Rabbits eat all this stuff so you will need rabbit fencing if you have rabbits. Be sure to put other stuff in the bed as bulbs like Daffs don't last very long. Just plant right side up three times the depth of the bulb size. Marianne

I have no criticisms of your home. It is clean, tidy, and well cared for. It appears to be comparable to other homes around it - age, style, condition, etc. I don't believe you could ever recoup the costs of doing what some posters are suggesting - kitchen remodel, wood flooring, second bath, etc. Those fixes, while they are likely to make your home sell quicker, are not likely to make you more money or even break even. You may also end up decreasing the buyer pool if your improvements aren't to that buyer's particular taste. The one suggestion I do like, and that I agree with, is to consider hiring a company to stage your home. They will bring in new furniture and will place it in a manner that makes it attractive to buyers. Please don't take this as a criticism of your current furnishings, it's just an idea to give your home a splash of "new" without extravagant costs. Now, the big point: Price. Not knowing your local market, I'm not in a position to say whether your home is overpriced or not. However, I will pass along a piece of advice I received from my real estate agent that I followed and my home sold in 1 day. That is, if you are getting a lot of initial interest and showings but no offers, you are simply over priced. The only true way to assess the value of your home is to get a listing of SOLD prices in your neighborhood. From there, you find out what homes are selling on a dollar per square foot basis and apply that to your square footage. That is a good starting point. You have your home listed in the $114/sq. ft. range. What did your neighbor's home sell for on a per sq. ft. basis? If it sold for $100/sq. ft. and you are asking $114/sq. ft., you are over priced. Did the neighbor's home have any upgrades your home lacks? How long was that home on the market? You state there has only been one sale in your area in the past year, but that the market has improved since then. If there have been no comparable sales, how do you know whether the market has improved in your neighborhood? Some areas in your city may be seeing price increases, but that doesn't mean there are across the board increases. Lenders are still leery of losing money; buyers are leery about paying too much as we saw happened a few years ago. If I were in your shoes, I'd take the house off the market if you continue to not have any interest very soon, have your realtor conduct an analysis of SOLD prices per sq. ft, relist your home at an adjusted price (supported by the sold comps), and have it professionally staged.

You patio area looks lovely. Now it's time for the fun stuff - the plants! You will get the most benefit from adding some structural shrubs. Just adding perennials won't give you any winter interest since they dieback in the winter and can be insignificant. Some low maintenance shrubs like Viburnums, Lilacs, Hydrangeas will work just fine and have a nice bloom in the spring/summer. Planting in odd numbers always works well and also planting in masses. I agree with Yaardvark by adding a nice ornamental tree to the right of the patio and tying the planting bed to the patio so it all connects. Once you pick all your main structural plantings (don't forget to include some evergreens to guarentee some greenery in the winter), you can add some perennials for a nice accent. For shade you can go with hosta, astilbe, ferns and japanese forest grass, to name a few! Also, when looking at the area from the secondary backdoor (not leading directly out to the patio) and your patio connection, you can easily just add a nice curving path of steppers to make that connection. That can be more cost effective and still give the same feel. Good luck!

In general, landscape design looks at the clients' needs and wishes for the property as a whole and the creates a design that then meets as many of those as possible in the most pleasing way. Other than the sheds and the veggie garden, how do you want to use the yard? To my mind, that needs to be answered before any real plans are made. Is privacy (fence) more important than the veggies? Does it need to be there year round, or is privacy only really important in the summer when you will be outside more? Do you want a large open space for games or running around in the center? How much shade is there over the course of the day along the chain link or in other spots of the yard such as along the deck? Do you want a "pretty" yard or a kid-friendly yard or is the growing of food more of a priority or are they all of equal priority? Where will you be most likely to walk or drive and so will need to be left open? Where is water available, and would you be able to add hose bibs in other spots as needed? Do you want afternoon shade for the deck or other areas, and would you be more likely to plant a tree, or add a structure such as an arbor or shade sail? What other wishes do you have for the yard? As others have said, the more sun, the more successful the veggie and fruit beds will be, so too close to the sheds and the nearby solid fence which will provide shade should be avoided. You also will want to change your grouping/way of thinking about the plants from culinary to cultivation. Melons, like all your veggies, are annual plants, while most other "fruits" you have listed are perennials. The annuals and perennials each should have a planting area so that when clearing out and replanting annuals each year you aren't disturbing the perennial plants. The strawberries will need renewing every few years while each of the the shrubs and vines, which are fairly permanent, have different maintenance needs, and so should be planted in separate areas. If you grow herbs, some are annuals and some perennials. Consider overall goals and how else you will use your yard to help determine the best spot for the veggie beds. For instance, if you want the center of the yard left open, then think about putting your food plants along the chain link instead of a fence since it looks like it gets good sun. Or is the solid fence important enough the you should stockpile your soil for now or make temporary beds and then when the fence has been added, create the beds and plant food crops? Could you use the berry bushes and kiwi vines for your privacy instead of a solid fence? They are deciduous, so wouldn't be great for winter privacy. You would need to leave room between the shrubs and the chain link for accessing the vines. Fruit plants don't need as close access as herbs or veggies since fruit tends to be picked in chunks, while veggies tend to get harvested for particular meals, so think about putting the veggies and herbs closer to the house where there is easy access from the kitchen. Would you want veggies as a border around the deck, or does that either not fit the plants' needs or your wishes? So create a list of uses and priorities for the yard as a whole (swimming pool? play structure? bocce court? badminton net? trash can storage? etc, etc), prioritize them, and then start thinking about placement. You have already made one big decision, the shed size and placement, and so before making others, I would stop, step back and look at the yard overall. Take some time over the next growing season to look at sun and shade patterns (if you map sun as it changes from the vernal equinox until the summer solstice, you will have a good grasp on how it will look but in reverse for the rest of the growing season) as well as wind before planting anything permanent if successful cultivation of food crops is a priority. Once you have a good handle on growing conditions and your overall goals for the yard, then you will have a better idea of where is the ideal placement for each of the various uses you have for your yard.