Thanks for the feedback, bindersbeeÂsounds like youÂve gotten some valuable experience organizing your event. Too bad you donÂt live here or IÂd draft you : ) We do have answers for some things you bring up, but others I hadnÂt even thought of yet. Size and advertising Traditionally, our neighborhood (like most historic neighborhoods in our city) has had an annual or bi-annual home tour to raise funds. In the past, these have attracted from less than 1,000 to over 6,000 people. The best year for our neighborhood was when we had significant media coverage in the local paper and magazine, related to a major neighborhood re-development project. Most years, these events do not draw media coverage because they are frequent and the offerings donÂt change much from year to year. In recent years, attendance has dropped off, even though advertising has increased. We speculate this is because the neighborhood has matured, there are less renovations going on, and the freshness is gone. We would continue paid advertising for an event like this, but IÂm hopeful that a gardening event geared towards urban and small gardens would draw the media coverage weÂve been lacking recently. Downtown living is a hot topic, and putting the urban/small garden angle on it is something no one in our city has done yet. I like the idea of making contact with various groups that might be interested in this type of eventÂ.targeted marketing to gardeners (pinning down the downtown/small space crowd is a bit more nebulous, though we do have 2 monthly newspapers specifically for downtown dwellers). When are you going to hold the event? Good question. IÂm planning on getting input from the local businesses that might see increased business as a result of this event. IÂd guess that late spring/early summer would be best from that perspective, because IÂd think that the earlier in the gardening season this is held, the more business theyÂre likely to get from attendees. OTOH, an event in late summer/early fall would more likely have better weather and neighborhood gardens would probably be looking better than early in the season. Can you maybe add a 'farmer's market' or produce sharing of some sort? ThatÂs an idea we should throw into the mix. There are a number of farmers markets throughout our city in the summer, but mixing something into the food vendor area might work. Parking/Potties/Food WeÂve dealt with the parking and food vendors before for our home tours. Parking is on the street, and we set up food vendors in one of the parks. WeÂve not had to set up port a potties with the home toursÂ.there have always been some public buildings included on the tour where restrooms are available. IÂm hoping we can work with some of these public buildings as locations for the presentations; that would also take care of the restrooms. 501c3 Yes, our neighborhood has a 501c3 foundation which we utilize for fundraising, etc, so...

I grew up in an 3-story English Tudor-style house with a similar yard (my mother is still there), although the back yard is turned ~90 from yours. Ie., it is ~30ft wide by ~50ft deep. Because the house is at the bottom of a hill and the houses from the intersecting street have their rear yards extending perpendicular (crosswise) but on a higher grade (about 7ft - 8ft above my mom's grade), anyone in the closer houses can look down into the yard. The people who owned the house before us installed an aluminum/wrought iron covered patio connected to the back of the house and that helped some for privacy in the back, from anyone looking down from "above". But eventually that had to supplemented. What's currently at the rear of the yard against an 8ft retaining wall, are a 40' Eastern white pine and a 40' Norway Spruce - one in each corner. The spread of both trees covers the width of the yard (without imposing on the center). The trees were eventually limbed up to about 12' above the ground and the remaining branches droop down to near the top of the wall to form a wall of conifer branches. But it took a bit of time for them to get there (30-some years from young 4' trees). ;-) But before they reached that size, my mother had Blaze climbing roses there to supplement the existing old New Dawn climbers left by the previous owners. My concern for that size yard is your considering a maple. Except for maybe the Japanese maples (and even those eventually grow over time to have a good-sized canopy depending on the variety) or perhaps a dwarf red maple, the maples themselves tend to quickly outgrow a small space. After almost 40 years of my mother dealing with her neighbor's Norway maple trees, the new owner who bought the neighboring house finally removed the largest - an 80-some year old one that was in the center of their yard (which took the landscape guys 3 days to take down when they found its canopy easily 100 ft. wide). They also removed most of that tree's half dozen 10 - 20 year old "seedlings" (that themselves were 40 footers). This all happened last week to my sheer amazement. Basically over the years, that yard had become a forest of these massive trees that were WAY too large to be in a typical city lot. Nothing could grow under them and they became a nuisance with the yellow pollen when blooming, the seed wings, the continual threat of lightning strikes and constant fear of tree trunk-sized branches that could hit the house. A large branch had already cracked off a couple years ago and damaged the chainlink fence between the properties. The trees became a bridge for the squirrels and racoons to the roof and OMG the leaves that piled half a foot thick in my mother's yard. I've seen Autumn Blaze in action and it is a beautiful tree in fall but IMHO, it would be the kind that might be planted in one of my sister's yards (1/3 acre) rather than my mom's. Granted - it's not a Norway maple but it can become as large as one. As an alternate to the thuja, you could consider an Easter Red cedar (Juniperus virginiana) which has a columnar to pyramidal habit. Along the back, just as a what-the-heck since I've seen them planted for similar reasons, is an upright english oak (Quercus robur 'Fastigiata'). This particular one is columnar and somewhat slow growing but is also narrow. There are a couple planted along the back of my apt. building, probably when the building was built ~1960 and they are now about 7 stories high. I've seen a few downtown here as street trees in the historic part of the city. Another alternate might be a thornless locust (honey or black). There are some that are slow growing, have a beautiful shape, and produce thin compound leaves that don't mat like the larger hardwood leaves. Just some suggestions and thoughts...

3' really is not that deep. Most perennials are that wide. You are basically looking at 3 to 4 plants max. That is why I was suggesting bulbs. and going with Hostas you can get pretty blues, whites, yellow color going without any work at all. The hostas that have fragrant flowers could be your fragrant and attractive flowers in the fall. Not enough flowers for you...... buy a pack of zinnias and direct sow them in the spring. You cannot beat hostas for no fuss plants. The same thing with bulbs plant a little fertilizer and pretty blooms. A pretty statue, bird bath something that can be a compliment in the to the area in the winter. I hate to see bare ground in the winter.

I know it's concrete. I'm asking if it's on grade or elevated. A seating area is what seems to make the most sense right off the bat. It lacks places to plant. If it's on grade, you could sawcut out plating openings. If it's elevated, you'll need to add large containers for planting large material. But not so large they surpass the weight limit.