Looking again at your diagram, I'm hoping that on the right side, the triangle by the little sidewalk is meant to be paved. If that is your car, I would do quite a lot of paving area, a landing pad if you will, perhaps with a bench or table to help with unloading the car - really expanding on as you've shown, or fully replacing, your little sidewalk. Focus on the shape of the paved area, it should be nicer than you've drawn. Your plants can be around that, but which plants they are is irrelevant at the moment, all that can be certain is that they will die from being stepped on if the area is not big enough! Plants will come and go over the years anyway; just get the paving right. Even if that is not your car, I would be surprised if neighbours did not step there. The left side can be your gardening extravaganza side since it doesn't have to be passage to anywhere. Just make paths of some sort through the planting areas. I would not worry about symmetry. The house is so symmetrical that nothing can "throw that off." And since the yard is already not symmetrical, I would simply ignore the issue. In a yard this size, the task is really what I call "microlandscaping" - meeting your needs at this spot, and that spot, with the outcome being the sum of the parts. My observation in my area of historic houses with tiny yards is that the overall effect is usually good. The house so overwhelms the space that the gardening can't alter the impact the house makes. So, in a bid to win the award for "worst sketch ever posted on the LD forum" I hereby submit a diagram of my postage-stamp front yard abutting a house very similar to yours, with a full-width elevated porch and central door. Please be clear that I am not recommending this, but just showing it as a model (if you can't be an inspiring example, be a horrible warning...). My space is really reflective of ME, and as we slowly approach the idea of selling it someday, I know I will be changing it a lot in order to sell it. When we bought the house, there was basically nothing, well, except for a flowering quince off to one side that was poised to consume most of my gardening time for the ensuing 5 years with first pruning and then removal. The "design" process has been incremental, marked by what were sometimes good ideas that did not work for the existing constraints, for example, a diamond-shaped patio on the right that we removed because it quickly got buried in debris from the neighbour's giant-and-growing conifer (now removed). This layout evolved partly in response to existing constraints and opportunities (one bed, for example, is where it is to incorporate a large shrub that I was not ready to remove), and partly as an actual design as we gained experience living in this space and learned what our needs were. To explain the diagram below, I've put in grey the lines of sidewalk as they originally were, and shaded in overtop in red what we did as paving instead. The green areas are the planting beds, and the white open space is simply mulched. The big circles denote the canopies of major trees and shrubs. There is a fence that I haven't shown. Also, out front is a public sidewalk, and a hellstrip before the street. To say it's crowded would be an understatement. With most of the plantings being shrubby or tall, the white areas are quite enclosed - and I think the drawing makes them a bit too big; other than the red patio it is not quite to scale. The small patio to the left makes an amazing difference for such a small adjustment. It gives me a space to "be" and to keep stuff in the front yard that is comparatively private, shielded by what I call the "isthmus" of plantings extending from the left property line. Converting that sidewalk to a patio also allowed me to enlarge the foundation bed on that side (yes, I do have foundation beds!) which I wanted to do because that seemed to be a place that my favourite plants thrived. The patio is just dry-laid 2'x2' slabs, some cut on the diagonal. All the beds are actually raised beds enclosed by boulders; My porch foundation is fortunately masonry so I can pile dirt against it, and I am on a bit of a side slope so the beds are built up to even that out. In real life, the whole composition is just a mass of canopy, but that is how I like it. My primary gardening interest is in foliage; the overlay of different leaves and the contrast among them, as well as in the up-close changes that plants go through, so being really immersed in the plants rather than seeing their shapes from a distance works for me. The driveway is not ours, by the way. Regarding your arch over the entryway, it might be relevant to mention that I have an arch "in effect" due to overhanging foliage that is actually an irritant. If I am standing on the porch, I can't make eye contact with someone standing on the sidewalk unless I bend down to look through the "arch." So when you have an elevated door, I would not recommend the arch, especially not with plants growing riotously over it. From the outside, the arch frames a view of the bottom half of the door or of your feet if you are there. We actually had to put our address on the top step (riser) because no one could see it above the door. I hope that helps for starters. You will develop your own garden personality and way of "being in the space" that will drive later decisions and amendments to whatever you do now. And in that process of discovery, for me, is the fun of home landscaping. And this is very different from owning a larger lot, although perhaps your back yard is bigger. On a small lot, you do tend to spend time in or use every corner, so nothing is really just for looking at - it is all about how you experience it. Karin L

Thanks for your replies. The tree on the right side of photo in the park has branches that overhang where I intend to put the Serviceberry. Should I cut these overhanging branches or will the Serviceberry be OK without having to cut them? The tree on the left side of the photo is about 10m away from the Serviceberry and has no overhanging branches that come on to my property. Where I intend to put the Japanese Maple has no overhanging tree branches. (BTW, Ottawa is Zone 4b - I have grown a Japanese Maple in my old home and other than having a hard time in full sun during a hot summer, the maple did well). The first attached photo is a leaf from the tree on the right side of photo (sorry, it is a little out of focus). Last question: I am thinking of putting another tree where the Japanese Yew is in the above photo (which has been planted in the bottom right corner of the garden bed). Any suggestions - this will be a low light tree? This post was edited by elapid on Mon, May 19, 14 at 22:12

I just planted a couple of serviceberries in early summer. They were purchased from a native plant nursery at a reasonable price, but are not named cultivars. One is a Saskatoon Serviceberry (Amelanchier alnifolia) and the other is a common or Downy Serviceberry (Amelanchier arborea). There are a number of other varieties too. The variety that is most often planted for human consumption is the Saskatoon Serviceberry. It generally grows as a large shrub rather than a tree, and has a number of named cultivars. Among the named cultivars, Regent is one of the smaller ones, and thus easier to net for protection from birds. Saint Lawrence Nursery in Potsdam carries a number of named cultivars with good descriptions. Among larger varieties, the Allegheny Serviceberry is said to be juicier and sweeter than the Downy Serviceberry according to one internet source, though I can't recall which one. The ones I planted were pot grown seedlings, about 15 inches tall. The Saskatoon Serviceberry already had berries on the seedling when I purchased it. They ripened within a couple of weeks after I planted it, so I got an early taste. We have deer where I am, and they like to munch on serviceberry twigs, so if you live where deer will frequent your yard, you'll need to provide protection. especially to seedlings. I use Irish Spring deodorant soap, which seems to work pretty well. I hung a half a bar by the Saskatoon Serviceberry, and the deer haven't touched it. I didn't get the soap hung by the Downy Serviceberry, and within a couple days it had been nibbled. Fortunately damage was minor, and I quickly got a bar of soap out by it. The deer have left it alone since then.. This is a very cost effective solution too. Half a bar of soap will last a couple years where I live, though we average 35-40 inches of rain annually

do you mean a local source? maybe post this on the carolina gardening forum for those. there are many online sources for this tree. forest farm in oregon is a reputable mailorder source. also, mailorder natives in florida sells amelanchier. i have ordered from there and have been pleased with her plants. Here is a link that might be useful: mailorder natives