I can't figure out what your goals are for this area. Do you want to screen the chairs from view? Curb appeal and interest from inside. I do not care about screening chairs from view. In fact, I do not want anything so tall and wide that we wouldn't be able to look out when sitting on our porch. You said you replanted, what is there now? You will be surprised how tall Joe-Pye weed gets. It looks great with feather reed grass, coneflower and sedum. All of these perennials have good winter interest, and can take snow load. But unless you add some shrubs for structure, these may not be the best choices. I'm not sure how the maple relates to this planting area. I think you might be happier if you widen the bed to include the maple and use groups of three to five shrubs to fill in the space between. That little evergreen could use a couple of buddies, going out towards the spruce. I would love to see more repetition (small plants repeated in groups)and structure from the shrubs, instead of one of this and one of that. "That little evergreen" will eventually meet her demise too. It's a dwarf Alberta Spruce and it gets terrible tip burn. I'll be replacing her within a few seasons I'm sure. Most of my neighbors have already taken theirs out. The raised bed has a mixed bag of tricks.... Iris, Turtlehead, 2 sedum, a pinks, japanese hakone grass, joe pye weed, Tiger Eye Sumac and a couple other perennials. I knew they'd get crowded last year so I planned to thin them out this year. I am considering widening the bed to include the maple too. Maybe in 2011. I don't want to set myself up to only half-ass these projects. And hubby hates it when I start killing grass for planting beds.... I have to choose my battle there!... that battle is probably better fought next year! As of today, if I HAD to choose what to put in that spot, I would probably choose Silver Feather Maiden Grass. I have a 3-year old clump in my back garden that I was thinking of moving anyway, so I'm giving some very serious thought to that proposition. And then there is still the option of a structure of some sort. I'm going to shop around a bit to see what there might be. I love Ken's idea of an armillary sphere. We have a few of them in the house as bookshelf art. And we have an armillary style sundial in our back garden. I bought it for him on our honeymoon! I've been giving a lot of thought to paying for a designer to draw up a plan for our front yard. I know I need to remove the rock... I can't imagine how many tons of rock the previous owners had delivered to this house.... too bad it's rock mulch and not boulders. In some places, it's 8" or more thick. But, the good news is that with the heavy duty landscape plastic that was used, we RARELY have weeds. The bad news is that once I take all that up, the soil is going to not have touched oxygen for 8-9 years. Ugh.

Bend is pretty arid/dry I believe. Broadleaf evergreens shouldn't perform very well at all in these conditons and require a lot of water to be at their best. I'm really not the person to comment though. I had lived in Portland, OR at one time which is very different, and that would be my basis. You might very well like a Tsuga canadensis 'Gentsch White' (I'd stick with conifers over the broadleaf evergreens). I see you have already a Picea glauca 'Conica'. All Tsuga do well in shade. You might for vertical accent in-between the two large rocks, try Fagus sylvatica 'Purple Fountain' which is a very narrow and cool weeping-selection. That will give some height to the garden as well as complimentary color. Rose of Sharon also would do extremely well where you live providing non-stop summer blooms. (Hibiscus syriacus)- For a sun/partial shade location. Dax

Hey Ken, I was just near Adrian today - drove past Irish Hills - thats a pretty area. As far as taking out the fabric and rock I don't think it will be that bad. Its the rest of it that sounds like a lot of work. I will try digging in there and see how it goes before the round up but you are probably right about it being difficult. I will try to post a pic soon - its a small lot so I don't know about increasing the bed. I am trying to simplify and have less maintenance. There are a couple of large yew bushes as well in the front of the house so just taking out the fabric and rock and putting in a mulch will help. I think I will just keep the size of the bed as is and go with something simple. My house is tiny and I don't think I want to go all out with landscaping - I don't think its worth it. Thanks for the suggestions, now I know how to get the spirea out. I wish these people would have thought about what they were planting together - they had a perrenial planted all along one side of the house I had to rip out right when I moved in because it was climbing into the siding and ripping it off. I guess they never noticed. Thanks again!

What do you mean with "small" ? Dwarf rugosas grow about 4 feet here, but I have learned from this forum that they become larger in colder climates. They like shadow and dislike hot sun. I use them for northern exposure, with few hours of morning sun. Some china roses: minima (the name is well chosen!) but also hermosa (a recent addition to my collection thanks to this forum). Also, you could consider many creeping roses, which usually stay under 3 feet, some even under 2 feet. The Fairy, Knirps, Gartnerfreude etc And also the "compact" collection of carefree roses by Meilland (peach compact, white compact , etc). Other snall and easy roses by meilland are Anadia, Cumbaya, Sangria All these are usually sold as very resistant roses for an easy garden. I own only some of them (dwarf rugosas, ch. hermosa, knirps, the fairy, gartnerfreude, sangria) and they did not disappoint me. I am going to buy Chinensis Minima, sometimes called 'angel wings'. Looks very nice among rocks.