(To post photos from flickr, see the screen snip below yard photos. After clicking on the second link, you'd be shown options for various codes. You'd be looking for html code for a medium size picture which you would copy and then paste into your message here. It might take a little experimentation.) I know that after creating a paved area it is common to hem it in with plants as if one is surrounding it with a mixture of soft, green barricades. As you're early on in the process, I'd urge you to consider another strategy and that is keeping the area surrounding the patio relatively open, and instead placing the objects that will create the view, closer to, or at the perimeter of the yard. In the end, it's a much less claustrophobic look and opens the whole yard to being the view rather than just what's under one's nose. It doesn't mean that adjacent to the patio you can't have shade and a "ceiling" and some very low plantings... a sense of shelter and protection. It means that you should keep the view as open as possible in order to see what's beyond. A tree adjacent to the patio with some low groundcover below it would work well. But surrounding the patio with lots of shrubs and perennials would seem as if you're trying to re-create the sense of being indoors by having some low walls nearby. For an evergreen hedge that would screen the road, you might consider 'Sky Pencil' Holly. (Check to make sure that it performs well in your area first.) The Arborvitae and Leyland Cypress get HUGE and would overwhelm your yard. I would not be so quick to rule out deciduous plants as after they've been maintained for a while, they can produce fair winter screening without leaves just from the twigginess. This would considerably open up the possibilities of what plants you can use. Uploaded with ImageShack.us

As with most streakers, they have to be watched and dominant non-streaked parts have to be removed. Most streakers are sold after a year or two. That helps in making sure the plant isn't going to go straight to a solid color or variegation. I will be using the streakers plus other hosta for hybridizing making my own crosses starting this year. This year it will be hit and miss due to the fact that I will have to wait for the blooms to get pollen and to pollinate. I will be collecting and storing pollen from everything I want to use so I won't have to only do crosses if the bloom times line up next year. Streakers will take some growing time measured in years before you will know if it is going to be somewhat stable or if it will change to a non-streaker the following year. I built that big table in the basement just for growing hosta from seed. One cross that I am going to go for is to introduce streaking or variegation into Clovelly. I also wouldn't mind introducing some growth speed into GE, DQ, TB or even a montana. I have a few specific goals in mind but it is going to take some serious time. The growth rates of hosta is one thing that I am really interested in. Some hosta grow like weeds and I really like that. I want to see more hosta that grow fast.

That's one big arbor. I suggest to try with a group 3 clematis, and the biggest ones. You'll need a sort of weather proof container (resin probably). Try 2/3 plants from different varieties. I recommend: Clematis tangutica Clematis SUMMER SNOW 'Paul Farges' Clematis viriginiana. I have the first two, the Paul Vargas, one in bright shade (no direct sunlight) and tangutica, which flower from September to October. Read about the pruning of clematis, mine I haven't pruned, so I have woody stems below and flowers all above. It will take 3/4 years until you really see them take over. You can buy a full-grown annual vine to cover, partially your arbor. I've grown blue morning glories and they flowered fine in dappled light. Check Tapla's soil discussion, in order to have the best soil for your plant. Good Luck

So, my options. Lots of them, quite likely all involving tree roots. Option 1 - Rain gardens for sidewalk drainage. Where our front walk flows down to the sidewalk, and also just because of grade, water stands. It does this from the center of the house over to the driveway, and if there is a real storm, it overflows into the driveway, then the street. This also happens on the other side of the driveway, so I'd probably try to do one long, narrow garden in front of the sidewalk, up to the flower boxes, and a bigger one on the north side of the driveway between the sidewalk and the street. Option 2 - Backyard gutter garden. Again, there is a tree root issue, and anything here would likely have to be hand dug (by which I mean with a hand-held spade, not a shovel). Our backyard is on Chalmer's Drain (I always thought it was Mallets Creek, but it appears not??) - and there isn't much in the way of a run-off issue back there. The waterway is lined with caged rocks, and I suspect my back garden is already acting as a filter between the house/garage and the creek. Just feels like, since I've already got a long gutter clearing the water away from the house, this wouldn't be the most helpful rain garden. Option 3 - Driveway Dig Out Right now I have a downspout that comes out from the corner of the house about 3' into a flower bed. The flower bed helps retain some water, but it isn't dug in more than a few inches. Problem here is two-fold. The ground for the first 4 feet near the house is full of gravel. And then, tree roots. In an ideal world, I'd dig out a drainage path from the house-bed, under the walkway, into the other bed, and build the rain garden inside that bed. Then I'd put in the black flexi-pipe and cover the over up to the rain garden. My helper isn't going to want to help dig out that much... so I'm avoiding this, although I'd like to see that water come out further from the house, and need to do something about that regardless.