My first thought was similar to T2D's and Ken's, that adding shrubs to your current bed, which is relatively narrow, won't be enough to balance the size of your lovely colonial. I think you want to broaden your approach to the issue, though this may be way more info than you want. ;>) Before planting woody plants, you will want to do a general front yard plan so that you don't later have move things (much more difficult with woody plants than perennials.) So here are some general questions to consider: - How do you (or will you) use the front yard? for example mostly to frame the house, or for touch football games or will you want a front yard seating area eventually, etc -Where do people need to be able to walk to get to the house from the street, from the driveway, does the mailman or paper delivery person cut across the lawn? - Will you want to be able to easily get around the corners of the house into the side and back yard, for access to utilities or with yard equipment? - Do you want to block any views or be sure to leave any sight lines such as to or from the deck or porch or a neighboring structure? -Do you want shade for any of your outdoor areas? -Does your dog have particular paths s/he uses where you don't want to plant? I would begin by figuring out where you want your walkways and access to be so that you can plant around their eventual location. Be sure to plan walkways wide enough for two people to walk abreast to look welcoming and access wide enough to get whatever needed through the space. You don't need to actually do any of these right now, just know where they will go. Then widen your current foundation planting. If needed it can go on both sides of the walkway across from the driveway to the door. Be sure not to plant anything so close to the house that its eventual size will interfere with maintenance of the house. For my old cape (much lower than yours) my beds tend to be 10 feet or more wide, and the shop/barn, which has a similar mass and height to your house, has beds wider than that, along with large trees to frame it. Once you have figured out some of these general questions and done some general planning, you are ready to start to answer your original question. My inclination would be to leave a large sweep of lawn between the house and the road (unlike Ken's beautiful yard, but very different house and setting.) I would probably place a large tree (sugar maple, blue spruce, etc) off the corner of the house, 30 or more feet out, depending on its eventual size - something that will have some mass to balance the house and sort of frame it. Traditional with your style of house is sugar maples out by the road, which is a look that I find appealing. Be sure that anything large that you plant is not going to interfere with overhead wires over the long term. I'd also probably place a smaller ornamental tree with nice branching structure on the opposite side of the house from the larger tree and closer to the house, though still more than half the eventually width of the tree away from wires or the house. I like T2D's suggestion of a hardier Japanese maple (Emperor I would be my choice for you,) or some other ideas include paperbark maple (Acer griseum), Stewartia, red-flowering buckeye, crabapple, a hardy clone of redbud (I have one and there are some in Plymouth at PSU) or dogwood. I have both Kousa dogwoods and pagoda dogwoods and there is a thriving red-flowered buckeye at my local school. Pagoda dogwood in spring: From garden photos 07 and in August the birds love the berries From garden photos 07 Also consider spire-shaped trees closer to the house such as a columnar gingko (but still keeping in mind the eventual width.) These will help ground the house without blocking the nice architecture. Think about adding a large bed with small trees, shrubs, and perennials close to the road (but far enough back that the plows wouldn't interfere with it.) From the road, these plants will look relatively larger and will help ground the house. In the bed near the house, one way to add height would include clematis (particularly C. Stolwijk Gold which has blue flowers in spring and gold foliage - can get from http://hummingbirdfarm.net/clematis.htm when they open their online ordering later on) or other vines like native honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens) on a trellis or obelisk or on a wire framework up your porch pillars, or even growing into a large shrub. Large spring-blooming shrubs might include traditional lilacs (grow slowly, so get larger ones if you can afford them,) some of the larger hardy rhododendrons such as Roseum Elegans or PJM (red foliage tints and medium leaf size), some of the native viburnums, hardy magnolias, Amalanchiers (shadblow is one of the common names), chokeberry (Aronia), high bush blueberries or a variagated