You are asking about "what to plant" but have you figured out where you should be planting? Looking at your picture I am curious about that gate and how it fits in with your house. Do many people use that gate? Is there a path to your front door? I am also wondering how your lawn looks during the summer. Are you struggling to grow grass in this area or it that just the time of year that the picture was taken? You have what looks like a cozy enclosed space. How do you like to use this area? In a lot of ways the question "what should I plant?" is about the same as "what should I where?" Are you going to the beach, a night club or to the office? When you go out do you like to wear jeans or a formal outfit? Without knowing you, your style or what you want your front yard to become it is hard to come up with recommendation on what you should plant. I would suggest hitting the library looking for books on shade gardening and borders. You could also jump over to Google and do an image search on phrases like "shade garden" and see if something jumps out at you. - Brent

awww, thanks so much everyone! My little E is actually very gentle with her toys and small animals, never bites ever! but she tries to herd the rabbits in my Dad's fenced backyard LOL and makes a funny owr-rowrrr complaint (not really a bark or howl but some unique puppyish wail of bewilderment) because the rabbits refuse to cooperate like sheep. I don't have any fence in my own backyard so thankfully she is a good girlie and will stop herding the rabbits when she has reached the edges of my yard. Carol the tree rose is Gemini. It is supposed to be an ARS award-winner in terms of the beauty of its petals, its shape and color, abundance of blooms and disease resistance? but again, the sudden ice storm winter damage we had did cause it to develop canker. On hindsight, I love beautiful hybrid teas but to me, fragrance is very important, I now know that Gemini only has very light fragrance. But yes, it is very, very strong and it has even 10 more new stems this morning on its basals, not to mention multiple babies on other stems! I am thinking, will it soon overtake my Lincolns? Even my potted/transplanted Lincolns have only a fraction of the number of stems of my Gemini. Rebecca, happily the thick cluster of stems right below the black canker have all sprouted and leafed out already. None have developed the black rotting that my other sick ailing tree rose developed.... The sick tree too had a bud right below the canker that overcame the bud and got into the bud union within a single day. There is actually a very sad story about my other tree rose. I am working on another post for next week about the special roses that have passed on that have taught us so much... It deserves its own place in my heart and its own separate post...

Thank you, thank you -- I appreciate your kind words. I so enjoy following the progress of everyone else's gardens, it's nice to have the beginnings of mine to share. Not to worry. There's no way I could take the patina off 50 year old concrete. I have to do some stabilization on the cracked ones to keep them from deteriorating any further. (concrete adhesive and metal bands should do quite nicely). Three of the worst ones, that you can't see in the photo, completely fell apart while the forsythia was being taken down. Water infiltration rusted the center iron support completely away in spots. I plan to use their cannonball tops in the garden in some way. (gosh, they're heavy) Everyone will definitely get to follow my progress with this part of the garden and others. We all love photos, don't we? If you're convenient to the area, I enjoy having visitors and meeting new people -- I call my GW friends my 'Internet dates'. Things in the garden should be cooking along really well by the time we have the 2nd annual plant swap gathering at my house next fall. I have plans spinning around in my head for a series of arches by the detached garage covered with my new climbers . . . and the Van Fleet roses on the other front fence . . . and the modern cutting-style garden . . . and a cottage style garden by the workshop building . . . and what to do with all these Austins? Lots of planning to do over the winter. Goodie, goodie. Connie

That is beautiful Cameron!!! I'm going to try this here with my beds!! I'm not looking for a perfect edge either, I'm rural as well on 15 acres and taking in land as I put in landscaping. The actual "lawn" area is small (I only had about 50 to 75 feet from the house cleared), I prefer plants and trees to grass to mow. Not to mention all the money I will save and can spend on plants by not buying a bunch of stone or brick to put in for borders!! :-) Hubby LOVES the idea of being able to run the mower right up to the edge of the bed for help with the maintenance. John, how well I know what a pain the weeding is around borders. On my last house (subdivision) I found some absolutely beautiful terra cotta border. I've never found it again, but my fescue crept right into the beds. And I made a beginners mistake of putting in Mint in my herb area. Controlling that was a constant battle!! Where I have the brick now is exactly where I wanted it. I didn't have any sidewalks put in either, I hate concrete poured sidewalks. So I'm putting in one very functional red brick sidewalk to the door we use the most. These beds with the brick border line that sidewalk and give the definition I need to the walk. I want to use stepping stones for the other walkways. Now, what kind of shorter plants would look good at the edge of the beds? That is and do well in full sun? LOL my last house had a lot of shade too, and I'm learning full sun plants now. I'm going to look into some of the mini lillies!