilla) among others. These are all quite hardy, not fussy in my garden, have foliage that looks nice throughout the growing season, take little or no deadheading or even have decorative seed pods and won't spread viciously, either through seeds or underground. I start my shrub borders by piling several inches of compost or well-composed manure on top of the soil and plant into it and the native soil, however deep the rootballs are. After planting I mulch with several layers of newspaper topped by 3 or 4 inches of wood chip mulch, which gets renewed with lighter layers every few years as needed, keeping the mulch away from shrub trunks. I keep the beds well-edged and only have to weed for a few minutes a couple times of year. I used to dig the compost in, but this works as well or better and is lots less work! Have fun planning and planting the new border! Babs

I suppose you are looking for something that blooms in spring? Phlox subulata has a white version and spreads fairly quickly in one season. I like the Campanula Clips series, but have so far stayed away from Campanulas in general because I read that they are the favorite food of Woodchucks. We have already had a problem with them so I didn't want anything that would attract them. At least in my back yard. I wouldn't care so much in the front. I use Veronicas a lot instead. There are mostly blue/purple creeping veronicas, but they do have a golden leaved with white flowers called 'Sunshine'. I am planning on getting that myself this year. I do enjoy Dianthus and the white versions are very pretty. Also the seed can be collected and winter sown any year they need replacing. They grow pretty quickly too. They bloom a little later in the spring. Another idea for in front of a Knock Out Rose, could be a white lavender for bloom later in the summer. And I am still thinking of placing a chrysanthemum in front of one of mine for the fall. They have some white versions.

I also was going to suggest white alyssum. It's an annual but it re-seeds reliably for me too, and it's easy to pull up where you don't want it. It also flowers constantly once it gets going in early summer and it keeps going past the first frost or two. It tops out at about 10 inches tall. I use it as edging in the front of a bed. My only complaint is that I've never been able to detect much of a scent, but that could just be my nose or environment.