I have bamboo in my garden in Canada. It was given to me by my neighbour who has grown the same stand of bamboo for 20 years. No care is necessary... no mulching, covering etc. It grows to 12' to 14' each year. Has long green leaves & it turns a pretty beige color in the winter, with feathery seed heads at the top.. doesn't flower till late september. We have minus 35 C winters here & it never bothers this bamboo. I would love to get more but don't know the name...it looks a bit like Pseudosasa Japonica, but I'm not sure

Hi there...I take a bit of a different approach to fill larger spaces. I do this with shrubs as well as perennials and spring ephemerals. I buy one or more young plants/shrubs from a nursery and plant them at visually pleasing locations and then I take seeds or seedlings and plant them all around the mature plant/shrub of the same species. Eventually the seeds/seedlings will fill in to make a "patch" or "thicket" and in the meantime I actually have a large specimen of each to enjoy while the little ones are growing up. Have you been to the WinterSowing forum? I just started Winter Sowing for the first time and I'm trying mostly native shrubs and flowers but also some non-native flowers for spring plant swaps and shrubs from my front yard. If you haven't already checked it out... go here: http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/wtrsow/ Barb southern Ontario, CANADA zone 6a

It would be lovely to see the bed in context, showing then entire length of the bed and its surroundings including the house, any trees, driveway and walkway locations, etc. If you stand opposite the front door about 15' out and then take a series of photos that overlap starting facing the left property line and then rotating and taking photos as you turn to end up facing the right property line. 2' wide (front to back depth) isn't deep enough to make an attractive arrangement IME. I originally had 4' beds, but they ended up looking far too narrow to look good with the house, and so now my narrowest beds are 6' and most are 8' or more. The depth gives room for shrubs to provide structure and winter interest at the back and then a combination of groundcovers, perennials, and bulbs toward the front. It is difficult to make a single straight line of plants look truly appealing IME. It may seem like that is overkill and will require many plants, but if you choose plants that are easily divided (like your hosta) or started from seed, the space will fill faster than you think. What is the shrub growing by the trellis?

As laceyvail said, the maple roots will grow up into the raised bed. I had maple roots grow up into a container through the drain holes, and within just a few short years, I found that the entire container was filled with fine roots, right to the surface. I had to replace the soil entirely and put a saucer under the pot to keep the maple roots out. I also would be concerned with a raised bed against a fence causing rot, or if there is a small space between them, being difficult to weed the gap. You could try any of laceyvail’s suggestions except Liriope, which isn’t hardy in MN. Other possibilities include Lamium/spotted deadnettle or Geranium Biokovo. Regardless, you will need to water well and frequently, not just the new plants, but also the entire area under the tree so that the tree roots aren’t growing toward pockets of moisture immediately around the new plants. Mulch the whole area lightly. Clematis don’t like root competition, so near the maple won’t make it happy.