Tricia, Asa far as the light meter is one called "Three Way", found it at Hope Depot and it also measures Ph and moisture. I am not sure how accurate it is, but when I put it under the Walmart tube, even very close/glued to the tube, it will not go above 200 ftcandles to save its life. I went outside (on a relativelty cloudy day) and it went well above 500 ftcandles. Then I placed it under the CFL spiral bulb in my decorative lamp and it doesn't register much here either (maybe 300 or so). Then I placed it under a led light under my kitchen cabinet and it went close to 1000. For whatever reason, this light meter will not register much at all under the Walmart grow light (the 10-11 dollar one) and not even the CFL bulb. Yet, I think the plants I've b een keeping under the CFL bulb are starting to show some signs of scorched leaves...so maybe the meter doesn't register flurorescent light that well. Yet I know many people praise the WM growlight and say they have gotten great results with it. I will just have to go by experience.

mclarke - none of those flowers are real? i hope not... so there'll be hope for me and fake plants in my future... lol! my sister does! "I'd grow succulents before I'd use plastic" she has acres of cacti, oleanders etc. but she'll also put a ficus tree on her porch and some silk? fake ones from Michaels' (w/ coupon). looks great. no one knows. except family and friends. her land is gated and the porch can only be seen from way down at the road. I'll do the same once I get into my new place. I have several acres here with cacti, mesquite, bird of paradise etc but I'm terrible in growing them. all but the BOP have been here for ages - long before me. I'm hoping to have a porch of some sort out front!

I was going to say that head planter would look great with lemon coral sedum. It does well in full sun or dappled shade and doesn't need much water or hens 'n chicks or that really brightly-colored creeping jenny (it does well anywhere). I agree with above about coleus too. There are so many color variations you really can't go wrong. What about some of those huge New Guinea impatiens or sunpatients (the ones that can take some sun). Mona lavendar is cute and does well in morning sun. If you haven't used Ptilotus Joey yet, you really must! It's so cool looking. It does like full sun but may do okay in part sun.

Beautiful!!!! I bet you already feel more empowered by having that plan! :-) And how lucky for you ... to have just the right size yard for someone with "no artistic ability whatsoever" Haha. Here are a few suggestions that might help make the plan easier for you to use. First, I would orient it with the house at the top of the page and the street at the bottom. This would be more like how people think of, and visualize houses and yards ... seeing them from the front. Then, I would go ahead and add the other side of the garage and yard so that you had the full front. When you get to planting, you'll want to visualize the whole house & yard, not just part of it. Keep the drawing you have with measurements so you can refer to them if you need to, but for working out your ideas, you want to have the cleanest, emptiest drawing possible. Make a copy in which you remove all the shading, hatching and dimensions. For now, only show the house, porch & step, drive, walk, tree trunks, back of curb & property line. If you want to keep the dimensions on the same page, move them to outside of the work area. (Most of the time, if I want them, I write the measurement next to the line but omit the dimension lines, as I know what the number refers to. I would dimension like you have it if for someone else, but keep of the way as much as possible for myself in order to make it cleaner.) Make the house a heavier line so it reads as the largest, boldest structure on the property. At the beginning of brainstorming of the project, don't think about plants at all. Limit yourself to thinking about hardscape ... whatever you'll do to the walk, drive and whatever hardscape might occur out in the yard. Once that is complete, you can put is aside and work on a revised based plan which will include the new hardscape changes. If you want any help while you are working on hardscape, it would be good to start a new, uncluttered thread for it. (This one has a lot of conversation about other stuff in it.) Bring the most updated base plan and the most relevant pictures (the ones where you pan the scene from the front, and also the picture from across the street showing the overall house and yard.)