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.

Comment from a previous post... * Posted by maree12352 on Tue, Jul 31, 07 at 18:00 Dave I would like to make a small correction on the naming of the conifer. Iseli Fastigiate and Wells "Blue Totem" are not the same tree. The Blue Totem remains more upright growing while the Iseli Fastigiate will tend to have its branches lay a bit more open. Other than that change, I do agree with your assesment on the growth habit. It is very columnar, maybe 10' tall and 3' wide. We have several large plants hedged out in our growing area here at Wells Nursery. Ken, I don't know if you purchased this plant with both names listed, if so, the nursery tagged it incorrectly. Thanks! Maree Here is a link that might be useful: The whole link in its entirety

GGG - I think I have mentioned this before, but how about mahonia? It is seriously deadly when it comes to sharp leaf tips. I planted some along a wall so that our kids won't be tempted to use the wall as a jumping off entertainment place. It works! I have been stuck so good that I bled and bled. Hurts! If someone tried to go through a closely planted bunch of mahonia, they would regret it. You could plant them in two rows, alternating placement, so they would form a dense barrier. The flowers smell lovely in late winter, and the berries are - I think - edible! Many species of birds love the berries too, so that is fun, if you like to watch birds. I got a bunch of mahonia from a friend - dug up some pretty mature ones, and they all survived. I also think they have a very interesting sculptural quality, depending on how you let them grow -- whether you do or don't choose to prune them. From what I can tell, they grow very well down here -- so that might be a good choice. Good luck!

My suggestions are perhaps a combo including low growing junipers and cotoneaster (nice glossy deep green hearty foliage , w/ red berries.) I actually have 2 or 3 mature junipers that i am considering replacing (though i do love them, it's because of space constraints). They are blue star and a variegated gold and blue one. Each one is about 40" W x 30" D. (contact me via my member profile if you're interested) Cotoneaster is very attractively used all over the Mt Auburn cemetery. http://www.finegardening.com/rockspray-cotoneaster-horizontalis http://www.finegardening.com/evergreen-hollies http://www.finegardening.com/fragrant-sumac-rhus-aromatica-%E2%80%98gro-low%E2%80%99 One thing to consider: you might enjoy planting some bulbs that will come up through the branches of your groundcover. I was thinking of the alliums that, once bloomed, can still look cool when their heads are left on, like christophii and schubertii and other globe-headed ones...