I have a narrow shrub border around my patio, it is lovely and very low maintenance with the bark mulch. Some of my favorite plants have been "Robusta" juniper, Spirea, (can't think of the variety offhand, but it has yellow foliage with hot pink flowers and the new growth is red, it is the total show stopper in my yard.) I also planted "Miss Kim" lilac which has kept a nice tidy size, and a small japanese maple called "Fireglow" which I highly recommend. It is more columnar than some of the other japanes maples. There's also coralbark japanese maple which is also somewhat columnar. Mail order the maples if you have to. I did for mine and I was totally skeptical when the pathetic little sapling arrived, but it has thrived and shot up in growth. I've also planted some dwarf evergreens, which is just my personal passion. Your landscape designer should be able to design a nice mixed shrub border, and if not go to any reputable nursery and they should be able to help. I really love the way flowering shrubs add a punch of color and are super low maintenance compared to perennials. But, I have perennial shasta daisies planted in between the shrubs to give a pretty burst of light in the summer and it is great when I sit out at night on the patio, those flowers show off. There are also easy care landscape roses which are nice in a shrub border but they don't always sell these varieties in ye olde big box garden center. I've got a native rose, called "Virginia's rose" which I have to beat back with a shovel it is so hardy. It only blooms once a year though, and there are other, more continual bloom varieties that are also hardy. And they've really done a lot with breeding smaller varieties on weigela, which is another hardy flowering shrub. And there are also dogwood shrub varieties with lovely foliage and bark. Redtwig dogwood is one example. So those are some ideas to get you started.

I really like them. Hopefully in the future I will be able to put in a bigger pond and I can try again with the Golden Orfes and do it right by getting about 5 or 6. For now I am going to pass on them as I see the advice the guy in the pond store told me that one was good, was wrong. Meantime I rewarded myself by going back to the pond store and buying two new fish. I got a stunner of a butterfly koi in a strange metalic almost mustard old gold color. I know that might not sound attractive but the fish is lovely. Also a most beautiful deep almost red "goldfish" with the most long, long, long tail and fins.

" Love those tiny little crunchy fishies, dipped in cocktail sauce and eaten bones, tail and all. " Me too, Annie! ! ! ! And I had some this year for the first time in ages! It's not anything that is known in these parts, But a large store about 50 miles from here had some. I bought about 5 lbs, and really "pigged out" (for lack of a better term) that night. I have the rest in meal sized packages in the freezer. I use them as a 'reward' for myself when I accomplish something I've been dreading doing! "I don't get it. Fish is fish. I WANT it to taste like fish. I don't want it to taste like beef, chicken, or anything else. " I agree with that 100%, too. I like to 'eat healthy', and I try to most of the time. But I am not willing to torture myself with food I don't like. If I were intent on giving up red meats, I would try to find something that I enjoyed To replace it with. As many have mentioned above, There are a number of very mild tasting fish. Preparing/serving them with a highly seasoned sauce might do the job for you. Good luck in your quest. Rusty

A simple truth is that your yard could go from mediocre to almost spectacular based on one single change and that is to improve the maintenance of the grass such that it is uniformly green and weed free. If it's a grass that goes blond when dormant, then it should be free of green weeds in the winter. You'll have to forgive my corner-cutting in drawing. I drew a single tree and cut and pasted it everywhere. I'm not suggesting that you should use that tree form everywhere. Just trying to save drawing time. The point I'm making for the overall yard is that the house looks overly exposed -- like a raisin in the sun. It needs the framing and sheltered look that some trees would give. Probably in the foreground of the lawn, single trunk trees, with canopies ultimately raised quite high, would look good ... with smaller multi-trunk trees being closer to the house. Currently your house is smothered all around with shrub balls at its base. Instead of all the smothering, only four shrubs that correspond to four porch columns would be enough. I'm flanking the steps with "color," which could be annual or perennial depending on the details of your needs. Between the shrubs and "color" is a low groundcover that fills in the gaps. At each end of the house the bed is filled with perennials of a height that works with the house and the grade. The ends do not need to match each other. (Daylilies and Siberian iris come to mind if either of those would suit your liking.) In the second picture I'm suggesting that the walk experience would seem much friendlier if there wasn't shrubbery pinching edges of the walk. It would be better set back away from the walk. For the size of house and yard, the walk looks very skinny, which makes it less inviting. You could easily change this my mortaring an 8" brick band along each side, flush with the walk surface. This would add 16" width and an upgraded, decorative edge to the walk. (I'm not illustrating this.)