I am with Dottie that you would do well to plant next fall (mid-September to late October in your zone) to allow root growth but have less stress on the plants due to shorter, cooler days. Regardless of what you plant, it will need regular water until the ground freezes. This season you can evaluate the site and plan so that you are ready come fall. I also agree with Dottie about voles - you could ask on the perennial forum or on the shrub forum (whatever type of plant you end up with) for suggestions that seem less attractive to voles. Most types of deodar cedar (Cedrus deodara) are hardy to zone 7, so not an option for you, though there are some types rated for colder temperatures such as 'Kashmir', 'Shalimar' and 'Polar Winter'. I'd check around at local garden centers, botanical gardens, and arboretums to see if anyone has local information as to how they do before planting them. It's tough having a borderline hardy tree that does well for several years and then is half-killed during a particularly cold winter. My inclination would be to plant native plants or ones that you are sure don't have escapist tendencies since you are on the edge woodlands, and plants such as ivy or vinca can grow into the woods, disrupting the native plants. You may find that you have already existing woodland spring wildflowers when you go into the woods in the spring. (Be aware that spring is the worst time for ticks, though they around all of the warm season, so get in the habit of doing a careful check of clothes whenever you have been out in the yard, and of your entire body at least once a day if you have been outside at all. It takes a few minutes, but I include it in my bedtime routine and haven't had an embedded tick yet, though I find them on my skin and clothes often.) Light levels: If you plant the slope with typical meadow wildflowers, you may have mixed results, depending on the amount of sun you have. Something like Rudbeckia is really a sun flower, and so may not do particularly well there. I would start taking photos at 8:00, 10, noon, 2, and 4:00. Do this at the spring solstice (mid-March, 1st day of spring), and about once a month up until the summer solstice (mid-June, 1st day of summer.) This will give you a good idea of how much sun you actually get there. If you want to try Rudbeckia, I'd go ahead and do that this spring since it will establish better with less established grass. By planting time, you may have a pretty good idea of how much sun the area gets. Water and nutrients: You might want to ID the trees along the top of the slope; depending on what you have, they may send out more or fewer shallow roots into the slope area to compete with whatever you plant. I say this because they look to me like red maples, which have fast-growing shallow roots and will compete for water and nutrients with whatever you plant. So the sooner you plant, the sooner what you plant gets established enough to be able to compete with the red maples. If you have oaks, they won't be an issue since their roots are deeper. Watch the slope and see how water levels fluctuate over the year. If it is a recently cut bank, the soil may actually be subsoil and benefit from adding organic matter to the surface, or there may be springs that will cause problems if not addressed. I'd also get a soil test done (Cornell U does them among other places) to see what will grow well in your soil. For instance, that might be a lovely place for some rhododendrons, but only if you have acid soil. Mowing: If you end up deciding to keep this meadow, it will need mowing 2-4 times a year with a brush mower to keep out woody plants. In my area those woodies include sweet fern, red maple, staghorn, sumac, white pine, black cherry, all of which like open areas for their seedlings. Seeds will blow in or be brought in by animals, and some of them will start growing, often including non-native invasives such as buckthorn, bittersweet, barberry, burning bush, and Japanese honeysuckle. In the northeast and Great Lakes area, unmowed areas will always turn into forest eventually, so you want to mow to prevent the process from getting started. In our field we time mowings to allow the ground-nesting birds' chicks to hatch undisturbed (turkeys are our most frequent ground nesters), and to allow certain plants to bloom, but for a chunk of time it is just mowed field. You can time one of your mowings for early fall just before the leaves change color, which will allow flower seeds to ripen but prevent baby trees from storing nutrients. Your landscaper may have access to a brush mower to do this for you. Regardless, the part you keep for sledding will need either regular mowed grass or the periodic Consider a mixed shrub border for the less steep part of the slope. I have one that is heavily mulched or groundcovers between plants and edged to keep out grass, and I only spend a few hours a year (perhaps an hour a month) weeding it, and it's probably about 15'x70'. It provides blooms, varied summer foliage, winter evergreens and berries, and colorful fall foliage for very little maintenance work. In the late fall or early spring I use hedge clippers to whack off the perennials and clematis to ground level. This one is full sun, but I have others in less than half day sun with a mix of shrubs and a few perennials, also edged and heavily mulched. This one is about 5 years old. Fall Spring early Winter So you have lots of options, but specific plant recommendations depend on your goals, your soil, and your sun levels.

