One thing that would help with giving things a cleaner, sharper more "cared about" look is if you would make a distinct division between where the woods (aka "the bed") ends and the grass begins. Trees smack on the edge of a bed look awkward. Instead, they should be clearly IN the bed (by at least 3', or more if possible.) Putting some separation between the tree trunks and the lawn helps by keeping the grass away from where the light is too low to grow it well. Another thing that helps a lot is to limb up trees that are near the lawn so that light reaches below the tree canopy. Personally, I can see no reason to have a tree in a yard whose limbs are so low that they smack one in the face... or actually, as low, or lower, than the ceiling in a house. (Others might claim that such a reason(s) exists, but they never offer up that phantom reason for vetting here!) But creating a way for more light to reach the grass will help it grow better. You might consider limbing up the tree in the picture to either of the red lines I've shown in the illustration. To look the best, the bed line that divides the two areas should be a smoothly curving line that fits the site ... not cute loops and curls. The illustration gives examples of what you might do, but you could easily alter the line to suit the needs of the site. If you merely placed a uniform mulch in the wooded area and improved the grass that has hope of being improved, the whole picture would look immensely better. (You would not need to mulch the entire woods, but just its visible edge. And even free -- "tree trimming" -- mulch would be okay.) My experience with groundcover is not so much that it attracts weeds, but that if there are weeds present, groundcover will not cure them and the combination will truly be an intractable mess to behold. It's better to deal with weeds first. The one could mulch a place for a couple of years while making sure the weeds were dispensed with, and add (tried and true) groundcover later. Also, pulling weeds is not an effective way to get rid of them. Smother with card board with mulch on top, or use herbicides, or some combination of the two.

I think it may be more water that's needed if you have added compost and some lime... I have my huge pine limbed up a ways to let in more light and lots of things are doing well there with drip irrigation hoses. Sedum, both tall and groundcovering varieties, campanulas, obedient plant, epimedium, euphorbia, japanese anemone, monkshood, achillea 'the pearl', foxglove, evening primrose, ferns, gallium - Try the things that may be too agressive in other areas of your garden. On the shadier side of my pine, hardy geranium nodosum Svelte Lilac looks great Spring through Fall...thrives in dry shade, stays fresh and bright...those flowers just make you smile time after time. Clematis montana Marjorie is making a beautiful showing after several years; it's a good 20' + up into the tree, covered in blooms the entire month of May.

I live a block and a half in from the lake, but basically have the same conditions as you. Are you dealing with sun? Shade? Are you in nearly pure sand, or do you have a few inches of lovely old lowland silt on top? I can't offer any planting suggestions without knowing more about what you like and what you want to achieve, but basically, avoiding plants that prefer moist conditions and favoring those that like it dry and well-drained is a good idea. If you're in the sun, you can have a knock-out silver garden of stachys, rose campion, some of the tamer artemesia, salvia argentea, lavender et al. And between the lake and the sand, you can push your hardiness zones a bit too. Knowing you have sandy soil is half the battle. Most gardening advice for the Midwest assumes you have clay and need to improve your drainage. If you want to make your soil more moisture-retentive, I suggest almost anything but peat moss (unless you're trying to accommodate azaleas and other acid-loving plants), which doesn't add nutrients to our very lean soil. I prefer compost and composted manure. Unless you're trying to grow alpines, mulch is helpful to retain moisture (and even for alpines, you'd probably want a gravel mulch). And be prepared to water more often, especially as you're establishing your plants. Experiment, have fun.

Well, I can help you with a couple of sources of relatively inexpensive plants in quantity. Personally, I'd leave at least some of the swamp azaleas, since I love the flowers (especially the scent) and they've got decent fall color. You could try growing some of the more shade-tolerant clematis over them to add longer season interest. Turning in some good compost for the whole best before you plant and then mulching with an organic mulch like compost or shredded bark mulch will help preserve moisture and over time improve the sandy soil. You will still need to water to get your plants through the first year in your sandy soil. I'd probably put in a mix of shrubs, with some evergreens and some deciduous so that I'd have a variety of textures, colors, flowers and fruit. You could also add some long-season perennials and grasses if you like. I don't know if any of these are deer resistant, but there are websites that list deer resistant plants, as well as sprays you can use. From what I've read, how bad your deer browsing is depends on what other food sources are available and training the deer through aversion to stay away. Most plants will be browsed by deer at some point if they are hungry enough. (We have lots of deer, but also lots of undeveloped wooded land for food sources so the deer pretty much stay away from our cultivated plants.) Some general ideas to check out include shrub dogwoods with red or yellow twigs, white flowers and berries, some with variegated leaves. Some are small enough for your requirements and all can be trimmed yearly for best color and to keep smaller. (Cornus alba, C. sericea, and C. sanguinea) Fothergilla has a couple of cultivars that are close to your size requirements, and they have spring flowers, nice slightly blue-green foliage, and pretty fall colors. Some of the clethras are small and they like shade. If any of your areas are damp, they like damp to ordinary soil and have nice white summer flowers. Rugosa roses would do OK in the sunnier end of your part shade and have trouble free foliage, lovely scent, colorful hips, and there are several selections with different color for fall foliage and flowers. They thrive in sand. There's a PJM type of rhododendron called 'Checkmate' that stays small, has magenta spring flowers, nice small evergreen leaves that turn maroon in winter and is pretty trouble-free. There may also be some other rhodies that are hardy for you as many of them like shade. You could ask on the conifer forum for evergreen suggestions (my memory is that a few of the cdwarf onifers will tolerate partial shade), on the shrub forum for shrub suggestions and on the perennial forum for perennial suggestions,and put together a mixed border. My two sources for quantity plants in small sizes that are inexpensive are Western Maine Nurseries - I've done business with them and been quite pleased with service, plant quality, and size. The plants are liner size (very small) and come in trays of 32 with a 2 tray minimum order for woody ornamentals. (They are basically a wholesaler for nursery stock, but will sell to the general public if we want to buy in sufficient quantity.) My plants survived well and in three years have grown into well-branched small to medium shrubs where they were planted in decent soil. I think I bought 5 different varieties. www.wmnurseries.com The NH State Nursery sells more wild-type plants than garden type. Here is a link that might be useful: NH State Nursery