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.

i would suggest.. if i understand your muddled facts ... that you completely skip the pots ... give us some facts.. you want to take them out now.. and not replant until next spring???? how big are we talking.. what kind of tress ... do you know how to ball and burlap .... and finally ... do you have an area where you can put a temporary nursery .... i might suggest potting.. and sinking the pots in mother earth ... so she can temper them during winter .... if you have clay soil ... i would group all the pots.. and bury the pots entirely in mulch ... like i see at nurseries all summer ... if you insist on pots.. in our zone ... in late november.. move to full shade .... tip them on their sides ... so water wont accumulate over winter.. plus PROPER media ... and no fert ... and you should be all set ... the key is not to create an ice cube in the pot ... and to not allow the pot to thaw at anytime during winter ... especially due to sunshine on a black pot ... so what do you have going.. and how can we be more specific ... ken

Dwarf conifers are a possibility - there are scads of varieties and many will never exceed 15' in a lifetime. Since they are evergreen, they look as good in winter as in summer, but they don't flower and they don't grow fast. Evergreen flowering shrubs are limited for your hardiness zone but you could look at rhododendrons or pieris. Some varieties are more sun tolerant than others but again, none growth particularly fast. There are any number of deciduous flowering shrubs that could work for you - lilac, forsythia, smokebush, rose of Sharon, chionanthus. These tend to grow more rapidly than either conifers or broadleaved evergreen shrubs but they are pretty much uniformly naked in winter :-) It is hard to find any flowering trees that wil remain below 15'....and even these generally tend to have naked trunks or seldom branch to the ground. Personally, I would opt to create a larger planting bed somewhere along the street side that is appropriate to your screening requirements. And I'd use a mix of plants - something tall and full to provide screening, something that provides seasonal bloom color and something to give evergreen/winter attraction. I know not everyone thinks this way but a tree (or two) or even a large shrub plunked down in the middle of the lawn looks to me extremely awkward and disconnected. Even less appropriate with a small garden such as yours - it comes across as a bit of an after thought instead of a planned landscape. I would much prefer to see a well thought out planting bed with maybe a larger tree to anchor it and smaller shrubs as an accompaniment.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with covering the area with a thick mulch (for weed prevention) and waiting a while before you plant anything. No need to be in a hurry--you might find a particular tree or shrub that you really love if you take your time and think about it for a while. Whatever tree or trees you might choose, be careful that they have non-damaging root systems so that they do not eventually crack or buckle your driveway, which looks fairly new and in excellent condition. You might check with someone who has lived in the neighborhood a long time--was there a tree there before you moved in that caused problems? (Why not learn from other's mistakes?) Think about the amount of litter any particular tree might generate, the mature size of the tree, and the prevailing winds or breezes. If tree drops a lot of litter, and the winds in your area make that litter all end up right in front of your garage door or on your front door, that can get quite annoying. Will the tree or trees cast shade where you want it to cast shade? Another thing to consider. Are there any sewage or power lines running through that area? Will tree roots affect them? Another thing to consider. If you plan on remaining in your home for a long time, be extra careful in choosing. Having a large tree removed after problems develop can be very expensive.