Low massed plantings for viewing from inside looking out and some open habit larger specimen shrubs set further out would look good with this architectural style. Mounding up as you get away from the house would also tend to accentuate such plantings, as has been suggested. In a mediterranean climate garden I could think of many suitable plants that would work, from the more common to the rare or collector's plants. Such an arrangement would also lend itself to creating a semi-private enclosed space off the house and treating it as a courtyard setting, which is often seen in even tract housing in California, with enclosed courtyards and more traditional lawns or landscaping beyond out to the street. I am designing such a space right now, that has a small entirely enclosed below street level courtyard with large picture windows set 18 inches above finish floor at patio, and looks across a narrow 10 foot wide patio to raised planters and built in seating and enclosing stuccoed walls adjacent the street. I decided it made more sense to install no planting against the house, and instead concentrate it all towards the street wall for maximum effect as viewed from inside, while also not obstructing the opening of such low windows from inside, as they swing out. Between the paired windows, I am designing a wall fountain and basin with an arched tiled backdrop for interest from the street entry. The design intent is to give the mood of a small intimate Morrocan courtyard for a north facing, down slope front garden 5 foot below street level and just 15 feet back of public sidewalk. It will be interesting to see from the future home buyer whether they actually use the space for entertaining, or treat it purely as a visual garden to be viewed from the interior two levels of bedrooms and bathrooms that face onto it, and in passing to get to the sideyard entry front door.

I prefer Latin binomial nomenclature because some plants do share identical common names (Hypericum/Alcea is just one example--wildflowers can be an absolute nightmare!). I also prefer Latin binomial nomenclature because at my last job my coworkers were Chinese, Korean, Bulgarian, Russian, Irish, English, Brazilian, Belgian, German, Danish, Hungarian, Polish, Mexican, Indian and American. Some of us shared a love of gardening, and there is NO WAY we could have communicated easily without resorting to the Latin names for plants. (Working in the sciences is like that--you end up polyglot whether you planned it or not :-) ) As for the *latest* taxonomic assignment (Alcea/Althaea, Chrysanthemum/Leucanthemum/Whateveramum...), I don't worry about that. If I know more than one name for a given plant, I'll give all the names I know, with the one I know best followed by "syn. xxxxxx" for any others. Some plants seem to change taxa more often than I change socks, and I understand why that happens. It depends on what genetic region or regions the taxonomists have chosen for comparison. As for correct pronunciation: forget it! I like what Allan Armitage says about getting all the syllables in the correct order, and just letting fly. There is NO correct pronunciation for Latin (its native speakers all being dead for at least 1000 years), and the correct pronunciation varies from country to country and speaker to speaker. Perhaps the best example of that is "Pinus", (pine trees), which we Americans pronounce "PIE-ness". I'll leave it to those of you with salacious imaginations to think of how Germans and speakers of Slavic languages might pronounce "Pinus".... Lisa

You always have a vision and you are always working toward fulfilling it. How wonderful it would be to have "seedlings" the size of those you show us. Especially all those big GOLD HOSTA. ....sigh.... And I think you are right that Dark Shadows gets to be quite large. I bought two of them. The older one is getting some size on it since it arrived in 2012. It is on the Fragrant Flowered Hosta list, so of course I had to get it. I also like dark greens, and this one has nothing but green tones. I'm also looking at lighting up major pathways by a gradation of golds. I think the colors persist until real nightfall, and the reflection of a lighter leaf makes it nice to walk out of the garden without stumbling. I truly do not want to interfere with the night pollinators and fireflies, and thus keep my solar lights to a minimum. But in deep shade areas the batteries don't recharge all that dependably anyway. When I expect a visitor to walk through the garden, I have the individual lights out in the sun all day and tote them under my arm to pivotal pathway points (love alliteration, don't you?) to show what is next....or WHERE is next. I've checked those lights up in the wee hours, and they stay operable for a long time when given a good dose of sun on a clear day. Love the way you chose to take out some of the sapling trees as you developed your bed expansions. Less problems in future years because it would be overcrowded, and nature would take some out at an inconvenient time for you.

It's been stated above that this isn't normal behavior for an adult in our society. I'm just rebellious enough to kinda want to stand up and applaud the woman's choice, for that reason alone! Actually, in my experience, "normal" is highly subjective based upon one's circle of influence. What was my own "normal" just a few years ago has changed significantly (as is probably the case for many people), because of the experiences I've had that have given me new perspective. Too, I believe that as our nation has welcomed immigrants from around the globe, "our" society/culture is not what it used to be. I view that as a very good thing. The names of my neighbors and many coworkers are no longer traditionally western, as used to be the case. That's not to say that any of them renamed themselves after a gaming influence, but just pointing out that we no longer live in a society where the Johns and Marys are as prevalent as they used to be. Names that once sounded quite unusual to me are now more commonplace. Obviously, this thread was started to invite discussion, and it's been a good one. I do think, however, that we cannot possibly hold an accurate opinion of this particular woman's choice without hearing her reasons directly from her. (And of course, that will never happen.) I also think it's possibly a bit like my tattoos. I'm 56 years old and two sessions away from completing my sleeve. There are some who cannot fathom why, at this stage of my life, I would do such a thing to my body, and I've stopped trying to explain my reasons to people with that mindset. The old adage, "If you have to ask, you wouldn't understand" does hold true for many things we do that others view as being outside of their norm.