It's interesting to go through the entire thread and see that you did, in fact, take suggestions offered here. That's nice to see since I suppose many wonder if their advice if falling on deaf ears. I am so glad you dumped the idea of the dwarf alberta spruce. Good decision. Also, I see you nixed the landscaper's suggestion of the cotoneaster. While I am a big fan of cotoneaster in the right location, they would not have suited the front of your house. Another good decision. I think the whole thing looks sweet, actually. I liked that you stayed low on the left side of the house and did some nice repetion of form and plantings. I would like to see a note of height on the right side, but you can maybe add that in next year somehow. I also like the color palette...the soft pinks of the spirea, blues of the hydrangea (or pink depending on your soil) and the white azalea, along with the "traditional" (I assume you mean pink) azalea will work nicely I think. However, although right now the "hot" colors of your impatience are okay since the shrubs are small, next year you will want a softer, cooler palette of annual color. Also, I totally concur with the windowbox idea. That would look very nice, in my opinion. Patty

I looked into the wood chip idea I just got a fresh truckload of them for Spring. A few things you can expect: The chips are rougher and coarser than store bought. If this bothers you, you can throw down a thick layer of the cheap stuff and then a thin coat of expensive ones on top. they come in various colors. After a while if you dig around in it you may see white/ off white threads running around in it, or worms crawling around down there, or even mushrooms on top of it. These are decomposers. They are busy changing it from wood chips into plant food. They won't bother you or your plants, they only like dead things. The chips start off a brightish white and fade slowly through grey and get soft and blackish as they meld into the soil. The only concern I have with wood chips is the runoff where the next grand canyon is forming -- it is a veritable river when it gets flowing A valid concern. Can you run a heap of rocks down the canyon for the water to flow through without moving them? Maybe have a series of lashed stick dams to let water through but hold the chips? Lay branches across it? I read that with chips you normally put down 4-6 inches of it on bare dirt. Would that be enough to prevent rushing water from carrying it away? I'm not sure. Or would I be better off building a temporary drainage system to route the water under the tree bed until the plants can grow outward and hold the soil together? Maybe lay a perforated pipe on top of the ground, bury it in chips? I guess I wrongfully assumed that I would need to plant the pachysandra all over the area, but your suggestion about letting it grow outward over several years sounds much more logical. There are various ways to handle this. The rings were meant to give you something decorative, something orderly to look at while it's developing. You could plant them in a loose even scatter across the whole bed. This won't look like much at first but might be faster. You could buy and install more plants whenever it's convenient (you just move the chips out of the way and plant) You could subdivide and move the existing plants every few years. You could plant once and let them do their thing. They'll all work. Looking at the the second picture I see I misjudged something. I had thought the trees were centered in the bed. They're not, they're along one edge. This means a ring around each tree won't be starting them in the middle, it'll be starting along one side. This is not a deal breaker. You could do rings around the trees and start some sprinkled along the left side of that second picture so it keeps up with the tree side. Patience will be key. The rule of thump with Pachysandra is: The first year it sleeps. The second year it creeps. The third year it leaps. Thank you again for your reply. You've definitely given me a silver lining on what I thought would be a daunting and expensive project! I love it when this Internet stuff works. 8-)

Since nematodes and Milky Spore are expensive and you mentioned it was out of your range for a large lawn, I'd go with the grub killer. No, it's not organic. It's not an optimal solution. You know that already. I don't know how specific Merit is, but if it's a general insecticide you do run the risk of wiping out your micro-arthropods that happily do a good job keeping your lawn disease and fungus free. (Sometime, lookup the lowly fungus gnat...they're one of the most amazing and unconsidered creatures in our grass and gardens!) But if you gotta, you gotta. It's kind of early for the grubs to be back in Zone 5b (I'm a 5c/6a crossover). And when they do, they're third instar and about to become adults. There's no reason to try killing them now because it won't work very well. I'm not sure what the bag recommends, but the one time I was forced into using (gag) GrubX I applied it about two weeks before I expected to see the adults. The next year, no grub damage (on my parents' lawn at the time). Maybe you could start a small fund for next year for Milky Spore? It works fairly well in our colder climate--grubs counts on my current lawn and in the gardens were already dropping last fall and I expect far fewer still this year. Plus it lasts years until it micro-evolves to a less-killing genome. Then you just reapply.

There are several members of the Scarab Beetle family, japanese Beetles are one, that lay eggs in the soil that become these "C" shaped grubs we are all taught to hate with a passion. Research at several universities has found that if the population of the grubs is around 10 per square foot you can have a problem but that fewer then 5 per square foot are not. The adult beetles lay the eggs in July and August and they hatch and are then very susceptible to Milky Spore Disease, "Bacillus popilleae" which they must ingest as they feed. As the soil cools these grubs will move down further into the soil for the winter and they stop feeding, but in the spring, as the soil warms, they come back toward the surface to feed for a short time before they pupate to become the adult beeltes. Milky Spore Disease is effective, for a short time during the early stages of these grubs life, shortly after they hatch so it should be applied in early August, at the latest. Milky Spore Disease is also a very passive means of control. You put it down and then hope the grubs find it and ingest it, which is why those that need immediate gratification find it not vey effective. Beneficial nematodes, which eat the grubs can be applied about the same time or a little later. GrubX is not an acceptable organic solution because it is a broad spectrum poison that will kill many of the soil insects, both beneficial and harmful.