Well I guess I'm contributing to the hijack - sorry scraplolly! I used to live in a house with a driveway just like dtownjbrown and I hated it. So I was kind of interested in contributing to his story. You could think about mixing some evergreens in there. Microbiota, dwarf chamaecyapris, pencil holly, rug or pencil junipers, etc. But they are kind of dull in a row... Another way to go about this is to plant annuals for a few years to see what responds to the lighting. I would think you could grow coleus, petunias, maybe even an indeterminate tomato - cherry tomatoes, the italian plum tomatoes. I grow them in less than optimal sun in containers. My favorite is San Marzano - good for salsa. This year I'm growing calladiums in full sun planters so go try some new things - you never know what will work. Sometimes the repeated annual amendment helps also. Your soil looks good in the picture but who knows how old it is? You say it drains quickly- its possible that somewhere along the way somebody re-waterproofed and improved the drainage down deeper. When we had our back wall re-waterproofed they dug down 11 ft and then filled the space with limestone to about 2 ft from the top - then backfilled my topsoil on top of that. The space right up against my house is very dry as a result. A good resource for you would be the Botanical Gardens in the area - just do a search. Another good resource is the Plant Search function at MOBOT - Missouri Botanical Gardens. For ex. I just searched on Full sun to part shade, Dry to medium, 6-12 inches spread, Zone 3 for scraplolly and got a list of plants back - http://www.mobot.org/gardeninghelp/plantfinder/Results.asp I don't know if you want anything to hang out over the line of the bed into your driveway but I'd think about that as you select plants.(daylilies)Whacking the flower heads every time you drive in has a tendency to look kind of ugly. The above was in case you don't like my idea: Given the narrow space and lighting my personal recommendation would be to plant a unifying ground cover like pachysandra which is evergreen, make space intermittently to have a few clumps of daffodils/tulips and alliums in spring and then have a nice white lattice structure just covered in green ivy to cover the wall. I would have parts of the lattice go up 6-8 ft and parts down at the level your siding begins. - sort of like the silhouette of a town. I would use horizontal and vertical crossbars rather than the cheaper looking diamond shaped criss cross pattern. You need to fasten it so that it is out from the siding about 1.5-2 inches for long term home care. You don't want ivy putting tendrils into your siding or cement. Where you live you might succeed with Boston Ivy which is very colorful in the fall. An alternate might be grapes or hydrangea petiolaris which I doubt would be watered at all after established. I could see having round blue ceramic planters filled with colorful coleus and impatiens set right down into the pachysandra with the wall of green ivy behind them. To give more space you could have cutouts in the latticework to center the planter in the space. You could have a small water fountain on the wall among the vines - or frame it with the lattice. Another planter idea is pruned boxwood with annuals/trailing vines around them for summer - and you can do something with them for the holidays. You should be able to have Korean, Vardar Valley, Green Mountain, etc live in a container if you keep pruned. The Blue Girl holly also does well in low light/bright sun but you'd really have to stay on the pruning to keep a holly in bounds. I would also try some unobtrusive stick in the ground solar lights to create a soft glow after dark along the drive or you can wire lighting in. I get container combination ideas every yr from the White Flower Farms catalog - gorgeous stuff altho this yr they were too in love with bronze and orange combos. Shrubs that I have kept pruned for yrs to 12 to 18" wide are taxus, boxwood and believe it or not - euonymous - burning bush. I have a 3 ft deep bed along my house and its underplanted with pachysandra and the burning bush are at least 20 yrs old - you just have to keep up with the pruning to keep them to the size you want.

What great ideas! There are geniuses on the forum! Fluorescent lights laid on their backs! (Sounds of me smacking my head) Wow! I would love the ambient lighting that would create! And since I plan on having some art objects on the top, that would silhouette them as well. That reminds me: I have a roll of white rope lighting in the basement for a project that fell through. I wonder if that creates heat? I will have to find it and see how much light it puts out. The wall-mounted swing out lamps too. We have one in the room now: maybe IÂll get another. I will look into the piano lights too. We actually do have plenty of outlets in the roomÂexcept that once the bookcases are in and loaded we wonÂt have easy access to any but one. ThatÂs why I have to plan this out in advance. We will have to put extension cords in each outlet and drape them over the top of the cases and make sure they donÂt fall back! bronwynsmom, your library is very beautiful, and much like I would have liked to do in my room. But building soffits and installing hardwired lighting is not in our future. Your library has many wonderful features, maybe I can use something. I love the lighting inside the bookcases at the top and the overall feeling of the room. IÂll save it for an inspiration. My original plan was much more ambitious. With 2 kids in college/med school next year, I have to do this project as inexpensively as possible. The bookcases alone were over $600. But after months of poring over CL and trolling resale shops and not finding enough (or in good enough condition), we had to buy new bookcases. Things like the chairs and tables will be coming from elsewhere is the house. I was originally going to customize the bookcases, but my husband nixed that idea. He wants to see a room actually finished within a reasonable time frame (what a strange conceptÂ) ! So I need to get the feeling of what I wanted in a simpler, less labor-intensive way. Thanks for all the ideas!

Things I have done to improve natural light in my home: 1. front door now is mostly glass 2. removed full height pantry that was in the kitchen/entrance - there is a small load bearing wall there that will be replaced by columns (attached to kitchen island) 3. painted all walls off white 4. chose light coloured finishes in general 5. removed upper cabinets from around kitchen window 6. ensure that window coverings for privacy allow lots of light in Things I am considering doing 1. adding ODL tubular skylights to light windowless areas (from Home Depot) 2. replacing some interior doors that are usually closed with windowed ones to bring natural light into windowless hallway (doors can have curtains or blinds if necessary) 3. adding windows to bathrooms

Kbear- On your north facing windows, it is going to be the height of the window that limits your light admittance most. I'm guessing you meant 60 inches and not 60', right? :-) If your windows are 5 feet tall, the bay at 10 foot distance will be your only significant source of light in there. Afraid it will be a bit dark in there as you describe it. What is directly above your kitchen? These are solar tubes that bring in a ton of light all day. They run through an attic type space up to the roof.