ali, what about putting an arbor in and growing a honeysuckle up it? From the edge and in from the driveway to the tree, I'd edge out the grass from that area and curve slightly to the end of the concrete pad in front of your home, the patio area. All the way to the end. Let's give you some curb appeal ;) Put the middle of the arbor in front of the edge of the concrete pad where the car is sitting, about 3 feet in. From the middle of the arbor to the drive and then going up your house, you could create a path that would curve over to the sidewalk and to the front door. For right now, using newspapers and a 5 gallon bucket filled with water, cover up all grass with layers of newspapers you've plunged into the water. Lay them down, overlapping as you go. I typically use about 10 layers of paper. The more, the better. If you can create your path first, either using stepping stones or gravel, lay down something like visqueen and lay the stepping stones or the gravel over to create the path. Remove the grass where the path will be so that nobody trips over stepping stones or gravel. Take out a V shape where you're going into the lawn from driveway to tree and up and over to the end of your home. Remove the dirt and the grass from the V, so that you've got a drop off of sorts and lay your wet newspaper to curve down into the area where the dirt is. Cover the area up with mulch or mushroom compost if you can get your hands on some, except for the path area. By next year, the newspaper will start to decompose and the grass will be dead, but it adds to the organic matter of newspaper and the dead grass. Worm heaven. From now and thru winter, study up on various perennials and possibly a few shrubs that produce berries for our other feathered friends. Next year, push back the mulch or mushroom compost and dig holes to plant. There should be enough room to the right of the path up to your front door, to add in a shrub. Then the other shrubs could go in front of the poles, under planted and going out to the edge with perennials. I prefer natives. They're adapted to our weather, our soil, they make up our ecosystem. Find a list of native plants for your area, and research those plants as to what hummingbirds like and also which ones make seed that other birds will like to eat on. The native plants won't require dead heading, don't need pruned or cut back so they look better....I just prefer them over all. Now an iris in there isn't going to hurt anything ;)...or a peony....both left by the previous owner that I decided to leave and a friend of mine from TN also gave me a beautiful iris that is sentimental to me. But again, those 2 are easy plants. Hummingbirds will love to sit and rest a spell on shrubs you provide and give you a closer look at their beauty. Too much?? Where do you live? Zone 5, but where? lovefornature, you're doing a wonderful job! It's people like you who join GW that make it an enjoyable site to visit. If you like butterflies and are interested in attracting some of them to come to your yard, you could plant a Aristolochia tomentosa or Aristolochia durior. Another plant I love that I don't know draws anything in, but blooms in late summer, is Clematis virginiana. Another neat native clematis is Clematis glaucophylla. I also answered the e-mail you sent, I hope you got it.

Thanks for the words of encouragement and photo ideas grannybj65, I have a really nice digital camera and plan to take LOTS of photos all along the way as I develop the garden. The photos linked here were taken by a good friend. I have an eye for good snapshots so once I'm down there I'll be taking dozens of photos from all angles and different weather conditions. The joy of digital photography - you never run out of film. LOL One of the things I like to do is take a series of photos from the same angle all day long on a sunny day to get a general idea of where the shady and sunny spots are. Doing that a few times throughout the year as the Earth changes kilter I'll perfect an image in my mind of where best to place different plants based on their light/shade tolerance. Looking at the photo of the front of the house dead-on, I just got a great idea. Facing the house, the living room is on the right side with the single window and the kitchen is on the left side with the double windows. In front of the double windows inside is the kitchen sink, so it is not a spot that will have tremendous "looking out the window" appeal. So, as the cogs turn in this hard head of mine, I'm visualizing lattice from the center pole on the porch going to the left corner, then around to where the porch meets the house. Then cutting a rectangular window out of the center of the front of the lattice and framing it a bit so there is a clear view out to the road from the kitchen window. And then I can visualize the lattice painted white (or more likely light gray as I'm not too fond of white outside) and covered in Scarlet Runner Bean and Clematis with maybe some "Joseph's Coat" (Amaranthus tricolor) in front and some dwarf Cannas with some "Love lies Bleeding" (Amaranthus sp.) along the side. The scarlet, violet, purple and deep reds and burgundys will all be in harmony with one another, at least until I decide on a totally different look down the road. I can have a nice metal frame rocking deck seat out on the porch hidden away behind the wall of vines where I can sit and enjoy the shade - and a good spray from the gardening hose on all the vines will create a nice cooling breeze. Well, it's a thought anyway. :) I saw on eBay this evening someone in San Diego California is selling several batches of Tillandsias (the common T. ionantha). They are offering them as a box of 50 child fist-sized clumps of them for around $20 if I recall - quite cheap. I immediately thought how neat it would be to buy 50 or 100 clumps and then carefully wire them to a wire-frame wreath for a living, blooming front door wreath, especially once the front porch is semi-latticed in and well shaded. A few sprigs of Spanish Moss draping down from the wreath here and there would further kick off the effect. It would live on the wet air, constantly regenerate itself with new growth, and bloom off and on throughout the year. During the colder months I could bring it inside and hang up it in the living room window where it can get plenty of bright indirect light. Ok, I'll shut up now.

