Claudia, Congrats with your new home! Glad to see you posting again. What do you mean by wet clay? Is the ground actually wet? if the soil is wet, you could plant bog plants and plants that love water and they will do fine. Just mix in a generous amount of cow compost in the clay and mulch, you should be able to plant any part sun bush or perennial plant. Just a thought, I jsut bought Liatris at HD on Saturday. I got 60 little bulbs for 14.99. They are perennial, they spread and are beautiful! Look up Liatris online and see if you like the look. Anyway, for part sun climbing hydrangea would love your yard, and it loves to climb on wood without damaging it. Cannas LOVE wet or moist soil, Bananas Love moist soils, you will have to mound it up when you plant it for drainage, but they are beautiful. Ajunga likes moist soil, any kind. Butterfly bush would do fine with manure, they can be planted in part sun, I would plant in sunnies spot tho. Iris would love your yard, if it gets at least 6 hours of sun. Well, that's all I can think of for now, I hope you have fun planning out your new yard. Congrats again,

A blank canvas to play with! What fun! And the wonderful thing about gardening is that if you decide you don't like something or it's not doing well in one spot you can remove or move it very easily (except for major trees). So you can't really make a mistake. It's a very forgiving process AND so rewarding. I recently began my own garden too and was very timid at first, but as my confidence grows and I become more familiar with plants, so does my willingness to make bolder and more interesting choices. Looks like a good plan. Kind of a native wildscape to attract some desirable critters. I like all the bird and butterfly-friendly choices. And just another option that I've found is a favorite of birds is a mulberry tree (which gets to be about the size of a possumhaw (10-15 ft.). Also delicious on icecream and cereal! Also think your choices of very easily maintained xeriscaping is just great! I can't tell whether you are going to place things individually or will create an actual bed with some kind of edge to contain them. Some thoughts/ideas: Consider that Possumhaw is very similar to Yaupon Holly and both provide red/orange berries, with the main difference being that Possumhaw will lose its leaves (but maintain it's berries) over winter whereas the Yaupon would be evergreen. You may have already known that and prefer the Possumhaw, but just thought I'd mention the evergreen option as well. Either way, make sure it isn't shaded out by the larger tree, because they enjoy the sun. Have you considered any tall native grasses as a backdrop for flowers? They soften the hard edges of a yard. Also, another thing that not only attracts but keeps critters around is some kind of water feature. Doesn't have to be as fancy as a fountain (although that sound is divine and birds prefer it to stagnant water), but at least a birdbath in a somewhat shady area. The easiest fountain to maintain is a bubble fountain that overflows its container and then disappears below ground (covered usually with a grate on which sits gravel or river stones to act as a leaf/debris filter) into a reservoir and then recycles back up. Would it be possible to introduce a good sized stone/boulder or two? If you create a bed under a tree you might consider adding some turks cap for the hummers, or introduce some pigeonberry or other shade loving groundcover. If the patio is not shaded then you might also consider creating a place to sit beneath the tree that is cool and inviting or eventually a hammock chair or swing to hang from a branch. Speaking of trees, what considerations played into your choice of Ash? Just curious. Did you want a deciduos or evergreen tree? What size, color, type? Anyway, those are just some things that came to me. Our gardens can be our sanctuary (as well as a critter haven). A little piece of heaven on earth. Hope you'll keep us up on your progress and choices as you go along. And maybe some...

"The only exception to the rule would be the pond where the kid drowned - that is just awful. They should just fill that in, period." Why? Wasn't my kid so wouldn't stop me from buying the property. Especially not with a pond that lovely. It's the same thing as buying a house where somebody died. Eh, it happens. The only thing I think would give me the heebie jeebies would be if it were a murder scene. Does that have to be disclosed? Oh my.

Try posting this in the Landscape Design forum. You'll get better help there.