Karin, it's interesting and enlightening to read what others think of our house and landscape, even if we may not agree or take up some suggestions. We live in an area where we don't have a large number of options for landscape/garden design, unfortunately! So no worries about me being offended by criticism/suggestions, etc. We appreciate the help and we will work to think about each decision in terms of its purpose. We originally had purposes in mind for each bed in our backyard, though it may not look like it now - with the exception of the hydrangeas along the back fence. They were originally planted behind our garage (where the pool equipment enclosure is now). When we put in the pool, we moved them to the side bed (which didn't exist before the pool) along the fence, but the neighbor's black walnut tree hampered their growth. So rather than throw them away, we made a new bed along the back, sort of a temporary spot until we figure out what to do with the rest of the beds. I won't bore you or anyone else by enumerating the purposes of the other beds in the back, but just want to add that we also did have more visual interest and contrast in flower, foliage, and form - but many of those plants didn't survive. We've been in a sort of holding pattern back there for a couple years - and I'm looking forward to improving that landscape. But back to the front yard/landscape. One of our goals for changes remains to revise the long bed along the drive for the dual purposes of easier maintenance and including more variety in its plants to provide more interest in months other than July. Another goal is to revise the small bed near the side steps to make it better looking (instead of a hodgepodge of plants, as it is now) and as a memorial garden for our daughter, with beautiful plantings. We also still want to improve the visual impact/visibility of the front door. To me, that is a separate goal from emphasizing the front entrance, if by entrance one means the wide front steps (which aren't truly the entrance to the house, but visually they do give that impression). We understand the goals of Laag's ideas about beds in front of the steps and a wide path from the driveway to the steps/porch. But in terms of practicality, we don't want people to stop midway up our driveway and walk up the path, because then they block the entire driveway. Also, the steps are covered with snow for the entire winter (it's too expensive to pay to have them cleared each time it snows), and a walkway would also be covered in snow, so the practical function of a walkway beginning partway up the driveway wouldn't apply during those months. I've been bothered for a while by the sense of imbalance between the long driveway bed and the expanse of grass on the other side of the drive, so another purpose of making changes is to see if we can balance that. Laag's suggestion about a grassed area in the long bed was so helpful - I just don't know whether that is enough to achieve balance, or if we will need a bed under the birches. A new purpose resulted from a number of comments here, and that is to soften the impact of the veranda wall. I think we are just so used to how our house looks that we don't see it for how it really appears. You all have opened our eyes to this issue! I haven't been in the back yards of the houses above us (in the back) to see what they can see of our back yard. It "feels" private in our back yard most of the time, probably due to the fence, but I still don't do any skinny-dipping. ;-) The front feels very public to me (it's a busy street and in the spring/summer/fall, a very busy golf course), with the exception of the veranda. On the rare occasions when we are seated there (it's usually too hot/buggy/raining/cold), we have at least the illusion of privacy behind that fortress wall - though with close neighbors, we have to watch how loudly we talk. My sister mused aloud a few years ago about the idea of putting a hedge across the front of the yard (on the lawn on the house side of the sidewalk, if you're facing away from the house) to screen the street and provide more of a sense of privacy. A neighbor a couple of houses down has a partial bridal wreath hedge in the yard and she was noting that at the time. I'll update as we get further along in this process; meanwhile, if anyone has more comments/suggestions, we're very happy to have them.

