Hi,

We are located slightly West of Toronto in Ontario. We recently did some major work in the backyard consisting of an armour stone retaining wall and new deck. We plan to spend time over the winter months researching and coming up with a garden plan to start in the spring.

I'll start with a few photos:

The following photo shows our septic tank location and the lines off towards the shed is the drain field.

Here is our original design which has been modified as the process goes on, but it should give an idea of the walkway from the basement and the firepit:

As far as giving a general idea of the backyard, the best thing I can do is post the panorama from the listing: http://www.digitalproperties.ca/20160242/index.php, click on view 360 pano and then backyard. You will notice that the 2 silver maples to the left of the deck have been taken down.

OK, so what are we looking for? We want something that is going to look nice with the house and blend well with what is already there. We do not need shade or privacy. Right now when in the firepit area it feels a bit overwhelming with stone so we want to get rid of that feeling.

Wants

-climbing vines for pergola

-my wife loves Rose of Sharon

-winter friendly

-some height

Problems

-have to be careful of septic tank location

-anything planted along deck face needs to be shallow rooted so not to interfere with the drain field (we had to remove 2 beautiful silver maples already)

-planting above retaining wall opposite of deck could be challenging due to roots from the black locust trees

I'm probably missing all kinds of details but that's about as much as we have right now. Any kind of guidance would be appreciated.