ok - I think that last comment goes to rlkennerly having problems with the tomatoes - all of my plants amazingly surprised. I don't think my Popcorn containers :) were the saving grace as much as the fact that our boxes sat in a 70 degree, bright sunshine all during the day before it turned cold. rlkennerly - how low was your temp this past weekend? Ours hit 33 with some frost on the ground so I am surprised all my plants survived the 2 frosty nights we had here in Nor.Cen. Tx, and then again survived the quarter size hail and heavy rains we had Monday night. I'm really being tested, because now we are experiencing winds gusting at 40+ and my toms are thrashing about...I guess this is where having some better covers would help out... ...well I guess before it's too late and yet another act of nature tries to snap my plants - here's a picture of my toms/broccoli after the cold and hail/rain... From Square Foot Gardening And I'm gushing with pride over my seeds - that decided to pop out this morning to say 'we survived'!!!! In addition to this lettuce, also sprouting now: spinach, radishes and marigolds: From Square Foot Gardening And here's a little baby...tucked in ever so sweet...awwwhh so cute.... From Square Foot Gardening Now with all this said ....I think I have something munching on my tom and broc plants....but I guess that's for another post....

I agree that most of the pics are terrible �" evidently no one brought in any extra lighting. Keep in mind that the most likely buyer will be someone who possibly was not born in the USA. I am not being racist here �" the neighborhood is very attractive for new-to-the USA folks �" from a number of different countries. That has nothing to do with why they are selling the house. The house is in a very good school district, and the 'formal' living room currently is the playroom, but by simply adding a closet and some doors it would be a 4th bedroom, or an office, or a music room, or a computer room, or the kids' playroom. The bed in the guest room could be moved, but it really is in the best location. The wall across from the bed has a door to the Jack and Jill bath, the wall to the left of the bed has a closet/door and then there is still the actual door to the room �" so only two walls where one can put a bed. The dining room doesn't have a window �" the laundry room and garage are behind it �" the 'throne' is the actual chair that goes at the end of the table (why on earth she wanted that table I will never know!) the kitchen actually is not that tiny �" it is a gallery kitchen, there are two pantries �" one for food, one I forget what she uses the other for; they had crappy cabinets for uppers so they replaced those, thus the non-matching cabinets �" it is a huge improvement over what was there when they bought it �" tons of storage in kitchen even with small eating area on West end. I suspect they have umbrellas (the last ones I saw looked like a grass hut roof �" maybe that is why they aren't in the picture) I have 2 out here she could borrow for photos. I think there is one plant in the kitchen window (daughter has a brown thumb) and I could take some of my pot plants for the photo shoot; it is really tough to have anything new survive in the ground and even more difficult in pots in our current temps �" now if you already have something in the ground and can keep it watered, maybe so, but right now at 6 PM my time it is 96 F on my front porch. If this was mid September then that would be feasible. I did see a small, hairline crack in the driveway �" if you are meaning the large horizontal and/or vertical “cracks”, those aren't cracks but expansion joints �" we have clay under our topsoil here. The cement posts are actually plant stands (made by her grandfather �" I guess she could re-home them temporarily) I would rather see her store that humongous set in the DR and move the kitchen stuff into the DR. The 'thing' about a foot off the floor (I am guessing here) probably contains the electronic wiring for cable/DirectTV or something along that line) When they bought the house, everything was pink, with a little blue included �" pink tile backsplash in the kitchen, pink paint on walls, the previous owner loved pink (and had 2 daughters). I will (gently) suggest they have the pictures re-taken and plan to remove most curtains/drapes for the pic, and if necessary, I will go there while the photographer is there. When I listed my previous home 3 yrs ago I made certain everything was light and bright �" of course, it was empty, which helped! My home was in the subdivision across the road from daughters �" buyers were from (I think) Cuba and neither adult spoke English. Will also remind about removing EVERYTHING from counters �" I wonder if they took pics while she was at work and unaware?