The reason the nursery is having a sale on shrubs is that this is the wrong time of year to plant shrubs. They are best planted in fall or early spring. That said, even though it's the wrong time of year, you can still plant now -- but you must take extra good care of your shrubs if you want them to survive and do well! Dig a large hole, add appropriate amendments (depending on your soil), and water regularly through the fall. [I will confess that I planted my small dwarf mugo pines this time of year two years ago -- and it was blistering HOT and we were still in our multiple-year drought. They survived and have done well ... and I am now in the process of moving seven of them (couldn't begin until last week, and if I wait till fall they'll be larger than I can handle). I will baby them ... and I'll be embarrassed if any of them die....] Here's the Shrubs forum's FAQ, which includes info on how to plant a shrub: http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/shrubs/ Make sure to plant your shrubs well away from the house. You want to leave at least a foot or two between the house and the shrubs, for window-washing, painting and house maintenance, as well as maintenance of the shrubs. Note that whatever you plant will be growing, so you want to plant it far enough from the house that after several years there will still be that foot or two of clearance between the house and the shrub. For instance, if the shrub's mature size is 5' in diameter, place its center 3 1/2' from the house (2 1/2' for half the mature width + 1' for clearance). It might be advisable to move the rhodie and azalea. Do you know what cultivars they are and what their mature size will be? Azaleas vary considerably in size. Many (most? all?) rhodies just keep growing and growing and growing. About that asymmetrical roof: I'm not a professional designer, but here's what I'd do: center a small tree (or large shrub) between the windows (not directly under the peak, but midway between the windows). The idea is that its crown will conceal the location of the peak. You might want something evergreen; I'm not sure how effective bare branches would be in the winter. The tree should be located several feet from the house. You want something with a relatively narrow crown, because you don't want to block the windows (or shade the front yard any more than it already is). You want something which will reach the height of the roof relatively quickly -- yet you don't want something so huge it will endanger the house. The shape should be rounded: you definitely don't want one of the narrow columnar evergreens or anything triangular (pointy Christmas-tree type). Unfortunately I am not knowledgeable enough to suggest what tree (or shrub) would be appropriate for your zone. But unless the nursery is also having a sale on trees, you have plenty of time to do research. Good luck!

Planting the front of the house is much too important to do in a few hours so you can take advantage of a plant sale. Take a picture of the house straight on from further back, and design shapes. Then find plants that have theright shapes. Beds should be deep; Ken is correct that shrubs should be at lest 3-5 feet from the house. A small tree on the left might be nice too. Perhaps curve the bed out deeply, put in a small tree and shrubs to anchor to the house. BTW, if deer are a problem, hydrangeas are not what you want.

OK, that is at least part of the problems. Your roots are cooking. My philosophy is to match the mulch with the plant's life cycle, ie, I want the mulch to break down over the plants' lifetime. For example, for annual vegetables I would recommend a mulch like straw (not hay which has more seeds). The straw will break down relatively quickly, usually within 6 months, especially during the warmer parts of the year (OK, I meant hot). Other good choices include such things as leaves, pine needles, and even shredded paper if you are in a pinch. For perennials, in my experience, there is nothing better than shredded bark or wood. If you are going to go the route of straw ( I think this is one of the best choices), I suggest you get some newspaper and lay it underneath the straw. Put down 5-6 sheets of newspaper and make sure it is wet down thorougly, then put the straw on top. The reason you do this is while straw has fewer seeds than hay, it still contains some seeds which could still germinate. The newspaper will prevent the majority of from germinating in the soil (also a good "worm food"). Any that do, can easily be pulled out because their roots are in newspaper instead of the soil. A word of warning, DO NOT GET BERMUDA GRASS STRAW, unless you want more of it growing around. Alfalfa is one of the best, but most expensive. There will be a bunch available soon since Halloween is almost around the corner (hard to believe). A final choice which I didn't give but still works is using compost. If you have a pickup truck, you can call a local compost company and drive down there and have the stuff loaded into your pickup truck. An average pickup truck will be able to hold about 1 cub yard of compost, or 27 cubic feet. It will cost you between $10 and $25 for a cub yard this way. Again, use the newspaper underneath to prevent any airborn seeds from getting established. You can use part of the compost to mix with your soil, and the remainder as a mulch. Remember, no matter which mulch you use though, keep the mulch at least a couple of inches away from the base of the plants. Since mulch attracts many critters (most of them good), they will like the stems of the vegetables just as much as the mulch itself--so do yourself a favor and don't add the vegetables to their main course. On another note, when you are ready to get rid of your cypress trees, find a local company that will shred all of the wood for you. That is a free source of mulch right there to use in other areas of your yard where you might have perennials growing. Good luck and HTH Here is a link that might be useful: Mulch Properties

We have to share our building and property with Soil,water 4 H and the Housing Authority.We are downtown without much land(not much of anything to be honest)Anyway they did plant a tree for a fellow MG as a memorial but we have since been told we cannot do that everytime someone passes away. Maybe your MGs could put in a garden and add a brick or stepping stone for each of them as sort of a memory garden. Heres an idea I am doing for my family WHILE they are ALIVE. I am not much on parties but I want a stepping stone memory party. We will all decorate our own stone and it will be in my garden NOW but of course have so much more meaning when they pass on. Each person is to bring things about them to decorate their stone.(like a mosaic) A broken favorite plate . a key or coin of theirs,a horseshoe ,an old peice of jewelry,My son has some old plates he hung on his wall as a kid with ships,new wife won't allow them in their home so that is perfect.My in laws have a cottage on Lake Erie and have collected lots of sea glass.A carpenter may add nails. Maybe as gardeners they could make impressions of their favorite flowers by pressing them into the wet cement. I told my dad when he died I'd cremate him and put his ashes IN the mortar or grout!He can be with me in the garden every day!LOL