I received 3 helianthus "lemon queen" for mother's day. Unfortunately 2 of them didn't make it, but the 3rd one did... just barely. Seems, as the plant was just taking off, a ball from over the fence broke most of it off. It has since regrown but hasn't bloomed yet. I also just received 2 replacements from the company my daughter bought the originals from and will plant them as soon as it stops raining. (I may just have to build an ark if it doesn't stop soon!) I've also acquired some Boltonia from a neighbor and bought a black sambucus. Let's see... from seed I started some perennial sunflowers and heliopsis. Most of the new perennials did pretty good this first year but I imagine they'll do even better in the coming years! In the meantime, to fill in the gaps until the perennials fill out I planted tithonia, annual sunflowers, along with scarlet runner beans. Next spring I'm going to transplant a clematis too. All in all it was a successful year keeping the little darlings at bay. They've also made friends in the neighborhood and, now that they're a little older, mom lets them go to the friends' houses so most of the time they're gone. Peace at last. Thanks to everyone for their suggestions!

Marcolo and Blfenton, the box thing in the southeast corner is just that, a box constructed out of drywall to take up the corner. I hate blind corner cabinets, so I would rather "waste" the corner entirely rather than spending money on corner cabinetry I hate, especially since it lets me put more efficient drawer storage on each side of the corner. It also allows me to have tall cabinetry on the east wall and uppers and lowers on the south wall, without having an issue where they meet in the corner. I might put a door in the guest room wall to utilize the 27" x 27" space from the other side to store items we do not need to get to often, like luggage. I agree that having the wall ovens 4' away from the nearest landing spot on the island is not ideal, but it is a big improvement over the 7' walk between wall ovens and counters in our current kitchen. If we move the wall ovens to the east wall, there is still at least a 4' walk to the island. Amanda, the trash pullout and dishwasher are on opposite sides of the sink cabinet. I will also have storage for dishes, Rubbermaid containers, plastic wrap, etc. on the south wall. That way, after meals, the plates and pots all go to the counter next to the sink, leftovers can be packaged, dishes can be scraped into the trash and then go into the dishwasher. When I empty the dishwasher, the dish storage is on uppers on that wall. It sounds like cooktops on islands are not popular. I agree it is not ideal, but it was the only way to get the entire wall of tall cabinets on the east side. My DH loves the look of that wall, and that wall will be highly visible from our kitchen and dining room. I would prefer a real hood to a downdraft vent, but, then again, I have lived without a proper hood for 10 years. Mahlgold, I am having trouble balancing the look we want with function. We plan to do prep on the island and the counter to the left of the sink. Those 2 areas give us more counter space than we have had in any prior kitchen. We do not own a coffee maker or toaster oven. Our only countertop appliances are a KA mixer, small toaster and blender. The mixer and blender will go under the uppers to the left of the sink (mixer in far left corner on an angle). The toaster could also go on that counter, or maybe behind the lift door on the left side of the east wall along with bread storage. We only do breakfast and lunch at home 1 or 2 days per week. I am not sure how many or how deep of drawers to put in the tall cabinets. I drew each side with 5, but it could be 3 or 4. This kitchen has so many more lower cabinets than we have ever had before, that I am not sure what to put in all of them. On the right side tall cabinet, I thought I would want a couple of shallow drawers at the top to store extra trays for the Advantium, pot holders (those will be kept in 3 different locations near all the hot appliances) and wine tools like the opener, Vacu-vin, etc. Maybe a drawer for DH's vast tea bag and leaf collection and related tools. We could put all the empty baby bottles and plastic plates for the kids in a drawer in that tower or on the south wall. On the left side tall cabinet, I could use the drawers to store pyrex, roasting pans, pie tins and other baking dishes that might not fit in the drawers below the wall oven. My stove top pots and pans and utensils will go in drawers below or next to the cooktop on the island, as I have several feet of drawers on the south side of the island. The wall ovens were put on the north wall (where they are in the current kitchen) because they are less attractive to look at. Also, if we get the side opening Gagg ovens, they would be difficult to place in the east wall because they need at least 8" between the hinge side of the oven and an adjacent wall, so we could not put them at the very end of a cabinet run. It is also tricky because we are trying to find space for 3 wall ovens: standard 30" convection oven, speedoven/microwave, and steam oven. They are too tall to stack all together in one column and still have at useful heights. I will use the speedoven/microwave more than once a day, so I would be miserable having that oven below countertop height. I also hope to use the combi-steam oven regularly. I feel like we should have 1 full size oven, but that one will get the least use (I very rarely bake or cook large meals), so I could buy the Thermador wall oven with the standard door and put it under the counter somewhere and stack the other 2 together on a wall. The problem with swapping all the cooling appliances to the north wall and the pantry to the east wall as was suggested is that the pantry is only 16-18" deep and the appliances are 24" deep, which would prevent us from having a 24" deep coat closet on the hall side of that space. (We really need a coat closet because the house does not have one now.) I will think about whether we can steal coat space from another room, like the guest room. I am debating the idea of a prep sink on the island. DH looked at me like I was crazy when I suggested a second sink 5' away from the main sink. We do not use the sink a lot for prep. We rinse the veggies, but then put them on a cutting board and move it to where we want to work. We use a large bowl to collect veggie or meat waste when we peel, chop and trim. Sadly, we do not have any family in this state, so no one brings us food to prepare. It is just DH and I in the kitchen now, although we hope our two daughters will like to cook as they get older.

