Thanks for all your hard work Karen! Can't wait to read it in its entirety. Jodi-

Just for reference, we have three quarter acre lot with am 8 year old, three bedroom, three bathroom, etc. house. Our septic system consist of a 1000gal digestion tank, and a 1000 gal, water holding tank. There is a line of about 80' to the distribution box which supplies 3 - 130' leach lines. The three leach line cover an area of about 4500 sqft. The length of the distribution line, plus the area of the two tank must also be consider when planting. The system snakes over 200 feet across our back yard. Also there is an area that is designate a rebuild area equal to the area of the leach bed. If you plant in this area, any thing there will be taken out when the digging is done to install the new replacement leach lines. Our system is a what is called a pressurized system. In our previous houses, as I remember, the non pressurize system's leach lines covered only a slightly less area, There are many different configuration for septic systems. When they are installed the topography of the lot, the type of soil, technology, and City, Local, State, and Federal regulation must be considered. Some systems take up more space that others. To my knowledge there is no ONE modern system. Before starting to planting you need to know what kind of septic system you have. With my house (8 years old in NC) the system is described in the County Health Department inspections which is part of the building permit. In NC this was provided to us as part of the closing paperwork when we bought the house. The septic system is one of the inspection that has to be performed during the closing. As for planting trees, If you don't plant a tree in the middle of the leach field or on top of the tanks you should be OK. We have a wooded lot. When the septic system was put in the problem areas were clear during the installation of the system. Since we moved in I have respected those area when considering what I plant.

I didn't think everyone was being overly critical, I like to hear others opinions on what to do. I think it was more what was being said had me thinking this area looked way worse than I thought was the case...I knew it wasn't anything spectacular which is why I'm trying to get opinions on what are some other ideas to bring it together maybe. The rock border was put there when I first started messing with this area and everywhere I dug was another big rock..I literally dug out thousands of rocks from yard and I'm not exaggerating! And the majority of the rocks were ginormous boulders to where I had to rent a bobcat just to move them to another potion of my yard. So when the bed was very small and no forsythia bush was planted I made the little border wall with the rocks to try and do something with them to make some sort of something to make the bed look like it had its own area..now that I planted the ice plant and lillies, I agree the rocks don't really serve a purpose so I will just remove them. I do agree with that. As far as the moving bulbs and attaching ribbon per color that's a great idea! I also agree the bed is too small...you have to understand that where I love to make huge flower beds and have lots of little areas in my yard to look at, my DH is not as enthusiastic about it (it's to the point I have to hide receipts from the nursery so he doesn't give me crap about it lol "NO MORE PLANTS!!!") so I started small with this..but I agree it just looks off as far as size..which again is why I come to all of you with my questions because I know something is off and don't really know where to start to make it all come together nicely...you ALL have given me some great ideas and I will find a way to make this look better with keeping those ideas at the forefront. As far as the maple goes, I 100% think it's the reason I have so many struggles with planting remotely close to it..along with it being ugly IMO. I have a maple in my side yard you can see in my pics above, it's the giant tree to the left in the first pic. I LOVE that tree! It has so many curvy limbs and the fall colors are spectacular! But this problem tree has no esthetics to it whatsoever along with being in a stupid spot(not from me I swear! Lol, it was here when I moved here!!) and along with the money I waste when I plant things in its path and they die from this tree taking its nutrients..I had to move one of my climbing roses last year because it wasn't doing as well as its counterpart, which I thought was due to it receiving less sun than the other. But when I dug it up it had the maples roots wrapped around its own roots! I hope it bounces back in its new location..it seems to be leafing out..just a lot slower. I wanted to put a crab tree in the location but the type I wanted doesn't seem to be anywhere? So I was thinking about a pink weeping cherry, or maybe a redbud? I wanted something that flowers..I already have some dogwood trees but it doesn't flower that great as I hoped..although it is fairly young(4 years) . And my neighbors all have these pretty flowering trees that I'd love to have. But don't want too many issues...do you guys know of a tree that gets around 20-30 feet high that also gets wide as well that flowers and seems to do ok in full sun zone 5b MA climate?

U-Line products are crap and their service is about the same. We've had 3 products and 2 are now dead. Clear ice maker had a valve failure about 4 years in that flooded the basement and did $18K damage - apparently a known valve issue that U-Line failed to disclose or notify customers about. Our beverage center had a complete failure and since it is a sealed system will cost more to repair than buy a new one. We have a 3rd refrigerator that is still alive and kicking for now. (Not holding my breath). For the cost, these should last longer than units that you can buy at Lowe's. U-Line service is woeful and not very empathetic. Even local dealers say the same thing and repair guys throw up their hands when faced with attempting to repair these things.