hey liz.. royal oak eh?? [from your members page] .. grew up in livonia... and bought my first house there ... first.. refer to the link .... for a suggestion as how to proceed ... linds ... did it right.. by catching us.. when we were bored out of our minds.. prior to the weather breaking ... note the pix we requested.. as well as having her define what her goals were ... and they did not end up being what she started with ... and its your use of common terms.. that is confusing you .. and us.. as to where to go with this ... e.g... evergreens... well.. that covers a wide range of things ... i THINK you are talking about conifers ... if you are.. that is where linds started .... and that is usually the backbones of the front of ones house ... but there are many other plants that are .. in essence.. evergreen ... so you need to define what you are talking about ... and technically.. conifers are NOT shrubs.. though i also called them such for decades .... but it is not helpful in defining where we want to go .... BTW .. your link doesnt work.. and that pic is not going to be helpful to anyone defining a plan ... and take a walk some evening.. and snap a pic or two.. of what other peeps have done with the front of their houses.. to help you define what you like.. and give us some guidance as to where you want to go ... you are spot on with the foundation ... when i had my first house in livonia.. i learned that 3 feet AT THE FOUNDATION .. should be left blank ... so i could get a ladder in there.. to do gutters.. paint.. xmas lights.. window washing.. etc ... and if you agree with that.. then you should 'see' that your bed is horribly out of configuration .... lol .. i just glanced up.. and i see the neighbor still has the ugly old improperly planted conifer .... and the root of your problem might be this forum.. but you never know ...... the conifer forum is much more active.. than the shrub forum.. and not every one of the peeps there.. come thru here ... so if this post dwindles.. try over there ... my best suggestion ... is to define and build some great beds.. for planting in fall .. the next proper season for planting conifers .. and trees.. as i doubt you can properly build those beds in time ... you simply should not plant such.. in the heat of summer ... but .... once you define the beds.. and add some of your annuals.. and perennials.. then we can get the backbones in place in fall ... of my 600 conifers.. about half came in the mail ... and that is how you get truly unique things.. rather than JUST what the bigboxstore offers ... well.. that and a budget.. lol .. of course .. as compared to me in adrian mi ... you have some great large upscale nurseries in the area including bordines .. english gardens.. etc ... so.. get us some better pix.. that perhaps we can photoshop ... and lets try to find some words that explain where you want to go .. oh.. i would expand that bed to about 10 feet from the house.. which would make it only 7 feet deep to work with .. it would NOT be straight across.. and we would have to figure out how to deal with what i will guess is an arcing walkway .... [any chance you want to replace that with brick as a part of the process] ... and i would insure.. that some part of the plants introduce a vertical element.. as compared to your 1950's metro detroit ranch ... good luck ken Here is a link that might be useful: link

Scotjute: Thanks, we rigged up this styrofoam box and have misters going. The top of box is open, so the tree does get some sun. We couldn't fit the top limbs in the box, and leaves on the top limbs dropped off. Otherwise, the tree is doing OK. I read some article about a 50 foot coastal live oak in Florida that was moved during the middle of the summer. It dropped it's leaves, however, the leaves returned the next season. So, I guess leaf drop might be part of the process.

Mole TX, happy belated bd! (I checked out your page). Where are you in Texas? I don't know what DFW means. And what exactly is Texas sage? I've been thinking about sages, and also germander. My lavender is suddenly looking awful, must be the consistent temps in the 20's every night. Zones don't always serve as the best guide for what works I guess, it depends not on average minimum temperatures, but average consistent temperatures. My brother lives in Galveston (Z 8b or 9?), and he says it rarely gets below 40 degrees F at night, which makes growing certain evergreens a lot easier. Here the average low is supposed to be 0-10, but it rarely gets below 15. Good luck with your candy tuft and eucalyptus. My candytuft is the white kind; found it growing in the shade when I moved here and transplanted it; I've seen the colored kinds but often listed under annuals and am not sure if this is the same thing? I tried a few eucalyptus seeds last year but they damped off--my fault. I got mine as a shrub, kept it in a pot and sheltered for a year, but it is now about 4' x 3', thriving in max. exposure and looks great. I've been digging up unknown evergreens from the woods in the back and potting them up to display in my front sun garden--talk about desparate! Andrea

Believe it or not, I have had luck with growing Rhododendron maximum around here - you do have to amend the soil a little bit, though. It's not technically native to Indiana, but it is native to Kentucky and Ohio - close enough for me! Another native evergreen is Mountain laurel, which actually is native to Indiana. It is slower growing than Rhododendron, but it is more adapted to the crazy temperature swings Indiana is known for.