This is an old thread and you're probably already busy doing your front planter. However there is a lot of info that may be helpful and I'm taking the day off! LOL There are zillions of plants so you need to narrow the choices for success. I recommend using perennials for an easy care garden. You could start with a few perennials and use annuals as fillers. Annuals are great for color and less expensive than perennials. Buy a few more perennials each year and fewer annuals. Some perennials are very easy to grow from seed so that's an option on a limited budget. Most won't bloom the first year but will still fill spaces. Plant in groups of 3 or 5 to create a harmonious look and repeat colors evenly throughout the bed. I like a mix of 3 colors and white altho you could use only one color and white for instance, or all white. It's best to use taller plants in the back and gradually shorter plants but don't plant in straight lines so some of your medium height plants will be further forward. Since I like a casual cottage garden that's what I'm talking about but if you like a more formal regimented look you can line everything up evenly. As to which plants to use that is very difficult to recommend as there are pro's and con's to almost every plant. Some that would work with your situation from the site below are Astilbe, Beebalm, Bellflower, Bergenia, Black Eyed Susan, Bleeding Heart, Clematis (supported by a trellis), Columbine (I adore this plant), Coneflower, Coral Bells, Coreopsis, Daylily, Delphinium (another of my favorites), Dianthus (some have lovely fragrance), Foxglove (poisonous so keep that in mind if you have children), perennial Geranium (there are also some that are grown as annuals), many decorative grasses which fill in spaces nicely, Hosta (altho they are deer and slug magnets), Hydrangea, Iris (another of my favs and there are some that rebloom), Jacob's Ladder (lovely foliage and comes in a variegated variety also), Lady's Mantle (another with lovely foliage), Lamb's Ear (bees love this so perhaps not next to a doorway), Lamium (great in front of a bed), Lavender (wonderful scent with some), Lily of the Valley, Lupine, Peony, Phlox, Salvia, Sedum, and Veronica. So you see there are many, many choices! And most of those plants have several varieties and colors to choose from. There are many gardening books which give detailed instructions for which plants for the type of bed so you might have a look at your local library. So many choices with gardening but that's what's fun about it! Your zone 4 will dictate which plants will survive as will the eastern exposure. Here's a site where you can choose plants for your zone. http://www.naturehills.com/perennials?zone_list=18 You also might browse by type such as partial sun perennials as your planter will be shaded in the afternoon which is where I took the above plant list from. Many other choices also on that site so start making lists and see how many plants fall into your parameters. Please use good soil or amend what's there as it is so much easier to do before planting and the success of a garden depends on the soil. Plan to use mulch which makes a garden look more finished IMO and also protects the soil organisms and conserves moisture. My favorite mulch is shredded bark as it looks natural and decomposes to add nutrients to the soil but there are many others.

Dear Garf, Again you are welcome to join me at Fairchild tomorrow if you want and if you want to go Sunday I can go Sunday too. Again you cna go in oon my membership and your wife is welcome too as I can admit four people. HOWEVER: I tried to email you my phone number and I do not see anyway of doing that on your page. Either you do not have an email link or I am doing something wrong. Can you or someone else help? I can email you my phone number as soon as I can figure it out. I will check back here in the morning and we cannot figure it out I can leave you a ticket at the door. Let me know.

"O.P. stated in the beginning - as people often do - that they don't want anything poisonous or messy. Which eliminates many items on preceding list, which is full of fruiting plants." Yes, I was aware of that. But that mainstream, fast food, McLandscape mentality of wanting "fast-growing and not messy" plants is also what's helping to drive our current 6th mass extinction of wildlife on this planet - cutting their populations down in HALF over just the last 40 YEARS!!! The situation is EXTREMELY dire now - as we are literally creating a sterile, inert dystopia! And there's no way you can overstate that fact - or ever UNDO it once it's done! "Bird populations across the French countryside have fallen by a third over the last decade and a half, researchers have said. Dozens of species have seen their numbers decline, in some cases by two-thirds, the scientists said in a pair of studies The primary culprit, researchers speculate, is the intensive use of pesticides on vast tracts of monoculture crops, especially wheat and corn. The problem is not that birds are being poisoned, but