What zone are you in? Some SHB/NHB mixes try to keep their leaves, and may stay everygreen in your location. Southmoon and Legacy are rated to zone 6 and both try to hold leaves. But they usually drop them, they are confused plants, being both SHB and NHB crosses. Sharpblue is rated to zone 7, If you're in that zone, it may work! If you decide to go with NHB, many are pretty good. I like Chandler. It's an aggressive grower, produces very large berries. Most of the NHB I like are for colder zones like mine, 6a/5b. I like Toro, Liberty, Sweetheart, Cara's Choice, Spartan, and Bonus. I have not tried them all, but have been researching for years. I have Chandler, Liberty, Toro, Cara's Choice, Southmoon, and Legacy. I wil add the others once I move.

What a great idea, Jenn! You might want to think about maybe putting in a citrus tree or two, to give parts of this area some shade that might be good for growing lettuce. As long as what you put under the citrus isn't too demanding, the citrus tree wouldn't mind. Things to grow should cycle through with the seasons. You can keep your herbs going all year long, and the great thing about herbs is just by using them, they stay in check from the constant cutting or tip-pinching. Renee's Garden is my "go to" seed company, I love their varieties. And, a great couple of books to recommend for what you want to do: "52 Weeks in the California Garden" by Robert Smaus "Sunset Western Garden Book of Edibles" "Edible Gardening for Southern California", by Alison Beck "Pat Welsh's Southern California Organic Gardening", by Pat Welsch. Those are my books I like to use. I may also pick up "The Edible Garden" by Sunset just because it's like $7.00, and probably geared towards us in California, and has some practical suggestions for incorporating edibles in the landscape. I used to always grow marigolds in my veggie garden, but for here, I might put in Society Garlic, as much as I despise the smell because it does help to repel gophers. Any plants that attract pollinators, but not pests (like for me, snails & slugs) is a plus. I have several different salvia in my garden, as it is a huge pollinator attractor. Also, adding some prostrate rosemary that might creep down over the the border is also great, since for me, it is always covered with bees. Same with my lavendar - love the smell, and it is great for attracting pollinators. Patty S.

I agree with Charlie, adding a few espaliered (pruned into a planar form) fruit trees would be very cool along the wall. For the smaller bed, strawberries would probably work. I'd be concerned about whatever you plant in the smaller bed getting beaten up by the snow getting pushed onto it by the snow plows. Strawberries would probably survive. You could try other edible vines, for instance hardy kiwis would probably work well if you trained them onto the wall. They'd probably do fine in the area with less than full sun, too. Cool project. I hope you don't mind other people helping themselves to your fruit, because I could imagine people walking down your sidewalk and grabbing some of your treats

I would probably take the route of 'implement a florida friendly landscape to eliminate the waste of drinking water and the contamination of our local waterways'. Play up that wetland community you share space with. The HOA can squack as much as they won't but they can't trump FS 720.3075 http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?mode=View%20Statutes&SubMenu=1&App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=720.3075&URL=0700-0799/0720/Sections/0720.3075.html If they want 30% 'lawn' in the front, come up with a plan that leaves all the hell strip and the piece next to your driveway to the west in 'lawn' and then use 'lawn' as wide pathways around your front gardens. Oh, and I am fairly certain that they can not restrict you from implementing a florida friendly 'lawn'. My 'lawn' is green stuff that I mow regularly. From the street it looks pretty much just like all the other resource hogs in my subdivision. Except that mine gets no fertilizer or pesticide and very, very seldom any additional irrigation. The secret to my lawn is multi-part. It is NOT monoculture. It started as St. Augustine, overseeded Bahia, plugged Zoysia. Added Mimosa strigrillosa in stubborn spots. Plugged mondo grass in shady spots. Turned really bad spots into fruit tree beds. Dumped loads of tree trimmed chips onto the really, really bad spots and planted root crops. I don't use any pesticides in my front yard, and very little chemical fertilizer. It has taken several years, but the front 'lawn' is looking really nice. The natural order of things has slowly been restored. Part of the reason it has taken longer is because I'm a poor gimp and am doing all the work myself. Now I am curious about what % lawn I have out front. And what % is planting beds. I do know the planting beds > lawn. And another big section of lawn is coming out this year [grin!]. My front yard planting beds are mixed use beds. Edibles, perennials and ornamentals. I even grew heirloom tomatoes in my front planting beds this past fall - spring. My artfully disguised compost bin is in the front side yard. Speaking of compost, one way to look at your 'lawn' is as green manure for your compost bin! I am also working to capture rain in my yard and I like to think that the grass pathways and grass at the concrete edges helps to keep water in my yard and not running off. I am also working on capturing rain runoff INTO grass zones in the yard. Rain water garden type concepts. My general idea is improving water holding capacity of the yard to help improve the crops from the edible bits and parts of the front. I'm rambling I guess. If you go over to the Tropical Fruit forum and hunt up a post from Sunworshiper aka Angela that shows her gardens; you can see she has fruit tree planting bed islands around her front yard. Big islands. Very nicely executed. Veggies and perennials tucked around the fruit trees. Oh, and she lives in an HOA in Ovieda. I am in Lake Mary, but not in a HOA. Our deed restrictions expired 5 years ago. I got to tour Angela's gardens a couple years ago, her gardens have been my inspiration for keeping my front yard edibles below the radar. St Johns Water Management District might be able to give you some advice. It is not a matter of IF, but rather WHEN Seminole County has to start cracking down on water quality the way that the gulf coast area of Florida is currently. http://floridaswater.com/waterwiselandscapes/ Gabby Milch with the Seminole County Extension Office might have some pointers for you. She does the Florida Yards and Neighbors program for Seminole. Also, you might want to send this document along to your HOA. http://fyn.ifas.ufl.edu/pdf/CCRs_Sept-20-2010_final.pdf Here is another news article about HOA vs Florida Friendly Lawns (this one is part of the St Johns River Water Management District) http://staugustine.com/news/local-news/2011-11-08/homeowners-citing-little-know-law-win-battle-hoa-plant-florida-friendly Angela is a great resource you should consider tracking down. She is an engineer, and has a wealth of detail about fruit growing tucked away in her head. And she frequently has divisions for trade. You are welcome to come over to our place and look around, but I'm still working on growing up to be like Angela. Plus, my neighborhood is not the same scale as yours and Angela's. But I have Beauty Berry bushes you can take! And sweet potato slips. And Okinawa Spinach. And Callaloo. And Florida Cranberry. And Black Jungle Butter Beans. Yardlong beans. Whipporwill Field Peas. Sorry for all the rambling. Hope this helps you some. I've posted below a link to a 'tour' of my gardens this past winter. ~dianne Here is a link that might be useful: Tour