Are you sure those trees are big enough to support a hammock without damaging the bark? Beyond that, the far corner of a yard does not, for most people, create a cozy feeling of retreat. Nearer the house, or some other shelter, is more likely to inspire a feeling of security. However, it's you that will be in the hammock, so only your feelings matter. With an energetic dog like a Brittany, you might want to design a yard that gives plenty of room to play with the dogs. One of our dogs is a Brittany. They seem to like lots of brush to crash through looking for birds. Keep that in mind when choosing plants. Kelly

You have rat holes. They are neat round holes and there is no dirt excavated or piled around them. I tried several kinds of traps, including electric shock traps, but nothing worked. I had these holes for 3 years and they were increasing all over the garden. I also spotted the rats hanging onto my bird feeder at night when I shined a flashlight on it. I stopped putting out bird food. Finally I resorted to a poison trap. It was a large plastic enclosed box with a small hole just big enough for a rat to get in. (I have dogs so I was concerned that they couldn't get in). The bait was a peanut-based blood thinner. Two weeks later the bait and all the rats had disappeared and I gave away the trap to a neighbor. I haven't had any holes or seen any rats for over a year now.

Not a pro. Just some thoughts. Budget and building codes permitting, of course, the most obvious solution to aside entry would be to move your carport/parking space(s) to in the front of the house in front of the right side of the existing carport but also in front of the left front exterior wall of your house and build a foyer with a front/street facing door on the side of the house at the entry door. Your walk path toward a new front porch and foyer built on the left side of the house would be beside your future carport. If only landscaping is in your budget, consider planting any shrubs or trees you add for privacy away from the front exterior wall of the house to enable you to create at least a short walk path directly in front of your front exterior wall of your home along side your driveway to aim your visitors toward the carport where your entry door is located and, perhaps, a small patio between the green privacy wall and the left front corner of the house.. If, however, you can alter your entry: Enclose your new entry foyer at the current entry door and also enclose the rest of what is now carport behind it to create the entry foyer. Unless your door is very close to the front, you could leave the area between the new foyer and the front exterior wall of the house as front porch. In front of the new front porch and your front exterior wall of your home, beneath front window height, create a forward facing front gable using the same left slope as the roof over the new foyer and porch about six feet deep, adding to your front porch in front of your foyer. To create your new carport on and to the right of your existing driveway, extend the right slope of that forward facing gable to make your carport as long as it needs to be -- and you could also have the carport roof continue part of the left slope of that forward facing gable shape (perhaps a third or even half the way down) shape so the left slope covers a walk path alongside your new carport.

Do you think you’re trying to start & tackle too many garden areas at a time? @marmiegard_z7b, absolutely!!! LOL But my timing has been messed up for over a year. I hired a tree company to remove trees for me last February. It was supposed to take 3 months to remove the trees, stumps, and grade the land, so I ordered a bunch of trees and plants to fill in the new gardens. But they sat on their hands, and by September the job was only about half finished. Then they dropped a tree on my house, and of course that suddenly became top priority. I finally got a guy to grind the stumps and smooth out the land in March, so I had to hurry to dig up greenbrier (literal miles of it), plant trees and shrubs, and do my regular gardening work at the same time. This shady area was really me taking a break from the back-breaking work to do something a little easier. I had put a bunch of hostas together last year but didn't like the look, so I figured I'd take a day or two to work here where it's easier and cooler :-) Lowe’s got in a bunch of Autumn ferns & holly ferns At my local Lowes, they have one section for shade plants and all of the ferns are marked... "fern"! Seriously, that's all they say. Half the time it's anybody's guess what kind of fern it is, especially when it's small. Buying plants has been pretty frustrating, honestly. The local nursery isn't really a nursery but just a store, they have very limited selections, and now I can see that most of their plants are leftovers from what Lowes couldn't sell. Which means that the plants have outgrown their pots and the roots are suffering. Buying plants at Lowes has been OK if you know exactly what you're getting, but of course that gets expensive pretty fast. Buying online has been the best option, but of course it's WAY more expensive with shipping. I mostly trade plants with people on the local website. I've had the most success with that, but of course it's more work and I'm limited to whatever plants people have to trade. It's good for filler, though.