leaf red-twigged dogwood which will have multiseason interest unlike the regular green leaved ones which are really only nice in winter. There is a lime-foliaged Philadelphus (mock orange) and a variety of dark and variagated foliaged weigela. Golden/charteuse elderberry (Sambucus Southerland Gold) has multiseason interest as do some of the dark-leaved varieties like Black Beauty or Black Lace. There are a couple of forsythia to look into with gold or variagated foliage: Fiesta, Kumson, Evergold' and 'Gold Leaf' AKAGoldleaf, though you may not get flowers except below the snow line. Look into conifers - I know there are some shrub-sized selections of blue spruce, but I have had some issues with bud worm killing back new growth. I don't have much in the way of deer issues usually since I am in a rural enough area that there is plenty else for them to eat, so you will have to talk to the neighbors and nursery folks near you about what is less likely to be eaten or plan to have deer avoidance strategies such as spraying or black bird netting over vulnerable shrubs. I can tell you that in my neighborhood both arborvitae and yew are deer candy and so you probably want to avoid them. Here is the 2012 USDA zone map. http://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/PHZMWeb/ If you click on NH you will get a larger image of NH and can probably figure out if you are still in zone 4. I am north of Concord in the Merrimack Valley and am in zone 5a, but there is a lot of zone 5b north of me, so you may find that your zone designation has changed. That will help you select plants. I know you commented that you don't need winter interest due to snow depth, and I used to feel that way also. Then I though about all those months when it isn't the growing season, but there also isn't much snow as well as years like this one with little snowfall. So what most people consider winter interest I consider late fall (Nov. and Dec) as well as early spring (March or April) interest and I do plant for that. T2D's suggestion of visiting nurseries to see what is available in spring is a good one. I tend to plan for general shapes or sizes and types of plants (evergreen conifer, or rhododendron, or deciduous shrub with gold leaves) and then visit area nurseries and find what appeals to me that fits my requirements and is available. Driving around established neighborhoods both now and in the growing season is also a good strategy. Find areas with architecture similar to yours and see what appeals to you, both in plants types and placement. In gardening season if folks are out in the yard, they are often happy to tell you about what they have planted if you ask. Besides Plymouth State (one of the grounds workers used to put up a weekly what's blooming on the web and do periodic plant walks, but I don't know if he still does), Dartmouth may have an arboretum that you can visit for ideas as well if either of those are close to you. Fnally, consider asking some version of this question on the New England forum, or just go over there and browse. You will find that there are some great gardeners there with a lot of expertise. Check out some of T2D's photos of her garden in various posts.

Hi Debbie - i've emailed the woman about the hostas, and with tax and shipping, it would come to - toooooo much! LOL I told her i would see if one of the local nurseries could bring them in. I was outside for awhile this morning, deadheading and weeding, but the bugs got too bad. Now it's deer flies and ankle flies doing all the biting. You can't win. One thing i need to find out something about is seed-saving. With some plants, the seeds are more obvious, but with something like geraniums, where are those seeds? Somewhere in the little pointy thing that's left after the flower, i guess, but is it a single seed or multiple ones? Dianthus too - i was looking at some this morning and wondering what to do with them. I could see with the saponaria - there are little pods that have formed. I'll have to get out and gather some of those seeds pdq. Some of my lilies have started to bloom, and i'll have to get some pictures of them. Some of the colours are unexpected - like, did i really plant this? I really need to write things down... Yesterday we did some garden tours, and they were pretty interesting. People have some lovely yards! And good ideas. One of the things i liked was a hollow piece of driftwood that had been filled with dirt and pansies were growing in it. I would probably do a different flower, though. And someone had a whole whiskey barrel with holes drilled all through it. It was filled with dirt, a pierced length of PVC pipe down the middle first, and the woman had planted begonias in the holes of the barrel. Are they fibrous, those little ones with the shiny leaves? Can't remember. Anyway, it was