I guess it's time for the "yes, but's". 1) first of all, thank you for explaining about opening up the view of the house. I took a walk around the neighborhood this morning, and (finally) could actually see the difference between those houses with "opened up" landscaping, and those houses looking "all boxed in". 2) I went to the gardening center this afternoon. Yes, perennials are on sale now, but shrubs are still expensive. I definitely have to do a lot of reading (I went to the library yesterday for some books) to see what plants I can consider. I want to plan carefully first. 3) We're going to move the sand cherry and Japanese yew to the backyard next weekend. 4) Reluctantly I will remove the arborvitaes - I'm guessing we'll just try to dig most of the roots out somehow after the trees are down. However, the ugly roof support columns (with the ugly 1960's metal swirls) will be visible until something manages to grow tall enough to cover them up - ugh. 5) I cannot bring myself to take a picture of the step up from the driveway - it is just too hideously ugly - old carpeting on the uneven concrete porch, ugly railing, ugly driveway, etc. When I can afford to change it, that porch and railing have got to go, but who knows when that will be. 6) I can demolish the buckthorn, but I have to leave a bed there. There is a gas pipe directly under that side of the house, and I can't dig down to get out the buckthorn roots, so we'll just lob it off as close to the ground as we can and put some plants there to hide any little bit of stump still left. 7) Here is a closer shot of that side of the house. The yellow lines show the arborvitaes of the neighbors - tall past the point of no return. The orange line shows their lilac almost touching my roof (which is fine with me, I like lilac). The white line shows my boxwood and the blue line shows yet another arborvitae. If we can get these 2 (the white and the blue) out without the gas pipe giving us a problem, we will do so. But a path has to stay clear on that side of the house so the guy can read the meter, so no, I can't extend the neighbor's flower bed. The green line shows the 3rd arborvitae. We were wondering, seeing as you've drawn in a tree for that side of the house, perhaps that arborvitae should be left in place to satisfy that requirement? Or should the blue, the white, and the green all go? As always, thanks for your continuing help.

Yep same same up here in Stafford, CT. Down by the center of the 'old'section of town there is a big old 'Mill Pond' and I felt so bad for the folks living around there. The pond went way up and so did the river. There's a guy down there who had a big tomato garden this past summer in his backyard, (a big backyard) which is now not only a pond but also a raging river! Unbelievable. Roads washed out everywhere. A tree fell down because of softened/washed away banks and fell right on someone's house. I drove from WMass down Rte 91 last night and then through Enfield down 190 to Stafford and there were spots where the water was at least a foot or two deep on the road. I heard on the radio today that parts of 91 were closed in both directions because there was - get this - THREE FEET of water on the highway! I haven't planted any bulbs out of sheer laziness/no time, so I guess I lucked out a bit on that. We are on a hill, but there is more hill above us and the water has washed down some of my stone walls... oddly enough the basement which has been somewaht wet in the past is really dry. I wonder if the 'holes' got plugged with mud or something! I'm glad I am not at my old rented house in Sturbridge, MA anymore - that place had a fieldstone basement and a sump that barely kept up with water in regular rainstorms... Can you imagine if all that rain was SNOW?

My feeders and waterer were thronged as soon as I got the feed out. At the suet feeder both the male and female downy woodpecker, followed by the redbreasted male woodpecker and then a nut hatch and crested titmouse. At the sunflower seed feeder there were both purple and goldfinches, juncos, sparrows, more titmice and a male and female cardinal. And a bluebird came to the waterer. I haven't seen a bluebird for a long time. Being insectivorus, they seldom visit the feeder, but warm water on a frigid day is another matter. Haven't seen the yellowbellied sapsucker this year yet or the ladderbacked woodpecker. Didn't see blackcapped chickadees either. They're usually part of the winter crowd. Let us know if you identify the bird with the reddish breast.

Greg,the big pindo is planted on the south east side of my house.I have'nt thought about how im going to protect them,and all my palms.I will probably put lights and some kind of wrap on my Pindos Palms.My Blue Mediterranean Fan Palms made it through last winter with no problem,so I will wait and see what this winter is going to be like.I have two Queen Palms,you can only see one of them from that picture.I will probably build some kind of structure around them, with lights or something far a heat source. Protempsfish,Douglasville is a very nice town to live in.I live in the historic district,about 1/4 mile from the center of downtown Douglasville.When I was little it was a little country town,now it has tripled in size in the past five years. bamatufa,thanks for info,but I have two Queen Palms now.I have 10 palms that im going to have to protect already.I will check it out anyhow.The last time I was at my local HD they were sold out of the 3 and 7 gallon queen palms.I did notice they put some three gallons in fancy pots and they are priced at $40 dollars(CRAZY)!!! Thanks for all the responses and complements.I hope everyone is having a great summer,and keep planting :)