Are you on well water? Is your water from the Quabbin (Mass. Water Resource Authority) or a Town aquifer or local source ? Does your town or city have water restrictions in place right now? If I were starting a garden in MA (or several other parts of the country) I'd plant taking increased drought as a given. We've had less snow and less rain over the past decade. I'm not saying you need to plant yucca and desert plants; just don't buy really expensive trees that cannot go more than 3 weeks without watering. Here in Lexington MA, even with the MWRA (Quabbin reservoir) as a water source, we've been asked to 'scale back' water use because of severe pressure drop. I have a katsura and belatedly found out it does not like dryness when it dropped its leaves a month and half ago. I have several other trees I'm not willing to let die because of drought. I'm sure our water bill will be in the thousands this year. If nothing else, I hope this post drives home the fact that choosing landscaping materials appropriate to your climate and environment is part of design considerations.

I will later look at some shade choices in yellow that are deer resistant. One of the things I have learned is to put out ideas on what the homeowner might like and then they can take it from there. Deer can be very destructive so its best to landscape with plantings they don’t like to eat. Houzz is a forum to help with the process so that you have time to digest it all and obviously it helps to eliminate ideas if you are working with a professional. Dougs Digs is a professional and if he sees this he will swoop in with even more and likely better design ideas. I am a Master Gardener who just loves playing in the garden.

I also thought of incorporating a low planter behind the plants in the courtyard area (like the photoshop image) or even some potted plants among the in-ground plantings to play with the heights and give it more separation of space but still primarily living/green.

Fruit trees can be a real PITA because if you don't spray for pests and do all the things you need to do to have them turn out edible and then pick them at the right time, the fruit falls off the trees, creating a mess in your yard that attracts insects, particularly bees. I suggest instead you plant something that flowers in the spring and has nice fall foiiage. I am not the right person to tell you what that would be in your area.