The spireas are all pretty tough,(stay away from the ashleaf varieties - sorbaria sorbifolia - they are tough but sucker a lot), cranberries(for berries, fall colour)dogwoods if you have a moist to wet spot, Morden Golden Glow Elder should do fine for you, ninebarks - summer wine is a good one, Coppertina and Satin Chocolate have been aphid magnets for me for some reason, Russian almond, western sandcherry, purple leaf sandcherry can be nice if it has good snow cover, Mohican wayfaring tree - nice for berries for birds and jam for you, weigela Centennial is a good hardy one, sumac suckers all over the place - not one I would ever plant again and as mentioned roses - I`m really liking Campfire from the Canadian Artists series - planted one last year out at my brother`s ranch - came back strong after a brutal winter here in the chinook zone - has outperformed some other, older established hardy roses. Anyway, this will give you some ideas. The link will help you to see what some of these look like if you are not familiar with them. Scroll down to Find Plants, click on Find Plants at a Local Garden Centre, choose one and click on it and then click on View All Plants then choose Deciduous Shrubs and you can research to your heart`s content! Here is a link that might be useful: Deciduous Shribs

Hi and welcome! First of all, we've *all* had a first garden. Gardening is a labor of love. Like relationships with people, in your garden you'll have good times and tough times. If you watch and learn from your plants, you'll have more good times. :-) One of the beauties of gardening is that you never stop learning. There are lots of gardeners who know far more than I do, and even they are still learning. So never be embarrassed to ask for advice! One thing that most every new gardener has to learn is to plan for the mature size of the plants. It's hard to imagine a tiny seed growing into a plant taller than you or a vine 15' long in one growing season, but it happens! 3. Tangerine Pimiento Sweet Pepper - Yes, you should thin them now to a 12" minimum spacing. They won't be able to produce peppers while they are competing with each other for water, sun, and nutrients. Don't pull since they are so close together - you might damage the roots of the plants you want to keep. Instead, thin by snipping off the stems of unwanted plants just above the ground. Keep the biggest and healthiest-looking plants. 4. Tomatoes - You should thin these, too. Tomatoes need at least 2'-3' between them, because if they are healthy, most types will grow into BIG plants. You also need to figure out what you're going to do about support (stakes, cages, trellis), or if you're going to let them sprawl. If you're going to let them sprawl, they need even more ground space. If you are going to use supports, you should install them as soon as you can after thinning the tomatoes. Pinching early tomato flowers is one of those things gardeners argue about. Most commonly, the advice is that you should pinch flowers off small plants that are still in cell packs or small pots; once the plants are settled in the ground (or a large container) you don't need to pinch any more. Since yours are in the ground and several inches tall, I don't think you need to pinch. 11. - 15. Heirloom tomatoes & peppers: Sounds like a nice selection! See above for spacing. If your heirloom tomatoes are planted too close together, now is the time to move them. Tomatoes tolerate transplanting well, especially if you bury them deeper when you transplant. Earthboxes or other self-watering containers are especially good for peppers. If peppers undergo water stress they make fewer and smaller fruit; self-watering containers keep a constant moisture level. (Large sweet peppers are pickier than small, hot types.) If you use an Earthbox, four to six - no more than six - peppers per Earthbox work beautifully. 4-6 little pepper plants may look lost in an Earthbox now, but they will fill it completely in a couple of months, trust me. If your heirloom peppers are too close, maybe you could get another Earthbox or other SWC for some of them? 19. Weeds: Unfortunately, you will need to keep up with the weeds. They are small now, but they'll overrun your garden later and out-compete your vegetables for sunlight, water, and nutrients. You can pull or hoe the weeds - be careful with the hoe around your veggies, but a hoe is definitely much faster than hand-pulling for clearing paths between rows. I do everything possible to avoid weeding, because it is my least-favorite garden activity (especially in July and August!). A deep mulch around your veggies is the way to go. Many weed seeds need light to sprout, and a thick layer of mulch blocks the light. It also holds in moisture so you don't have to water so much. Even with a thick mulch, you'll need to weed some, but the mulch will make a huge difference. Mulch also helps keep dirt from splashing onto the plants, which is important for tomatoes and melons. The most troublesome weeds are grasses and other weeds that spread underground or resprout from the root, because they will come right up through the mulch. Your best option is pulling them immediately, every time they resprout. If you are diligent, you can eventually exhaust them. (They have to expend energy to resprout; if you pull them before they have time to recover that energy from the sun, eventually they get too weak to sprout again.) For paths/walkways, put down several layers of newspaper or a layer of cardboard (e.g., old shipping boxes) and then mulch on top of that. The paper or cardboard is really hard for weeds to push through, and can block some - not all - of the grasses and root-spreading weeds, too. Don't put it right up to your veggies, though, because sheets of newspaper or cardboard block some of the rainfall. Good luck with your new garden!

