We definitely plan to keep everything trimmed rather than billowy and do plan to mulch the entire area.Just trying to figure out what ground cover and perennials to add before it gets mulched. We have 3 ft for the roses to grow up to the windows and like you said wouldn't be bad if they came up past the window a little. I will recheck the depth from the wall, we may have them too close. You are right about the Nandinas. I couldn't remember which one I wanted Firepower or Harbor Dwarf and it was the latter so will change them out. I saw them today with rose shrubs and laurels and they looked great. I actually was interested in a loose shrub by the door behind the boxwoods but couldn't think of something that would look appropriate. Wasn't sure if the camelia could work there or a viburnum? Any suggestions? Thanks.Glad you caught the Nandina mistake.

My trip to England a couple of years ago definitively changed the way I am gardening here in California. I was so impressed seeing the world famous public gardens like Kew Gardens, Sissinghurst, Great Dixter etc. But to be honest what blew me away and influenced me the most were the many private gardens that my husband and I visited. They ranged from estate size gardens of many acres with a staff of gardeners to very small plots maintained by the owner himself/herself alone. Having an "Open Garden" is a well established tradition in England and that way even as a stranger you get to visit many beautiful private gardens, which I recommend highly to anyone to make use of, who is visiting England and is interested in gardening. But back to the original question. Visiting the private gardens and realizing what these gardeners got accomplished with love and of course a lot of hard work made me so much more motivated to try to create a place of similar beauty myself. The love for roses seems to be undeniably spread all over Great Britain. The variety of Old Garden Roses that they grow there, interspersed with modern varieties too, opened my eyes to the vast range of roses. The private gardens that I saw were mostly planted in a cottage style design, which means very dense and lush plantings. I was equally impressed by the variety of perennials that they plant over there. I never saw any boring monotony of mass plantings or the repetitive use of only one or two varieties that simply grew well in that area. The ability of the British to combine colors is also outstanding. They pay so much attention to that and have such a good feeling for colors that go well together. So when I came home to California I wanted to recreate the feeling of the gardens that I had seen in England with roses and plants that grow well here in CA. I started to buy more roses, in fact many more roses, old and new varieties. I try to plant more densely for a lush, full effect and give much more thought to color combination. I designed a pure white garden bed (the inspiration came from the White Garden in Sissinghurst), which I am still tweaking but I am very pleased with how it has turned out so far. I also pay much more attention to plant a "proper border", which means the biggest plants go in the back, medium size plants into the middle and smaller ones are planted in the front of the border. I also use more containers in the garden, which provide an element of formality, but also color in case I use a glazed pot (right now I am in love with blue containers). I felt that the love for gardening knows no boundaries in England and it made me speechless how far even private gardener developed the "Art of Gardening" and what beauty they were able to create. Now that I am writing about this I realize that besides lots of inspiration from seeing so many gorgeous gardens, the most precious thing I took home with me from Great Britain is the motivation to really try to create a beautiful small garden myself. Thank you England! Christina Here is a link that might be useful: Organic Garden Dreams

"I have a english bulldog and he eats that stuff for breakfast. Thanks for advice but this dog eats everything, yesterday I dropped a $5 bill and he ate it. Great dog, loves people but very stubborn and not very smart" Reminds me of a dog advert that got mentioned on the radio recently . . . Doberman for sale. Great family pet. Eats everything. Loves children. ;-)

Hug's to both of you.......Your taking me way back into time with your daughters art work LOL. It could be a lot worse let me tell ya. My son who was quite the busy little boy went through a time of waking up in the middle of the night at the age of 3 yrs' old and he had woken me up with many sounds that did not sound right. I slept with the TV on (this was before the had a sleep timer) I was awaken to the sounds of snap, crackle and pop, he had poured a cup of water into the back of the TV. Other time I was awaken to the sounds of crunch.....crunch crunch........crunch crunch crunch.......when I opened my eyes I could see his shadow doing a dance in the middle of my bed room, getting up to see what was going on I found a whole bag of potato chips empty out on the floor and he was stomping on them. Then there was the time he had gotten out sugar, cool aid, cereal and who knows what else and grounded it into the carpet, never did get the cool aid out. Then there is my daughter she picked on cat's, she was only 3 yrs' old at the time but I was in the tub getting ready for my son's birthday party when all of a sudden my son burst into the bathroom yelling moma,moma, Julie, Julie she has the cat, well my daughter had the cat by the tail swing it around in a circle. Poor cat was never the same and would not go around the kid's at all and I had to find him a new home. I loved that cat he was so sweet and so pretty.....but I could not put him through the torture and to think that cat loved them kids he slept with them every night till DD got a hold of him.