that the insects on which they depend for food have disappeared. “There are hardly any insects left, that’s the number one problem,” Recent research, he noted, has uncovered similar trends across Europe, estimating that flying insects have declined by 80%, and bird populations has dropped by more than 400m in 30 years. Shrinking woodlands, the absence of the once common practice of letting fields lie fallow and especially rapidly expanding expanses of mono-crops have each played a role." So, given that we have already logged all the old growth native forests and replaced them with suburban lawns...we really need to start stewarding our lawns LIKE old growth native forests now. Because there are basically no old growth forests LEFT. So, we need to think more "old growth" instead of "fast-growing," "productive" instead of "not messy," and to promote more natives and no invasives... I mean, who cares if you're not there in a few years anymore? Leave a sustainable legacy!!! "The population of the U.S., now over 300 million people, has doubled since most of us were kids and continues to grow by 8640 people per day. All of those additional souls, coupled with cheap gas, our love affair with the car, and our quest to own ever larger homes have fueled unprecedented development that continues to sprawl over 2 million additional acres per year (the size of Yellowstone National Park). The Chesapeake Bay watershed has lost 100 acres of forest each day since 1985. We have connected all of our developments with 4 million miles of roads, the paved surface is nearly five times the size of New Jersey. Somewhere along the way we decided to convert most of our living and working spaces into huge expanses of lawn. So far we have planted over 62,500 sq miles, some 40 million acres, in lawn. Each weekend we mow an area 8 times the size of New Jersey to within 1 inch and then congratulate ourselves on a job well done. And it’s not like those little woodlots and “open spaces” we have not paved over or manicured are pristine. Nearly all are second-growth forests that have been thoroughly invaded by alien plants like autumn olive, multiflora rose, Oriental bittersweet, and Japanese honeysuckle. Over 3400 species of alien plants have invaded 100 million acres of the U.S, and that area is expected to double in the next 5 years. To nature lovers these are horrifying statistics. I stress them so that we can clearly understand the challenge before us. We have turned 54% of the lower 48 states into cities and suburbs, and 41% more into various forms of agriculture. That’s right: we humans have taken 95% of nature and made in unnatural. But does this matter? Are there consequences to turning so much land into the park-like settings humans enjoy? Absolutely, both for biodiversity and for us. Our fellow creatures need food and shelter to survive and reproduce and in too many places we have eliminated both. At least 40% of Delaware’s plant species are rare or extinct, and 41% of its forest birds no longer nest in the state. Over 800 plant and animal species are rare, threatened, or endangered in Pennsylvania and 150 have already disappeared entirely. Many of those that haven’t suffered local extinction are now too rare to perform their role in their ecosystem. These can be considered functionally extinct. The song birds that brighten spring mornings have been in decline since the 1960s, having lost 40% of their numbers so far. Birds that breed in meadows are in even more trouble. Once common species such as the northern bobwhite, eastern meadowlark, field sparrow, and grasshopper sparrow have declined 82%, 72%, 68%, and 65%, respectively, in total numbers, and are completely absent from many areas that used to support healthy populations." Anyhow, yes, the Texas Mountain Laurel is poisonous. However, its seeds are only toxic if cracked open - which is really difficult because of how hard their shells are. Hence: "The beans cause hallucinations at low levels. The beans are also very poisonous if the alkaloids within are released. The same seed coating that protect the seed from drought, however, will allow it to be swallowed and pass through our bodies without harm, in most cases." So, it's not as risky as it sounds - but of course could simply be omitted just to be safe. As could the Eve's Necklace, which is also reputed to have poisonous seeds if ingested. But all the other plants I recommended ARE non-toxic, mostly natives (with a few foreign, but at least not invasive) with high ornamental and/or edible/utilitarian value (i.e. "MESSY"). As this PRODUCTIVITY helps us to make the most of our diminishing resources, for both us and all of our wildlife companions. OK, PSA over. Just addressing a larger issue at hand here, that I think needs to at least be considered every time a homeowner reaches this point of deciding how to landscape their yard? Which I thank Kimberly for even asking! As it may seem inconsequential...but when multiplied by BILLIONS of other people too - is actually of immense, PLANETARY consequence!!!