Hmmmm (rubbing hands together). Now, that's a bit of a challenge. Not much space, not much light, not much money, and not a lot of gardening experience -- and it will be winter for at least part of the time. I love it! I can imagine that being a nice little place to sit in the evening, a cool breeze but with a lot of privacy. This isn't actually below ground level, is it? I'd definitely get rid of the AstroTurf. That stuff only works in a dry, sunny area outdoors, and it doesn't look like this space is either. Does the ground drain away thru the fence at the back of the picture? Hope so, 'cuz I know it rains a lot in the spring in that part of Michigan. I assume it's soil underneath, but probably not very good soil for growing. You could lay down several bags of mulch -- pine back is pretty cheap and it's less prone to funky-looking molds than the hardwood. Look for stuff that comes in fairly small pieces, not the nuggets. Lay down some concrete 24" x 24" pavers, maybe 4-6, in the foreground, against the building on the left, and put out a little bistro table with 2 chairs. You can buy sets pretty cheap, or you can put together something from thrift store finds. A can or two of spray paint and -- voila! -- you have a set. You don't want to mess around with planting stuff in the ground -- focus on containers. For cheap, big planters, you can't beat big plastic totes from the Big Box stores. (I'm talking about the 35-50 gallon Rubbermaid jobies that are 3-4' long and about 2 1/2' tall. Around here, those go for a little over $20.) You can raise them up on some cinderblocks if you like, and you can dress them up with a wood surround made form old pallets. I'd put two of them along the wall on the right, facing into the apartment, and another perpendicular to the wall on the left, marking the end of the space. Keep an eye out for smaller containers you can group around the base of the tubs. And keep your mind open -- do a search on creative planter ideas nd you'll be amazed what you can plant in! Don't forget the walls! You can place lattice panels behind the tubs, to encourage vines. A can of spray paint in a bright color makes them a focal point even in the winter. An outdoor mirror (plastic, not glass) would also add some life and movement. For plants -- think shady, understory things. Varigated leaves, rather than bright flowers. Coleus, hosta's, ferns. Shady groundcovers like ajuga or creeping jenny spread fast and look nice as a background for other plants. It's a daunting space, but I think it's great your brother is thinking about spreading out and taking advantage of it. I'm sure you'll make it great!

To clarify some things about our ideas to buy on Isle of Palms - while we're going to hold off on buying, and may not ever buy on the island itself, the area around it seems to be exactly what we're looking for our retirement years. The island is less than 13 miles to downtown Charleston, and only 20 miles to the Charleston Int'l airport. Even closer than Charleston is Mount Pleasant, about 4 miles away (across the Inter-coastal waterway and a marsh), which has plenty of shopping, restaurants, medical care including a decent hospital. In addition to wanting to live close to the ocean, we want to live near good medical care (this is most important), shopping (I'm not going to stop doing DIY projects on any home I live in until my body gives out - it's my hobby), airports, etc. I love the beach - every vacation we can we go to a beach - we've visited many of the east coast beaches over the years - I never get tired of it. My husband loves salt water fishing. We have a boat that he takes onto the Chesapeake Bay all the time to fish, and we go tubing on the Potomac River with our grown kids and grand kids (who are still very little). We've planned on retiring to as close to the (right) beach as possible for at least 20 years and I think it's safe to say that we're not going to change our mind about that between now and when we actually retire. And I definitely don't want to ever live someplace rural again - did that as child and have family still there - definitely not for me. Even if we were young I don't want to live in a place where there aren't plenty of doctors, including all types of specialists, and I don't want to live someplace, where if one of us was in the hospital, the other would have to drive over an hour back and forth. I'm honestly surprised at how many people I know who retire who don't care about that aspect at all. So - given what we know we want/need, we've been considering all the areas close to the Atlantic between Wilmington NC and Jacksonville FL. A few years ago we visited every place that even seemed to come close to what we want. But when we were looking before our income and savings were a fair amount less than they are now, and housing costs and interest rates were higher, so it limited where we would be able to afford to buy, so we didn't consider some of the areas we could afford now. And this is a retirement place we're talking about - being able to vacation in it before retirement is a bonus. We could wait until we retire to buy, but as I said in the original post, I don't want to miss an opportunity to buy while the prices are low AND the interest rates are low. But I do think we need to slow down and take our time - visit and stay there during different seasons, including the heavy tourist season, and make sure that it's what we want. We may find that living on an island/beach itself is not that great and that we should go back to what we always considered to be our only option - living on the mainland, but close to the beach. People seem to think that prices will be low for a while - I don't want to buy and then see prices drop even lower - and that interest rates will be low for a while too. So I realize that there is no rush - but I still don't want to kick myself years from now for missing any "deals of the century". I know this was long - sorry about that - but I think my first post gave the impression that the whole idea of buying at/near a beach, and this one in particular, was hurried and not thought out. While rushing into it right now is undoubtedly a bad idea, I don't think the concept of buying a home sometime soon for retirement in a few years, if the prices and interest rates are really low now, is a bad idea.

Rotary mowers don't do as good a job with zoysia -- especially very thick zoysia -- as reel mowers. My experience has been that a rotary mower tends to "whip" the grass rather than cutting it.

Buy an eye/sleep mask. I’m serious. I get claustrophobic when all the windows are covered up by shades/blinds and I also like the ventilation of an open window. I am an extremely light sleeper. I run an air purifier next to my bed for white noise and I wear an eye mask to block out the light. It doesn’t take long to get used to the feeling of it on your face. Worth a try.