The double weeping cherry tree is an ornamental tree, keep it prunned it has lovely hanging limbs with pink double cherries--not too large of tree. Another example would be a Japanese Maple and build around that. Hosta breeds of the new variety are low maintenance & drought resistant, hydrangea (ever blooming), sedium (autumn Joy) and a some Lily bulbs, and my favorite and many landscapers are Stella Dora's-yellow and mauve and Happy Return Daylillies--it is a start. Lilies and Hostas you may have. I wouold start with mid-size hydrangeas. Hope this helps. I look in garden catelogs for landscape design and layouts! Happy Spring Gardening! Pam

Thanks to everyone for posting a reply! :) I've been really busy with work all week. ideasshare, thanks for taking time to edit and post the photo. I've included another photo showing a pile of rocks that I have salvaged from my property when I moved here. I'm intending on using them somewhere...some in the frontyard and some in the backyard. It'd be neat if I can have some moss too like you suggested. gardendoll, i too realized that I have to consider that the areas around the sidewalk would have to withstand winter salt and doggy waste. I don't want to rely much on perennials as they won't be around all year long. I wouldn't mind few but I'm mainly aiming for evergreens. Do you have a thread going for your new garden plan? woodyoak, I really thought hard about your suggestion and you really made me realize that my squiggly paths are pretty silly! I tried again and posted an updated plan below. It hasn't snowed here yet but I did some walking around and found out that you were correct about only curving when going around corners. Yes, your assumption is correct in that there will be gates on each side of the house...as shown on the updated plan. berndnyz5, you are correct. Before removing the Mulberry tree, I knew there'd be a trade-off with loosing shade but the trade-off was easy considering that the tree was a female and the mess that the fruit made was unbearable. The tree was also an eyesore in my eyes as it was stumpy and hacked by previous owners. It also had a split in one of its trunks which was an accident waiting to happen. Since the house faces west though, when I walk out the front door at about 6 PM in the summertime, I get practically blinded by the sun :S I am aware of the metal brackets that you are referring to and those are what I intend on using for my wood posts. As far as I thought cedar or pressure treated wood will eventually rot. I have until the spring to decide on which type of wood regardless :) There is an old lady who has lived across the street for the past 50-some years and told me that the hedges that I removed had been there for around 40 years. She also told me other neat things like how the driveway used to be by the south-west corner of the property. Anyway, the hedge did provide some privacy and noise barrier but at the expense of being ugly (especially in winter) and super high maintenance in the summer. It was too linear for me and I just couldn't take it any longer. I was surprised after I took it down that I haven't caught one person cutting across the front but regardless, I agree with you and am planning on having something near the NW corner. I was thinking about possibly a small berm/rock garden near the corner but I am unsure how I could link that to the bed beside the driveway. I'm thinking about having taller matter on the NW side and lower matter on the SW side as technically my house address is for the street on the SW side (i.e. the side that I'm planning on putting the new main walkway). Thanks for pointing out about a mulch walkway would be a never ending cycle of tracking it inside the house. I'm going to have to rethink the material for the secondary walkways. I'm planning for the main one to be 4 feet wide and the secondary ones to be 3 feet wide. I'm okay with spending more money on the main one (i.e. tumbled pavers) but need the secondary walkways to be a complementing less expensive material because the walkway are going to be so long. As for the conifers, I'm planning on choosing ones that are appropriate scale for the property and that are slow growing. Since they will grow slowly, if any pruning is eventually necessary, it don't see it as being nuisance at all.

Your wooden fence appears to be tall enough to grow "Crepescule" which has very attractive dark green leaves and golden-apricot roses. It's re-bloom rate is very fast for a climbing rose. In Berkeley,California near my home, it is grown against an 8 foot tall wooden fence, successfully. I've espaliered "Cornelia" for a freind, to cover his 7 foot tall wooden fence. Cornelia" spreads 7 feet tall by nearly as wide but only 3 and 1/2 feet from front to back. It takes a few minutes to trim it back every season, but espaliering Cornelia shows off its graceful growth habit extremely well. I'd grow those two with perhaps a white rose, if there is room to brighten the area, - "Snowgoose" or a white Noisette. - Or a "Lamarque" which blooms white most of the year where I live, and light yellow during a few weeks, but this is a rose that has heavy "limbs" and will need more suppport, cross bracing on the corners of the fence, especially if there are strong winds in your area. If you want to cover more of the view of your neighbors, you could extend upwards by putting taller rebar arches c. 6 feet in front of the fence, and grow "Susan Louise" (c. 25 feet tall) between the arch and the fence and let both structures bear its weight. "Susan Louise" is a large climbing Tea- like rose (Hybrid gigantea) that bears very large pink and cream Tea roses during every season of the year. It is a large and impressive plant and covers a landscape with its' Old Garden Rose beauty. A neighbor grows it as a free standing bush, c. 25 feet tall and it looks like a tree from a distance, covered with large roses, fit for a fairy tale. vintagegardens.com sells this wonder of a rose. I love your space and can imagine it filled with roses, every season of the year. Luxrosa

Young trees will root better. You have to wait about three years before they start to 'take off' in size. Planting trees along your property lines won't give you privacy in the raised kitchen or on the raised deck for a long time -- and then, primarily in the summer. I'd plant some 'high canopy' type trees inside the yard, closer to the house. Maples form dense canopies. Partially enclosing the deck would help. Arbor Vitae planted around the base of the deck would provide screening -- maybe too much screening, making the deck look even smaller.