Hi all, for some reason I cannot access my old username threedogsmom so I am back to update you on what I have done so far. After moving in an living there for a bit, there is more sun than originally thought in the front yard, so I have planted a variety of evergreens, small trees, and shrubs with a few of the hostas I brought along sprinkled in. Once I have the mulch down (in next 2 weeks) I will post a few pics. I went with the first mock-up drawing in the post above, using an undulating edge for the front yard bed to break up the linear front of the house. We sourced rocks on our property to make the edge with, so it appears like a natural extension of the rock retaining wall. The color scheme overall focuses on burgundy, blue and yellow foliage/needles, with some greens mixed in there as well. Flowering shrubs are in the reddish-magenta color. For small trees, I added a Wolf Eyes dogwood, a Saratoga gingko, a Black Dragon Cryptomeria, and a dwarf columnar blue spruce, as well as a Rising Sun Redbud across the driveway on the other side. In the front entry nook to the left, I filled in with a dwarf Baby Lace japanese maple, 3 blue star junipers, and 5 golden sedges to set the color scheme. Across the walkway, there are 2 June hostas, 3 dwarf barberries, 3 Liberty hostas, Mr Bowling Ball and Fire Chief arborvitae, Amber moon astilbe, a magenta pink hydrangea, Lemon Beauty lonicera, 3 lemon thread mops, a dwarf golden hinoki cypress, purple leaf sand cherry, 2 red drift roses, 2 blue rug junipers to hang over the rock wall, daylilies, 3 dwarf Buzz buddleias interspersed with variegated liriope, golden barberry, 2 Beyond Blue fescue clumps and a Standing Ovation grass. So your eye will see repetition of the red/burgundy, then yellows, then blues as you move around the garden bed. I think it will mature very nicely as time goes on and should offer nice color and structure all year long while still being low maintenance. Pics to follow in a few weeks - working on the mulching this weekend!!

Though somewhat leaning, without the branch at least the tree has a symmetrical vase shape. I grant it would have been nice to cure the lean, too. but that's what happens when a tree is neglected during its formative years. Can't rewrite history. All we can do is make the best future possible.

Your plan is a little hard to see. It would be helpful if you had a darker one with some labels so we clearly know what is planting, what is path and what is rock mulch. In regards to your questions, I'll answer best I can: What rock do you recommend using for our yard? I was looking at Decomposed Granit for walkways and more large gravel for other areas? But we are in a very wet/ rainy region, so would it be best to go with courser gravel everywhere? For main walkways it is best to use something fine and angular that can compact down and remain sturdy if you need to move a wheelbarrow, bike, stroller etc. along it. It should be compacted and stable and sloped slightly 2% away from buildings. If it is a secondary path, you can use a peagravel, small angular rock that moves a little. You will need a good edger , a bit higher then the path height if you use a looser material like peagravel or it will move to other areas. Stay away from large rock mulch on pathways or you risk rolling an ankle. Go to a local aggregate supplier and get some samples. We will be using ground cover due to wanting to have rock laid down — how rock do we want to cover over the top of the ground cover? 1-2"? Do you mean a planted groundcover with a rock mulch around it? Then yes typically you will add 1-2" depth of rock, so you dont add too much weight over the roots. However the depth will depend on the type of mulch you use. If you choose a 3"- 6" diameter river rockblend, the depth can't be shallower then the diameter of the rock itself. What are the best steps for planting plants in a hardscape yard? Do you plant before you lay down the ground cover (plastic) and then put the gravel/ rock over the ground cover? Or do you leave your planting sections without ground cover, and simply put rock on top of the soil around the plants? This partially depends on how far apart and how many plants there are. I tend to group plants so they can share soil and nutrients, in which case: 1. dig out subgrade ( the existing soil) in the areas you want to plant. The depth will depend on the size of the plants typical would be 12-18" for perennial and shrubs. 2. Add good topsoil. 3. Lay weed barrier down 4. lay out plants in areas where the topsoil is underneath, 5. Cut an x in the landscape fabric large enough to allow the plant root ball. 6. add fertilizer if needed. 7. spread rock mulch over landscape fabric ( careful not to crush your new plants) If you have very few, spread out plants. skip steps, 1 &2 start at 3. At step 5 you will carefully cut your x and then remove some subgrade, add some topsoil then plant your plant. you need to be careful not to get soil on the weed barrier or weeds will easily root on it. Then continue with steps 6 and 7. We are looking to also put down pavers — do we lay the pavers on top of the gravel? Or are we supposed to set the pavers first, then fill the yard with the gravel. Pavers should be placed on a compacted base so they don't move. Dig out your subgrade 6"-7". compact native soil. bring in 6" of compacted base ( typically a 3/4" angular rock with fines) compact. add 1" of bedding sand or 1/4 angular fine rock like shale set the pavers ( you may need a paver edge restraint to be nailed down) then you can fill the depth of the paver with whatever decorative rock mulch you choose. or fill the cracks with soil and add a xeriscape rock plant that will tolerate the shallow soil depth and bit of foot traffic.