When I moved into my home 5 years ago, it already had a well established garden. I did not consider myself anywhere near a gardener prior to this - if you had asked me, I would have said a cement backyard would have been my 'thing' LOL. But I embraced gardening with a passion, and there is no turning back. When I look back, I'm actually amazed at how much work I did to build upon the already beautiful garden and make it my own!

I always like to challenge myself with new ideas, themes and creativity in the garden. I've already decided on my theme for 2017, but I'm going to keep that to myself until 'the grand reveal'...However, I can say that I am working on bringing more definition to the garden; as you mentioned, I do like a somewhat organic look, but I am becoming increasingly intrigued by the more manicured look. My challenge will be combining these two aesthetics, in my own unique way.

Just a side thought - I really embrace fall planting, as the plants come back in the spring stronger than ever. Most of my planting work is already done for next year. Have you considered doing that for some of your plants? Though I understand the evergreens are better planted in the spring, maybe there are some things you can start now?

What an interesting thread - I hope there are lots of contributions.

I have done nothing in that backyard corner yet (I was busy in the front yard) but your post encourages me to begin the work in the backyard this year. I could cut the vegetation flush to the ground and put cardboard down to ease the cultivation work next spring. It is unfortunately already too cold to plant anything, I am in zone 5a. I could also bring the statuary, rocks, soil, etc. to that corner too, it's nice to do the heavy work in cool weather :-)

Yeah, keep the contributions coming, folks!

Yes, it might be a good idea to get a lot of that grunt work done now. You will be very thankful you did so come next spring! Hmmm, I'm by no means an expert in your micro-climate, but I'm thinking some of those plants you could fall plant - I'm thinking about that dwarf lilac. Of course I'm CHEAP, and I'd probably only do it if I found it at a great discount price now...if not, then wait for next year when the nursery stock if full (and the nurseries want you to pay full price too!). On that note, I have noticed a few nurseries in their fall promotions saying 'Fall is the best time to plant!'. Which I think they want you to forget when they start doing their spring promotions :-)

Hello, we moved into our first house 4 years ago, on a 27,000 square foot lot, and there was nothing but lawn. On the right side of our lot is a small stream, and it was the only wooded area that we had. We had zero experience gardening, but jump 4 years later, and we've planted a hedge of cedars at the back (about 70), 3 crabapples, 2 apple trees, 2 pear trees, 5 serviceberry, 1 linden, 3 red maples, 2 blue spruce 'Hoopsii', 3 yellow birch, 13 ninebarks, 13 hydrangea limelights, 5 hydrangea Annabelle, 4 hydrangea 'Dentelle de Gorron', semi-dwarf blueberry bushes, haskap, strawberries, a few dwarf conifers and perennials, 3 raised beds for vegetables and last but not least, a "river" of 2000 tulips, narcissus and muscari.

My husband thinks I'm done, but I'm only really getting started. :) Next year, I will plant one 'Accolade' elm, 2 more apple trees, replace cedars in our hedge (a few are not doing well), plant more strawberries (the everbearing kind), more blueberries, propagate my hydrangea Annabelle to start a hedge on the north side. I love planting edibles, it makes if fun for my 4-year old and 8-year old. We especially enjoyed picking everbearing strawberries up to a few weeks ago. I would like to plant hardy kiwis, sour cherries, plums in the near future.

And even though the list of things we planted seems long, we have hardly done anything in the backyard. I want to leave a large area of lawn, because my kids play there a lot, and I don't want to spend my time monitoring them so that they don't play soccer too close to garden beds. So in the meantime, I look at the backyard, try to imagine what I could do with it, make plans. Gardening really has become a passion. Some would say I spend way too much time thinking about it! :)

Ontario - I'm in your zone as well. Not exactly that late to plant. As things go dormant, its actually the best time to put things in for a nice spring growth. This time of the year I do a lot of plant bargain hunt and will set them in the ground & top them off with mulch to protect from winter's ups & downs. Thus far I've found a couple of half priced delphiniums. I'm still on the hunt for more plants.

I don't have a lot of yard space since downsizing but I've plenty of plants. I follow the gardening style of Piet Oudolf who promoted wild gardening. (meadow gardening), utilizing both cultured and wild plants. So my garden looks compact, looks wild but still looks lovely and have received compliments from neighbors.

As per Piet Oudolf's methods, I won't be 'cleaning up' the yard until next year. The dying foliage forms a nice mulch which will help protect the plants. We expect a harsh winter this year.

