I can't believe all of the responses, thank you so much! I'm saving all of them and am going to go through the suggested plants to choose some for the space. The area in question is rather dry, although this spring/summer has been on the dry side so far, so many of our garden beds are dryer than usual. I think this spot tends to get less watering from us because the one spigot in the front of our house hasn't worked since we moved here and it's a pain to drag the backyard hose all the way around to the front. DH has promised to get down in the crawl space and fix the darned thing before next spring, so hopefully with a well-placed soaker hose under a layer of mulch it will be more moist next year. In the event that the area does remain rather dry, are there any shade-loving perennials that will flourish in dry shade? The idea of having a tree there is intriguing, but I do think that the area is a bit small---one of my husband's pet peeves is trees that are planted too close to houses. The window there is pretty much our one and only 'view' from anywhere inside the house, so we'd like to keep it unobstructed. We also have so many trees in our yard (especially in that half of the yard), I think the idea of adding more makes us start to panic a little ; ) This is a horrid photo (I think it's from the realtor) but you can see the three huge trees on the right (one is a double-trunk); there is also an enormous maple directly behind the garage. http://pattycakedesigns.com/house6.jpg I'm not positive, but I don't think that the garden stays warm in the winter. We planted three hydrangea there last fall, and none of them made it through the winter. Maybe the freezing wind blowing in from the west hits full-on whatever's planted there? We live a block from the shore of Lake Erie, so it does tend to get pretty cold/windy here in the winter. I do like the idea of a birdbath or some other small structure there (I think our four cats would enjoy drooling from the windowsill), and I think we have one in the shed that we aren't using now. I saw one the other day that had been planted with annuals that were positively dripping over the edges of the bowl; I seem to remember DH moaning about having to scrub out the birdbath more than he liked, maybe if we don't use it for a birdbath per se we can use it as a focal point for some fancy annuals? Other than impatiens, what annuals grow well in the shade? Begonias? I've been trying to come up with some more ideas for plants that might look interesting through the winter (since it's winter here for about six months, or at least seems that way, especially when it snows in April). Any thoughts for anything other than holly? We're not big evergreen/dwarf conifer fans. We love climbing hydrangea (left one behind at the old house, I still mourn losing it); if I wanted to start one up the siding there to the left, what would be the best way to support it? I'm guessing the siding is too slick for it to hold itself up. A trellis? If so, how do you attach a trellis to the siding, or would you just anchor the bottom in the ground? My goal now is to try and get the unwanted flowers moved to the backyard somewhere so that I can hopefully plant some shade perennials here in the fall. I moved the Clara Curtis this morning (from the way it spread in just one year, I have a feeling it's going to take over whereever I put it) and am going to move those sickly-looking geraniums when we hack them back in a few days. I need to get that poor hydrangea out of the corner; would it be better to wait until fall to move it, or could I do it now? Thanks again for everyone's responses, this is all fascinating and so helpful! Amy Here is a link that might be useful:

Hello All, I am new, but I will do what I usually do and jump in with both feet! I am happy that you are a peaceful man, hope that this helps. I don't know of a blue jay repellant, but I can offer some information for you in addition to that already provided by the others. I also came up with a couple of alternative bird you could dislike instead of the jay. One alternative is the Europian Starling, introduced by man, and began to spread over the whole country. They compete aggressively with native birds for nesting. Birds are in enough trouble from of loss of habitat from mankind. (you can prevent them from taking up residence in your birdhouses by making the entrance 1 1/2 " or less so they can't get inside the joint.) The Cowbird is another alternative to bluejay loathing. It sneaks into other bird's nests and lays it's eggs, making the other bird do all the work. The field guide called it parisitizing and the cowbird affects about 144 species altogether and some are threatened with extinction altogether. The cowbird is only doing what it has always done, only we changed the playing field and the combination is lethal. Back to the BlueJay. The jays fly around in courtship flocks in the spring follow the leader style and give a variety of calls. (acording to Stokes Field Guide these flocks are made up of several males and leading the way one female. When they land the males start bobbing raising their whole body up and down, while giving the "toolool" call. Good News, they are quiet during breeding. They also dive bomb hawks giving jay calls. I don't know if a "scarehawk" would work, it would scare off the other birds too and you don't want that. One more thing you could try, is to lure the jay to another area of your yard. The jay eats acorns, nuts, fruit, and it comes to feeders for sunflower seed and cracked corn. You could put sunflower seed (black oil I think) and cracked corn on a feeder away from your window. That might work. Good luck to you, I hope I wasn't too long winded for you all. Happy Birding! Bitsy In the end, I would say the best thing to do is to get some earplugs and find some common ground. You could even learn to not despise the jay.

Could you put the mealies into an enclosed feeder so that Robins can't take all the food? I have one with 1 1/2 inch wire that keeps the larger birds out. I do sometimes get a Red-bellied woodpecker that tries to get in. While he's there the other birds don't go near it. But he gives up eventually and then the Blues can feast on the mealworms.

I know that I should not hold him at fault, and I don't completely. I know that all the things took time, I just don't understand why he couldn't have just called 911 right then instead of going nextdoor to ask what they thought. And it's not only that he didn't really seem sad hardly at all. My dad had been taking pain killers for many years because he had broken his neck around 1980 and it would still give him pain, he had become addicted to them. A couple of days later we found a whole bottle hidden in my uncles car that were my dads and I know that my dad would not have given them away thats for sure. I can promise that(my dads family has a way of trying to deal with things through alcohol and drugs). And also my dad didn't have one dollar on him and that is unexplanable, my dad always had money on him, always. I don't want to accuse him of stealing from his dead brother, but fact is he is a bum and had been there mooching off my dad for weeks, he had been staying with friends in another town and they had to tell him to leave because he was stealing from them so I wouldn't put it past him. All in all he is my uncle and I love him still and if anything like this did happen I will leave it in gods hands. What I ment when I said that my husband tells me to try not to think about it, was that I will sometimes listen to songs that remind me of him and I will look at his pictures and I will just cry so much, and he tells me that I am making myself more sad by doing that. He has been very wonderful with helping me grieve. We have a 3 year old little girl and she misses her grandpa too very much, she will upset and tell me is sad, I will ask her whats wrong and she will say "I miss pops" thats what she called him. It makes me really sad too when she tells me that. I have always been afraid of those late night calls, I would think about how I would feel if someone close to me died, I never imagened that my dad would go He had always been such a strong man. I think about it still so much almost like it's not real I mean my dad, my dad, he's not just a phone call away anymore or a two hour drive. I really appreciate all of your advice so much, it really helps alot. Thank you all so very much. God Bless