cute. Debbie, i'm not sure about the insulation. Do you mean those rigid sheets? I have a feeling we already have them under the current siding - not sure, though. They are on the porch for sure. The guys were on the roof for awhile this morning, but it was just too hot. Fortunately, if the siding needs to be done, the scaffolding will have to be taken down. Good thing! LOL Anyway, i should go and find something constructive to do. No idea what - i've already ripped out the living room carpet so that we'll HAVE to get new flooring, and put up new curtains on the patio door. And cleaned some closets. I suppose i could try to install some closet doors, but that would mean trying to get dh to help and he's out playing at something with his chainsaw or sawmill or something. Oh well, maybe i'll just be lazy! :) Take care - Marcia

Since we live a typical middle-class American lifestyle; many changes will be necessary to move to a permaculture status. In fact, I doubt that we ever reach pure status; but I feel that whatever we do will certainly be an improvement over how we live now. Every little bit helps! The first thing I plan to do is to hope that the library can track down some books on permaculture so I know a bit more about what I'm doing! Now that I've pled ignorance, please forgive me if I don't have the following zones correct. Zone 0: I plan to place a worm bin under the kitchen sink within the next few days, for the its and bits of daily swill. Still need to locate and copy a list of dos and don'ts for what I can feed the little critters. Major scraps from food processing still go to the rabbit, chickens, dog and cat. In an attempt to wean my family away from indiscriminate use of paper products, I placed a chart showing the per unit cost of each item on a kitchen cabinet: paper napkins at .2 cents each, plates at 2 1/2 cents, paper towels at 2 cents and cups at a whoppping 3 cents each! I didn't include toilet tissue, as I, myself, am not willing to part with it at this time! I also still purchase kleenex for cold season. The men have hankies for normal use. I'm blessed with no allergies, so I don't seem to require one. I have stopped puchasing napkins, plates and cups (except for a secret stash of cups for communicable illnesses). I placed a basket of cloth napkins on the kitchen table; and a small container under the sink to hold soiled ones (If they have to walk to a hamper, they won't use them). I am replacing the paper towel holder in the kitchen with a towel dispenser that dispenses brown kraft paper towels. Baby steps are necessary with this crew! I'm hoping that they won't like them, and will therefore use less of them - aversion therapy, if you will! My Pop is accustomed to using a paper towel as a placemat when he eats; so I have purchased a dozen placemats for table use; and will sew more placemats and napkins this winter as time allows. I already use cloth feminine hygiene articles, but will probably purchase a "Keeper" for use at work; as storage and transport of soiled napkins is difficult at this time - I need to find an opaque, washable, waterproof, sealable bag. I already start my seeds for transplants inside in recycled plug trays; transplanting them in to newspaper pots as they outgrow the plug stage. In the shed, there is a bag of whole oats that was purchased by mistake; chickens don't seem interested in it in it's current form, so I think that I will scrounge a flat somewhere and try sprouting them and feeding them that way. I'll wait until the natural greens disappear, so that they are hungry for some greens - maybe they'll accept them a bit better that way. I'm hoping to talk my Auntie into selling me one of her three wringer washers, so that I can be a bit more careful with my water use; and be able to use the grey water for plant watering and toilet flushing. Low flow shower heads with shut-offs at the head are already installed. Compact florescent bulbs are on the list for purchase as we use up our current stash of bulbs. I purchased a featherbed for Pop's Christmas gift this year; he suffers from arthritis, so I hope this will allow him to rest more comfortably, and allow us to use less fuel for heat. Zone 1: I'm still trying to talk my husband into parting with the funds to build a cistern. Our well water is horrible, requiring multiple filters and machines to make it fit to use at all - and we still can't drink it or wash most of our laundry at home. At 120' deep, it is also inaccessable during power outages. We have a large shed (30X120) with a metal roof to use as a catch area. By studying and compiling information from rainfall data charts for this area from the past 10 years; I have concluded that we could easily support a 20,000 gallon cistern; but that a 10,000 gallon one should be sufficient for our needs. I currently have a 250 gallon tank