You've got a lot of good advice to start you off. I'll add my 2 cents worth :-) My backyard is almost entirely shade except a bit in the center, which is now the only space where there is lawn. (See the link below to a thread on the Woodlands Gardening forum for pictures, plan and description of my shade garden...) The biggest problem with the shade garden here is mosquitoes! I do the vast majority of my gardening work in the spring before they come out of hibernation and again in the fall when they've gone back into hibernation. In mid summer, I relax and enjoy the garden largely from the shelter of the back porch! When I do my regular tree seedling patrols, I wear a bug shirt :-) By 'long needle pines' do you mean white pines? I have two and there are others on the neighbouring properies that affect us too. They are my favorite evergreens! The annual needlecast provides lots of lovely mulch - it all gets raked into the garden beds where it is left to rot down naturally to the benifit of the plants there. Directly under the skirt of the pines, Sweet Woodruff is the main planting. Closer to the edge of the canopy, other shade plants tolerant of fairly dry conditions e.g. perenial geraniums, brunnera, some ferns will do well. Hostas and Solomon's Seal make a nice combination in there as well. The list of shade plants you'll want in the garden is almost endless :-) Shade gardening is very rewarding - lots of beautiful plants and interesting combinations. Work out at least a rough idea of what you want to do and then get started. Mowing those weeds so you have a better feel for the space and conditions is a good thing to do while you're in the early stages of thinking about it as a garden rather than a weedy wasteland! Good luck. Here is a link that might be useful: shade garden

I have been growing palms a long time and I have seen professional grower's techniques and methods, some who have been doing this for a living for over 30 years. We all find that for almost all palms, the smaller the pot (to some extent) the faster and better the palms will grow. This is mostly likely due to the improved drainage and speed at which the water and nutrients pass by the root hairs (most palm roots dislike sitting in wet, sloggy or inactve soils unless they are ultratropical palms that normally live that way). But there is something more to it than that. It's as if the palms do better as soon as their roots hit a surface, like the sides or bottom of the pot (sides, more likely). Otherwise one could just add more pumice or large materials to the soil to make the soild drain faster in larger pots. I have tried this but it does little to speed things up. Palms definitely like to 'feel' the limitations of their growing situation for some reason- I am sure someone with a better understanding of palm biology and soil science can explain this, but that is why professional palm growers never grow their palms in larger pots (no, it's not to save space or soil). Planting a palm in a larger pot I think would sure cut down on the repotting times and efforts, but the fact is simply palms grow faster the more their roots are confined (there is a point of course at which this confinement is problematic and the growth rate declines... but it is amazing how extremely pot bound a palm has to be for this point to be reached). I know growers who never pot up a palm until it has split the pot. I know other growers who pot up palms unscrupulously too early just so it looks like you're getting a bigger plant because it's in a bigger pot, too, but fortunately I know fewer of those types than the other. I have purchased many a palm from these people and noticed that the newly repotted palm goes through a long period of 'sulking' where it does not grow and its rootball remains in the original size and shape it was in the previous much smaller pot for some time. It does appear this 'shock' of the roots no longer being confined markedly slows the palm's growth down. Dr. Hodel, a PhD in biology, specializing in palms, has done numerous experiments on planting and growing palms, and has found that this is indeed the case for many species of palm (all common ones of course... hard to do research on rarer species due to the cost restraints... and the rarer species comparatively slower growth rates). His conclusions have included digging narrow holes barely any larger than the size of the pot when planting palms in the ground to decrease this sulking time. He also has found that back filling these holes with the same soil that was dug out of them works as well if not better than putting in 'ideal' or ammended soils in the hole (a somewhat unrelated topic, but interesting to me, as well). Anyway, though it may seem counterintuitive, it does indeed seem that the smaller the pot, the faster a palm will grow (I think at some point in a palm's maturity, this may no longer be the case as the large palm's nutritional needs exceed this need for root confinement). But it never ceases to amaze me when I go to Home Depot and see these monstrous, healthy Queen palms, some over 20' tall, growing in pots literally the same diameter as their emerging trunks, and the split pots with the roots making their way out the bottom holes and splits.

Check the adverts in the back of 'The NZ Gardener' magazine for the bamboo nursery. I know there's one up north that has a wide variety and they could advise better on what really would be 'non-invasive' for your area. Quick-growing. Ceanothus. Buddleja. Weigela. Deutzia. Philadelphus. Escallonia. Abelia. Boronia. All except the Boronia will grow pretty quickly and give some shelter, but they all tend to go woody and leggy after a while and need replacing with the real bones of the garden. Buddleja is a bit of a hazard, especially in forestry areas because it does escape from cultivation. They all need routine pruning. You might like to consider a feijoa hedge, and a selection of goodies from Incredible Edibles - blueberries, cranberries, bananas, mountain pawpaw and so forth. Beautiful - and tasty.

Seagreen, some of the suggestions offered are, while good ones, not necessarily what you are seeking. If it's the actual tree-not a garden mini-that you seek, then you want straight-species eastern hemlock-Tsuga canadensis. And if that is the case-that your main appreciation is for the native tree itself, well then let me tell you that is just as valid a quest as that of the collectors that participate on this board. I really like some of the conifer gardens I've seen. It really is, IMO, one of the pinnacles of skilled horticulture. But that in no way compares-for me-to the wonders of growing, watching grow, cutting down, burning, hehe, let's just say a range of activities, with the woods and tree farm that has been my project since 08. Or of seeing the same processes at work in the relatively less-disturbed areas in my travels. Anyway...the main issue with eastern hemlock these days is an imported (by accident) very destructive insect know as the hemlock woolly adelgid, which is in fact decimating this tree to the east. Michigan has recorded at least a find of tis pest, but I'm not sure of the present status without doing some quick research. But in any case, check that issue out-it sounds like you can still grow hemlock in SE Michigan-but arm yourself with knowledge, should you ever have to treat your plant(s), which is doable, BTW, or if that's just not a go with you. Here in Wisconsin, so far so good. But it has tended to be the case that whatever shows up to our E, it does end up here eventually. Cold winters, blah blah. They said that about gypsy moth-we got gypsy moth. Then two winters ago, when they said it would kill all the emerald ash borers, it didn't kill all of the emerald ash borers. And so on. Would really suck-right around where my land is, it is hemlock that I see coming up as regeneration in many areas. And there is a patch of old growth on the high bans of a lake nearby-this actually has state designation as a legacy stand-so much to lose around there if adelgid comes in. +oM