Most of the garden centres around here currently have booths set up inside where master gardeners and other green thumbs sit and answer questions. Your space is not that large. I'm sure if you took a couple of photos in and told them what you were after you would get some great advice. The nursery staff can also reccommend appropriate shrubs and trees to help fill your space. You will likely need to widen your beds, but that is something you can do yourself if you're willing and able to do the work of removing the turf and bringing in soil, etc. I'm also planning a new garden and have learned a ton by browsing the forums, checking out books from the library, buying some more second hand, spending way too much money on magazines, etc. :-) Don't be in a rush -- I know it's hard. Take time to think about where your best views are and what most needs to be blocked out. You'll need to either plant quite thickly with larger size plants ($$$) or buy small stuff and be patient. This year, while you take stock, you could gain some fast privacy by using containers to block out the worst offending areas and maybe plant some fast growing vines up trellises, etc. If you plan to be in the house a while, take time to do it right, even though you want the privacy NOW!! This is a pep talk I give myself on a regular basis. :-) I like this site. The person who owns it has a small garden, but has done wonders and has very detailed descriptions and pictures of plants, shrubs and trees he/she likes that have done well. There are many such sites on the web. Generally speaking, you'll probably want to mix some evergreen shrubs with some deciduous ones for interest, then lower-growing specimens in front. Many shrubs can be trained as small trees, which is good for smaller gardens. So don't just think 2-5' when you think shrub. Some are much larger, up to 15' or more. Lilacs, serviceberry, dogwoods, nandina, smoke bush, to name just a very few. Think about what you like, what times of year you want the garden to look best (May, August, etc). PLan some things for winter interest - berries, neat structural plants, etc. What about hardscaping? Raised planter? Extended patio? Additional seating, etc. Spend a lot of time in your garden assessing light conditions, views, try to get a really good sense of logical movement through the garden. What activities would you like to do in the garden, if any, and what sort of space do you need to do that. How much time do you want to spend working in the yard? Do you like to putter with flowers and veggies or do you want low maintenance evergreen shrubs, grasses, etc? These questions might be a PITA, but they really will help you come up with a long term plan and not just a stopgap fix that will annoy you in a year or two. :-) Here is a link that might be useful: paghat's garden

Quote: "Barb, wow, that's quite a list! I'm glad to hear Cranberry Viburnum is doing well in shade...we may put that in a western corner. And I'm definately going to be planting perennials, too; I just want to get the shrubs out of the way first. I was surprised to see Burning Bush on your list. Is that Wahoo, our native burning bush, or Eunonymus alata, the infamous invasive exotic? I only mention it because it seems like you have made an effort to plant native or native-freindly plants elsewhere. The Burning Bush I was referring to is the "Dwarf Winged Euonymous" that is dark green and shiny all summer and crimson red in fall. I understand that it is invasive and considered a "weed", even problematic in some regions but here we find it does well without any spreading. I wonder if our conditions here are just too harsh for it to become even slightly problematic because I have never seen one even produce a single baby nor have I ever seen one naturalized into a field, ditch or woods anywhere and we've done a lot of hiking over the years. I was surprised to hear from folks to the south of us in the USA that this species is considered a "noxious weed" in some areas. Very strange. But you mention a good point in that the native "Burning Bush" would be an excellent alternative IF you can find it. Sadly I find that locating native specimens even in the largest and most reputable nurseries, is very difficult. What a shame that we can't get our hands on plants, shrubs and trees that are "NATIVE" yet we can easily get these other things that come from afar. Many of the shade loving shrubs are fruit bearing and the birds will LOOOOOOOVE you for planting them. Perhaps you mother (if not already) will become an avid "birder" :o) and most certainly you will need to add some bird houses, a bird bath and feeders to the property to keep the birds that come to feast on the ripe berries. (Christmas and birthday gift ideas for the future) Yes, when we bought our property which is half woods and half groomed lawn, we agreed (my husband and I) that I could do what I wanted with the groomed area but the woods would be all native. I have stuck to my part of the deal but my husband feels that I've pushed the limits by placing a garden that divides our woods from the groomed area (mix of native and non-native) with almost all non-native shrubs. I'm a sucker for fall colour so I wanted the edge of the woods, before you enter it, to blaze with colour in the fall but he feels I've got my proverbial "toe on the line". Oh well... ;o) I do love my native woods but there are just a few non-natives that I just can't live without simply because of their fall foliage. In my shady foundation area between my house and the house next door I also have non-native, Japanese Painted Ferns and Autumn Ferns... again, for colour. Mixed with the perennial pink and white Dicentra Bleeding Hearts, the Orange Trolius Globeflowers, the various coloured Hostas, some dwarf iris, Columbine, bright Orange Butterfly weed and Blue Oat Grass which are in the sunny bits, this shady foundation planting is VERY colourful. Now I only wish I had more property to plant but alas I'm running out and will have to carry on in the coming years with container planting on my various porches and decks (we are building phase 1 of our decks this summer and phase 2 next summer along with a little bistro patio area outide my kitchen. I guess with more "land" I should also wish for more MONEY hahaha. ;o) :o) Barb Oh, PS... if you get a Highbush Cranberry, you might consider putting it nearest to your eavestrough downspout. They LOOOOVE water and will fruit like crazy.