set up under just one of the six downspouts on the shed; it fills rapidly with the most minimal rain, and overflows with anything beyond that. I used it for watering the animals and some garden watering this past year. The garden will be increased in size once again - for a description of my garden, please see the Square Foot Gardening forum: Tell me about your square foot garden! The front section of my garden will be planted with some herbs, to add to the few varieties I currently have growing. I plan to add more open-pollinated veggie varieties; and to reduce the number of varieties I grow in favor of doing more seed saving in the future. I also plan to use more vertical gardening than in the past to maximize my space. The garden currently provides the majority of our fresh vegetables for 6 months of the year; and nearly all of our canned and frozen veggies as well. Since the garden is on the other side of the house from the shed (better soil, better sun); I plan to place a large 200 gallon plastic tank that I already have on a trailor; filling it from the tank under the downspout, and transporting the water to the garden in that manner. This will allow me to double my water storage, and have it more conveniently located as well. I can also use it to haul water from town in a worst case scenario. Somewhere in this region (I'll be working on the garden expansion and other plans this winter) will be added a fire pit and permanant benches; and possibly some sort of shelter in the future. Zone 2: I hope to add 16 dwarf fruit trees to the mix this next spring, so that we may provide the majority of our fruits as well. I'd like to find a good seedless grape to grow in this area to dry for raisins. These will be in a quasi zone 1 area because.... For eggs, I hope to place a permanent chicken structure/shed for small garden tools in the planned orchard; convenient to the gardens as well for ease in feeding excess or undesirable produce, and for allowing selective grazing of garden beds. I am considering switching from heavy breed chickens for my eggs to banties, as they seem to have fewer health problems, reproduce more readily and are better at foraging; thus requiring a minimal amount of outside inputs. We will purchase broiler chicks from a local hatchery; 25 chicks, twice a year. These will be rotationally pastured, following the cattle (see below) and supplemented with a purchased broiler feed until we are able to provide our own ration. We are lucky to have a local poultry processor (Amish); so we will not be required to process them ourselves. I can process them myself. I don't want to. I probably wouldn't raise them if I had to butcher them, so this is an acceptable compromise for us. Baby steps! If I could find a local processor for rabbit, I would halve the amount of broilers, replacing them with rabbit; selectively breeding them for harvest; and maintaining only breeding stock during the heat of the summer. Our plan is to purchase a couple of "bucket calves" from the Amish this spring; or possibly one in spring and one in early fall. This will provide beef for us and for our extended families. At the present time, since both my husband and I work outside the home, we will purchase milk replacer to feed until the calves are able to graze. When my husband retires (3-5 years) we will probably use a milk goat for this purpose. We do not consume enough dairy products to justify a milk cow. The cattle will be rotationally grazed year round; supplemented in the winter with corn and other grains grown on the farm. Zone 3: We have about 9 acres tillable fields that will be put in rotation for local use crops. Some will be enclosed with solar charged temporary electric fencing and grazed during the winter months. A 2 acre area is next to the garden and is used for several crops. The planned orchard and chicken house will encroach into this area. We currently have about 1/4 acre or so of strawberries, which we used to sell locally, but now mostly trade or give away - this year's trades included flower and garden seed, produce, fish and lots of good company! 1/8 acre of asparagus is also in this area. The remainder of this area is used for 1/2 to 1 acre of sweet corn (which will be fed to the cattle after we harvest what we need for fresh and processed use), melons and pumpkins; with the balance being planted in sunflowers for the wild birds to eat; and for me to enjoy looking at (sunnys AND birds!) Crops are shared with family and friends; excess produce of good quality is donated to a food bank; the rest is fed to the animals. We have planted a 4 to 5 acre or so area to wheat this fall, some of which will be retained on farm for feed/flour/seed; the balance to be sold locally. The wheat crop will be followed by hay; which we will bale in small square bales and use to supplement