I'm also in Ontario. I agree with the above posters. You mention " tightly clipped" which sounds like you want it to have a neat and tidy appearance, but you also want flowers and you want 4 or 5 different species so that your hedge has colour most of the time. In terms of flowering shrubs up here, it would be tough to find 4 or 5 different 4 foot high flowering shrubs that would have a small diameter of 12-18 inches - I really can't think of any that I've seen in Ontario off-hand, let along 4 or 5 different types. Further, if you took different shrubs that are naturally larger than the 4 feet high by 12-18 inch diameter, and tried to clip them to keep within the 12-18 inch diameter, you'd most likely lose a lot of the flowering capability as you'd end up cutting off the ends with the flower buds. Lastly, if the shrubs are that close together overlapping each other, often one ends up shading the other and thus reducing the amount of flowers because they each limit sun access to each other. In terms of perennials instead, I think it would look really messy to have 5 different perennials tucked really close together to form a hedge. It certainly would not render a neat and tidy appearance. And it wouldn't really give a hedge appearance, it would look more like a garden that hasn't been maintained well. Each perennial has different characteristics - crowding a daylily beside a delphinium beside a daisy - not exactly neat and tidy. However, this is just my opinion, and you might like the look. More about perennials, it sounds like you really want flowers, but I'm not sure if you get enough sun to produce great flowering perennials. If it is really only 2 hours, not 3 in the morning, and 1, not 2 in the afternoon, you might find a lot of the flowering perennials struggle, especially if the morning sun is very early in the morning. Some like 6 or more hours of full-on sun (ie: 10 am to 4 pm) every day. They'll flower with less sun, but may not flower as much. If it were me, I would chose 4 or 5 of the tall and narrow grasses as the other posters suggested - I see them at the shopping malls or in mass plantings by the city , something like Karl Foerster feather grass, or some of the ones with the large plumes. I think they look gorgeous - neat and tidy for most of the year, elegant and they have a bit of a hedge-like look if grouped together. Thats what I would do - and then add colour to your property using annuals in pots.

My suggestions aren't based on ideals, but on practical attractive suggestions for a new homeowner with a limited budget. I wouldn't choose to barricade the entryway, hiding the walk and much of the door as in the image immediately above, which also uses some plants that aren't shade tolerant and are tightly pruned into unnatural shapes. If you have the time and the inclination, I would move the path out away from the house, take out the worst of the squiggles and make one long sweep of a curve if you don't want it straight as Laceyvail suggested. If not, plant larger plants in the areas of outward squiggles so at least they look like there is a reason for them being there. Certainly remove the ivy from the tree on a regular basis and keep it at ground level. As long as you are willing to manage the edges and keep it from climbing, it is an adequate groundcover as is pachysandra, and either will do better than grass on your shady slope. If there isn't money for a pro to do design, there isn't money for masonry walls which are expensive. For now, I would go to a good garden center with your photo along with some observations of how much sun (if any) the space gets and see what suggestions they have for plants that will stay below the level of your windows and will be narrower than the space between the path and the house by a foot or two so plants are not smooshed against the house. Depending on amount of sun, that might include some smaller azaleas, but I don't really know plants for your area. Then plant a shade tolerant evergreen flowering ground cover beneath it or some evergreen shade tolerant perennials (Veronica Georgia Blue and hellebores are two that come to mind). Hostas in various colors and sizes will provide large leaves for contrast to whatever else you plant as long as deer aren't a problem. If deer are a problem, be sure to tell the nursery where you go for plants. Since you seem to not have a lot of garden experience, spend a bit more to get plants from an independent nursery with qualified staff to help you with design suggestions and appropriate plant choices for your situation. At this time of year, they are more likely to have the time to assist you, and fall planting is often more successful since there is adequate rain and cooling temperatures. You most likely want to get a load of compost and turn it into the bed before planting since the shrubs there previously may have depleted organic matter and nutrients. This is a task you can do now while it is still too hot to plant, working a bit at a time in early morning before it gets hot. Regardless, after planting, mulch the whole bed. Right now, I am not sure you have room for a Japanese maple there unless you place it in the center of the yard away from the house. Perhaps removing the hedge to the left of the house and placing a J maple off that corner would work, but you would need to decide if losing the screening of the hedge would be a good exchange and also would need to choose a small enough cultivar that it wouldn't outgrow the space. Let us know what you end up doing.