Christine, I grew up in a fig haven in the mediteranean. I remember my grandfather waking up at sunrise and going to the fields picking grapes and figs daily for breakfast. One of the figs is very similiar to what you're discribing. I'm still haven't found it, and I probably have over 50 varieties, and still looking for my childhood fig. I have many figs that have green skin with amber pulp, but what I really want is the one the has very dark red, with the sweet sharp flavor. I have a fig that I got from Brooklyn that is large light green with amber pulp. It was most likely brought from Italy. I named it "Brooklyn White". What part of Brooklyn did you live? Bass

contact your extension or soil conservation district COUNTY office ... and ask if they sell small cheap stock for such a project.. i am presuming you are not looking for named cultivars ... also .... most conifers prefer full sun ... for most vigor ... best growth ... its hard to tell by your words alone.. but that might be something you have to plan out.. for understory trees ... ken

The fastest growing big Hosta here is 'Abba Dabba Do', even in heavy shade, not to mention how showy it is.' 'Paradigm', 'Bressingham Blue', and 'Blue Angel' are medium, big, and big, respectively but here they want less than full shade. Given light they're pretty fast, though. The Halcyon family are slow here and don't get all that big, but there are other good reasons a couple of them are HOTYs. 'Regal Splendor' is cheap, sturdy, showy, and a good background to lower clumping ones, and say, isn't it a HOTY as well. 'Gold Standard' is just that . . . 'Spartan Glory' is fast and medium big and easy on the eye. Don't forget some fragrant ones . . . a drift of plantaginea or . . . 'Katie Q' is fast and medium big. Visitors almost always pick it over 'Earth Angel' that's right next door. 'Carolina Sunshine' is fast and a big clump easy. 'The Razor's Edge' is looking like a quickie as well. Just some fast flashes, off to supper. Happy Trails, hh

I am sensing by your comments, NYC, that you are not quite getting the purpose of the sketch I offered, which is to inspire a direction, not to prescribe a specific, etched-in-stone solution. The concept is: visually obscuring the back door some from a distance, and using minimal signage, combined with a modified walk layout (which you are invited to improve upon,) in order to direct traffic to the front of the house. Once people are on the way, they will continue to the front door. The concept would be refined by working out all of the details of how it is to be done in PLAN VIEW, not in a perspective view picture. The measured plan view lets you know exactly how much distance you have from one object to the next, in order that you can place things properly. Regarding proximity of arbor to back door and the issue of impeding light entering the house, it looks to me that you have roughly 40 or so feet of space between the house and the parking area with which to "play." By the look of the sketch, I think I've plopped the arbor somewhere between 12' and 16' clearance from the house. In the plan view that you create in order to organize future work, you could place the arbor 20' from the house, if you thought that improved upon its placement. So I can't really grasp why you'd use light entering the house as an obstacle. The arbor goes where you put it. Where I put it, it doesn't even look like an impediment to light to me. Any nearby trees have a much greater chance of affecting light entering the house. In another, separate, picture, it looks like you have much less distance between the parking and house. One, or possibly both picture views, may be misleading as to what the real truth is. That's, again, why the actual landscape-work-to-done must be laid out in a measured-to-scale, PLAN VIEW. Regarding "framing" -- edging -- the drive or walk with shrubs and/or groundcover, I do not see why you think this is necessary or desirable. Well grown and tended grass, in the places where there is sufficient light, seems preferable. In the areas where there is not sufficient light, a low groundcover would be best ... not as an "edging" per se to the paved areas, but as a bed of groundcover that works on its own accord. If it happens to abut the pavement, that is not a problem.