winter grazing. Any excess will be sold or traded to local smallholders who can not raise their own. The wheat straw will be baled and used as animal bedding and mulches, before being composted. The last field will be planted to open pollinated corn, to be used for feed/flour. I doubt that we will have any excess to sell off farm; but if we do, it will probably be sold as ear corn locally. Our compost piles will also be included in zone three; between the worms, chickens, rabbit and pets, I do not generate enough household compostables to support a nearby pile. I currently pick up grass trimmings and leaves in my MIL's neighborhood on my way home from work; and there are several horse owners nearby who are overjoyed when I pull in with my pick-up to relieve them of a load. I can also haul truckloads of manure mixed with sawdust home from the local sale barn. Life is getting easier, as my husband just gifted me with the best birthday present ever: a 1964 1 ton truck with hydraulic grain bed and stock rails - I may still have to shovel it in sometimes, but I'll be able to just dump it out! Zone 4: We currently have a red and white pine windbreak on the west property line; and approximately 19 acres of timber surrounding us on the north and east. We hope to expand our walking paths through this area, adding log benches here and there (darned asthma!) We harvest a small amount of downed trees for firewood, and also will cut diseased trees for the same purpose. We also harvest morel mushrooms, blackberries and nuts in this area; as well as an occasional deer harvested by relatives. A friend is attempting to re-establish ginsing in this area as well. Shade and other trees are transplanted occasionally from this area as well. Zone 5: The federal governemnt used eminent domain to condemn and confiscate a large portion of our land (and our neighbor's land as well) back in the 60's to construct a huge recreational/flood control lake. Those of us with fishing licenses set out a trot line a couple of times a year to catch fish (and an occasional turtle) which we use fresh or freeze. Deer are harvested from the legal to hunt areas as well. We will travel by foot back to an inlet of the lake to observe a beaver dam occasionally; otherwise this area is unused - at least by us. We do carry bags along to pick up the trash that other's have scattered. These are all of the things that I can think of at this time. Any suggestions will be appreciated!

Kirts, I feel like you are being wise to plan ahead. With the continuing modernization of some countries, like China and India, where the demand for oil and gas and other petroleum products is increasing exponentially every year, I see our energy costs continuing to rise. Since the average item in a grocery store in the USA travels about 1500 miles BEFORE it reaches the grocery store shelves, obviously the ever-increasing energy/transport costs will keep food costs rising. The changes we are seeing in the commercial agriculture industry and the food distribution network may force a lot of us to try to eat more locally. In the slow food movement, I think they refer to the effort to eat only locally-produced food as being a locavore. In addition, when you consider that a lot of the chemical fertilizers used by commercial farmers are linked to the petroleum industry, it is easy to believe that food costs will continue to go up because of rising fertilizer costs as well. I think people will turn to organic gardening as a means of lessening their dependence on foreign energy/fertilizers. There are many ways to store food and I use several of them. We have a tornado shelter and I use it to store root crops like potatoes and onions harvested in the summer as well as winter squash harvested in the fall. I have even stored winter squash on a shelf in the garage/barn and have had it last as long as 4-6 months in there. We have a large pantry located under our home's staircase. It is about 3 feet wide and maybe 12 deep. The height varies from 8' to about 2'. Back in that 2' area I store odds and ends we don't use often, like the pressure canner and my set of 4 huge stainless steel stockpots I use a lot during the harvest season. I freeze lots and lots of stuff. I always chop and slice onions and peppers and freeze them. I can usually raise a year's supply (or more) in the spring garden. I usually freeze tons of corn (I could can it if I didn't have storage space, but I do have storage space so I just freeze it.) Some years I get enough corn from the spring and fall gardens that we don't have to buy corn at all. The same is true of green beans and black-eyed peas. I even freeze tomatoes--they go straight from the freezer to the soup or saucepot in the winter. Okra is a little more iffy. We eat so much of it that I don't usually freeze much. I need to grow more, but