Regarding planting evergreens or any trees now. - actually that works if you do it properly. . There are risks though. Not sure if you know this already and if so, let me know. Beware of airpockets when planting anything in the ground. The airpockets will fill up with water from melting snow and then when the ground freezes up again, these will freeze and kill off the roots. So to avoid that from happening is to thump the soil well when putting plants in. (Or if its still warm and far from sudden freezes happening, fill the hole with water as you try to fill it up with soil. that will force out airpockets. )

ianna, I'm a big fan of Piet Oudolf, and I would love to implement some of his ideas, but when I look at pictures of gardens he's designed, it seems more suited to large spaces. Would you mind posting pictures of your garden? Is it your front yard or back? I would love to see examples of it on a smaller scale.

mazerolm -- your yard sounds lovely. I'd love to have a large space but that's very hard to get nowadays with rapidly rising property prices in my area. The gardening bug is there to stay and there's always something to do. For me I'm not just intrigued by designing yards, I'm intrigued with cultivating good soil. So now Im gathering fallen leaves, foliage from dead annuals, and stacking them somewhere for use next year.

Where is the best place to buy plants in your area(s)? I find that Canadian Tire has the best prices over here, mostly because they sell younger plants. I wanted to plant Russian Sage in front of my ninebark 'Center Glow' hedge, I shopped around, and in mid-July CT had it on sale for 1.50 a piece. So I bought 25. I wish I could have afforded to buy from a local nursery, but they only sold the larger plants for 20$ a piece, and I just could not afford it.

and to tame the wild look I put in round evergreen (topiary) balls in spots around the area and an evergreen hedge.

Oh my gosh, love love love that last picture!! Is it verbena bonariensis that I see in the back, in front of the dark purple plants (salvia or veronica, maybe)?

Mazerolm, like you, I get plants from Canadian Tire but I also get them from where ever possible when things are cheap. Plus I buy seeds to propagate and propagate shrubs from cuttings if possible. Like you, I prefer younger plants as they are easy to grow that way. mature plants often need more maintenance for that first year.

Russian sages easily self seed and in mycase, I've had to constantly pull these out as they come up. It became too much that I am not growing them again.

ianna, thanks for the heads-up about Russian sage, I was not aware of that. It's more of an experiment, really, because I have doubts they will survive in my zone 3.

actually those are pincushion plants. Creates an airy feel. I also use knautia macedonias - basically looks the same. They selfseed and may be suitable in your climate. - The dark purple plants are salvia blue midnight. The very tall plant - not yet in bloom is a veronicastrum. The other tall one (which will be a pink one) is called a Jerusalem sage. Not a true sage but its spectacular. I started it from seeds.

so this is the upclose view of hte plantings

Have
you all identified your dream plants for spring yet? How do you make sure that
you can actually buy them? Scouring the websites of all nurseries within one day of
go-and-return driving distance? What do you think of a nursery advertising your dream plant as being 'in
production'? Or even 'on order' (presumably from a grower)? Do you consider buying
on-line? Wondering what you all are up to :-)

One of the things I learned as a newbie gardener which really works well for me is fall gardening. As such, the majority of my planning and planting is done in the fall. Which means my dreams for spring should already be in the ground, LOL. But that doesn't mean I don't have memory lapses trying to squeeze something in which I *must* have that I purchase come spring, forgetting that I have pretty much no room left. Rule #2, there's always room...

Funny you mention "in production" plants though. I have never paid any attention to this kind of thing, but just a few days ago I saw this new red-tinged Japanese Forest grass advertised for 2017, Hakonechloa SunFlare, and it's Canadian too! It has piqued my interest. The really silly thing is that I have always had great difficulty growing any kind of Hakonechloa in my garden, even though I should have the ideal environment.

Plant selection in fall is poor, there is much better selection in spring. One solution is to buy in spring and plant in fall, not sure I am patient enough to wait that long, LOL

I like to see plants (and other merchandise) in person before buying, I never buy plants online. With other merchandise, I sometimes let a store place the order so that I can inspect the item before actually buying it. Perhaps there are nurseries around here that are willing to do that too, not sure.

Plant selection isn't necessarily poor in the fall - you just gave to know how and where to hunt LOL. Of course, as businesses, nurseries put their best foot forward when most people are conditioned to buy (spring). I find these days by far the best spring buying is from local garden groups.

Are you a gardener at all?

A statue in my 'dream corner' has cracked, I can see it from inside the house, but it is luckily a cheap one. What garden statues are durable in our harsh Canadian winters? I know that carved stone is best, but they are quite expensive.