Thank you for the link, Mellisa. We should all make a copy of this.

There are several more close to us (I live in Rockbridge County too): My favorite and the most reasonable is the Mennonite nursery (Milmont) in Stuarts Draft. Right now they have a sale on trees, shrubs and perennials and fall annuals. They have a beautiful selection of fall mums too. Just follow Route 11 north to Greenville and take a right across from the Pilot station onto Route 340 to Stuarts Draft. Stuarts Draft is a small town and is about five to eight miles from Route 11. Milmont will be on your right approximately 3/4 mile after you have passed through the intersection of Route 608 and 340. You can also make a day of it and visit Waynesboro. Just continue on Route 340 (after taking a right from Milmont) and you will shortly be in Waynesboro. Follow 340 all the way to Route 250 and take a left at that intersection. About 1/2 mile on the left you will find Waynesboro Garden Center where you will find large trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals, a nice garden shop with two levels. Farther west on Route 250 is Fishersville with a place called I think is called the The Village Garden Center(just look for a big red barn on your right) with more trees, shrubs, perennials and annuals. Ask for directions there to Viette's (it's not far from Route 250). From Viette's you could then go north to Shreckhise (sp?) Nurseries in Verona for trees, shrubs, p's and a's which is not too far off of Route 11 and from there to Harrisonburg (also on Route 11) there is a nice placed called Hess Greenhouse which sells mums, pumpkins, perennials, annuals, grasses, etc.(look for the huge windmill). And by the way, in Harrisonburg on October 6th at the arboretum at James Madison University there will be a bulb sale (Brent and Becky's Bulbs)! The web site for the arboretum can be found at the web site for JMU. That ought to keep you busy for a while. I know of more but they are farther away over Afton Mountain. Just email me at sylpatterson@earthlink.net and I will give you better directions and details. Happy plant hunting! By the way, you are in Zone 6 so don't get too many tropicals before you figure out where your microclimates are.

Trine...I often go to a site called mobilehomerepair.com. It has tons. Also there is a site called tastyvenison.com. He has some wonderful pics and a movie on youtube. I haven't tried much of what these two have, but the ideas are swimming in my head! Good luck!

I think it's kind of rude to comment just to tell me what I did wrong by asking for help (with plenty of detail) and using pictures that were readily available to me. If you are giving advice, which is what I asked for, these pictures are good enough. It doesn't matter on what site, on what forum- there is always one person who just HAS to pipe up to be unhelpful and critique your request instead of answering your questions. I was asking for advice on my own fledgeling plan- not asking for free design from someone. Next time if you don't have anything helpful to say, and if you can't give your thoughts nicely, just don't say anything. I'm sure it's satisfying to try to discourage new gardeners by giving your two cents about their photos, their ideas, and whatever else without giving your opinions on the questions actually posed. Going on the attack like that with the third degree, "You indicate you are new at creating a landscape, and frustrated by attempting the process of planning it. Then you go on to say how you intend to resolve it. Do you care if those ideas are good? Or you just want help in how to implement them? You might consider advice on what you ought to do instead of what you want to do." I'm not a child and am fully capable of planning and doing it on my own, thank you, I'm just here to see if a KIND person might give a few suggestions or point out something they've seen that looked nice on a similar house. Also, there is nothing wrong with being honest about what's in the cards for you (budget, time, and overall investment wise) than just wasting everyone's time. I didn't want a thread with 20 responses about how I need to limb up, thin, or remove trees in my yard. I want a thread about how to plant a line of perennials in front of my house that will look nice together. I think in my essay of a post I made that fairly clear.