the deer have been an issue with it for years, although I believe we've finally solved that problem. Thus, I should be able to grow more of it in the future. Carrots do best for me in the fall garden. If you have them in a well drained bed, you can leave them in the bed for months and harvest as needed. Another way to store them is in a clean trash can filled with sand. Pour a few inches of sand into the container, then put down a layer of carrots and repeat until all your carrots are stored. You also can keep them in a root cellar OR a refrigerator for months. Carrots can be frozen and even dehydrated. I dehydrate a lot of stuff. I then store all my bags of dehydrated veggies in the freezer, but you don't have to put them in the freezer. If you are careful to get out all the moisture, you can store dried veggies in the pantry. Even cantaloupes, muskmelon, watermelon and other lesser-known melons can be frozen. I usually cut them into squares, or use a melon baller to make them into melon balls and freeze them. You also can slice them into rather thin slices and dehydrate them. Their flavor and sweetness are so intensified by drying them that they are like candy. Anything that you grow in the garden can be dehydrated although some things take a pretty long time. I've never tried dehydrating corn, but I am sure it would work. Shelled beans dry naturally without dehydration and so do black-eyed peas. Many herbs can be tied in bundles and hung in a dry, warm, dark location to dry naturally. Canning is a lot of work and can be hazardous if done improperly, but as long as you follow all the recommended procedures and are careful, it is a great way to preserve food too. Cabbage will store a long time in a refrigerator or in a root cellar type situation. Back when people HAD to raise all the own food, a lot of them make sauerkraut to preserve the cabbage for winter, but I am not much of a sauerkraut person. There's always pickles too. You can pickle LOTS of veggies, not just cucumbers. You can pickle peppers, onions, carrots, beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, watermelon rinds, etc. You also can make all kinds of relish and, there again, not just pickle relish but squash and others as well. Fruit can be frozen, dried or canned and you also can make preserves, jams and jellies. You can even make tomato preserves or marmalade. Storing food is not as hard as most people think, but it takes a lot of effort. If you want to expand your garden for next year, you could start building lasagna type beds this year. Although, as much as the heat bothers you and with your allergies, you might prefer to wait until fall to start laying out your garden beds. I like to clean out my garden beds in the fall and remove all debris. This is very important because many garden pests overwinter in plant debris. Usually I let the chickens roam around in the garden beds in December and they will dig and scratch and take care of lots of insects, insect eggs, weed seeds, etc. I also like to heap up tons and tons and tons of shredded leaves, gathered from our wooded areas, on top of the beds as soon as they are cleaned out after the first hard frost. The chopped-up leaves decompose into a lovely leaf mold or compost by spring. (If you don't chop them up, they break down a lot more slowly.) I also prefer to go ahead and add manure and compost to the beds in the winter months, so my beds are "ready to go" in the spring. Sometimes in a bad wildfire year, though, I stay too busy to get the garden beds cleaned up and replenished with compost, manure and leaves in winter. In those years, I really have a hard time planting on schedule because the beds aren't ready. I do all my planning and seed ordering in late fall to early winter. By the time the new seed catalogs arrive, I am usually about "done" although there is always something new that convinces me to order one more batch of seeds. Because my family understands and supports my gardening habit, my Christmas gifts are always handy useful things like gardening gloves (five pair last year, everything from goatskin to latex-dipped cotton to suede) and hand tools and such. One of my favorite garden gifts (I always ask Santa for this one) is a big cannister of electrical zip-ties. I use them to attach tomato cages to stakes, etc. There are several really, really useful vegetable gardening books and food preservation books that I find ESSENTIAL to my success as a veggie gardener. I have had most of them for years and years and years and still refer to them constantly. I'll make a list of them later. I'm off to the store to pick up some more food preservation supplies--processing all that corn wiped out my supply of freezer bags, and I need some pickling supplies before the cucumbers get out of control. I'll write later about corn and veggies. Dawn