Don't feel you need to encourage Ideasshare! S/he is a crazy Chinese photoshopper.who unfortunately is often the first to reply to posts. I think you're running into the classic conundrum between gardening and landscaping. In landscaping, the plants fulfill a specific function according to their size, shape, colour, foliage, etc. They are there for some purpose related to how the house looks, where you want privacy, etc. Landscaping is a big picture exercise where plant details don't matter much. Gardening is where ypu nurture and enjoy plants for their own sakes, and for the sake of their details, which may be seasonal or otherwise fleeting - not for the sake of the overall impression that the plant collection will make. So I think you're expressing frustration at having put in a garden but still having no landscaping. Attention to hardscape is often the key to making a garden work as a big picture attribute, and what you've done in that regard is helping a lot here. Your beds are nicely shaped and clearly defined, your paths are wide and have a distinct presence. From there, the decision to add evergreen "bones" should really depend on what is important to you about the space. Most people like an evergreen landscape installation on the public side, and don't mind having bare beds in winter because they enjoy watching their plants emerge and thrive in spring and summer. Certainly if you add evergreens to your beds you should do it with a view to how they will look when everything else has died down... mixing evergreens and perennials is not always an unmitigated success. I mean, think about it, what pleasure do you get out of a juniper in a bed in the back yard all by its lonesome in November? In other words, out there, what's the point? But if that's what you want to do, I would suggest you actually forget about the perennials you have in so far and just do a nice arrangement of evergreens, so that you're happy when the perennials die down and let the evergreens shine. But there is something to be said for having separate landscaping beds where landscaping matters, and garden beds that you know will die down in winter but look great when you spend time outdoors. I mean, again, how exciting is it to sit next to a yew on the patio in summer? You want something that is exciting to look at up close. I hope that will help you figure out what type of plant you might want to put where. KarinL

Beanie, FWIW, here are some comments from an experienced gardener (not a designer) in a much colder zone than you. It's hard for me to be specific about plant types or eventual sizes of your selected plants, but in general, I think you have too many plants planned for inside your walkway. More importantly, you need to think about adding plants to the opposite side of the walkway. I would include the standard Rose of Sharon in the outside bed, removing the sod along the left side of the RofS and any other older shrubs or plants in the area, and wrap/sweep the bed around at least to the other side of the doorway. In the pictures it looks like the area on the other side of the door drops quite away down. I have no idea what you would do with that area, but normally I would suggest moving the bed all the way across the front of the house, maybe sweeping it back out away from the house to include the large holly. Also I am not sure if this bed should be curved, which I usually prefer, or squared off, because of your angular walkway. I suggest spending some time with a hose or rope laying out different possibilities. After you have decided on a layout for the outside walkway bed, then you can think about adding plants to this area, but, in a way that makes it all one cohesive bed (split by your new walkway). Looking at the pictures makes it seems to me that you will need more plants on the outside of the walkway than on the inside of the walkway. You could easily repeat the sedum and the dwarf fountain grass on the outside of the new walkway, perhaps in a cluster of 3 grasses and 5 sedums. Repeating these plants (and your other groundcovers) on both sides of the walkway will help unify the planting. Perhaps the nandina or azaleas would work if there is room, and the right light conditions, etc., and if they do not get too tall and block your view across the yard from inside the house and from outside towards the doorway. Stand in different parts of the yard and inside the house looking out to get an idea of where you want to look, what areas need tall things and what needs short things. As for the Hellebores, here is my experience with them. I currently grow three kinds of hellebore (Lenten, Stinking, & Corsican, only semi-hardy here) as a groundcover in a goodly amount of sun with no problems. However, I would think that full Maryland sun would be too much for them. In addition if your hellebores are happy where they are, which mine are, they seed a lot. That's great in a large woodland area, but not so great in a small front yard garden. So...since I believe that you already have too many plants in your current plan, I third the suggestion that you drop the Hellebore from the plan. IMO, you don't need to replace it with anything. That will leave you more room for your azaleas to grow. You might consider limbing up your large holly to the right (as suggested by someone else) and underplanting it with hellebores. BTW, the trio of hellebores I grow would provide an attractive carefree groundcover, with three distinct leaf shapes and three shades of green. Foetida with its fine leaves of very dark green are my favorite, but might be too dark for underplanting a dark holly (and boy does it seed). As for the dianthus, fescue and liriope, all these make easy care groundcovers, but look better in patches than in rows. I would also consider some sort of small growing thyme or other appropriate plants here and there along the walkway to soften the hard edges. A couple of small empty spots for annuals is nice too, and they can be phased out as other things grow and fill in. Have fun!

Yes, we had a contract. He didn't finish the job although he was paid in full he said he ran out of money and asked for more. Nope. He still owes us a smaller patio and low voltage lighting, but I kissed that goodbye. One of his workers came over twice and asked me to pay him because the contractor hadn't paid him for 4 weeks work. The patio was finished about 3 weeks ago. Cracking already. He laid the stone in wet cement or maybe mortar right on top of dirt and rock. No rebar or form. They mixed the cement in a wheel barrow shoveled it onto the ground and set the stone on it. It took abut 3 weeks to finish in sections, which is probably where it is separating. He told me this was standard practice. The stone looks as if there is a grey film over it and in many places there are patches of mortar or cement adhered to the stone. So, I feel like an idiot and am out of money to repair the job. So any ideas on how to clean the stone up?

Jennifer and Tresw, Thanks a lot for your advice. In fact, we swam today in the pool, yeaaaahhhH! Well, not really swimming, because the water was cold, about 60F and because I let the garden hose running in fresh water for an hour to lift up the level, but as a side effect it got even colder... But the clarity is now great. It is amazing comparing to a week ago, when was a swamp... What a miracle. I got the 4 way test kit, as suggested by TRESW and the readings were not that bad. Chlorine was really really low 0.4-0.6, but Ph was just right 7.6 and TA was 80 ppm (could have been 70 ppm, but with the background coloring I could not really say). The leaks are really big issue though. I broke the cement around the skimmer and now I can see the top plastic of the feeding tunnel (about 3-4 inches deep down), and it has about 0.5 inches water. What is even more worrisome is that the water is about 2" above the pool level, which means that the walls are all filled up with water all the way to the concrete deck and it is overflowing from any crack the water can get through. Also, the lines around the concrete deck are wet, as I dug about an inch deep around and now water started amassing around. And this is on the other side of the pool... I am having a serious leakage, that is for sure. I will rent these days a power hammer from Home depot and I intend to break to pieces the deck. The problem is I have not decided what to do with the debris yet. Any suggestions? As for the dead animal, I am no longer worried. I cleaned, and shocked, and cleaned, and shocked and now I believe there is nothing left from it... I hope. I certainly will avoid any contact of the water with my mouth for the next month or so, but overall I think I am over this now :) Thanks for all support and advice. If something else comes out, please shoot. I am ready to make some pics and post them online for discussion. Best, Lubo