I've never been on this forum before, think 90% went to landscaping school!! Way I see it is the front door looks too small, It seems like a side of house door. So the area around it needs to be changed. The walkway would be great going from front door to the driveway on this side of that tree far enough so the roots of tree don't buckle the new sidewalk. Then between sidewalk & house you have a nice area to plant some shade plants near tree & others closer to house. Anyone parking in front of house can walk up the driveway to the new walk which would have a lovely curve to it. I think a nice birdbath (or fountain if you insist- most get turned off about as fast as they are installed as pump costs money to run, birds mess them up etc) Get a nice ornamental small tree later so that goes towards left of pic & off of the curve of walk a number of feet(between left tree & walk but towards street) You can go with a couple of plants with stands by front door until you get walk in & deceide what bushes to keep up by house. With 4 little ones you aren't going to get it done overnite. Walkway is most important & getting area around tree with some plants, hostas if you can grow them, impatiens for quick color, don't know where you live so don't know if Boston Fern by front door or some other large draping plants would soften & improve look. I can see the front stoop being covered with brick with half circle steps down to walkway but then you would need brick along path to driveway or you could make the 1/2 circle steps of imprinted cement or with whatever pattern you wish. I'm in So. Ca. & weather & all plays a big part in what you do in most of the states. You want to make that door not stick out but part of landscape. 2 plants on 1 side & 1 on shorter pillar. Could be cut logs, pillars taken down from Colonial style house, clay tiles. Lady just painted 1 on Garden Junk forum, I imagine they come in different sizes & you could paint them black or white etc. I think round would be good as you want the plants to be focal point. A cut up telephone pole 3 heights, 15 in, 20 in & 25 in. would add interest. Just be sure the poles can't tip over easy & hurt the kids. Oh, I don't think I will ever dare come back here when they get through trashing my "crazy' ideas!! I just have always looked for ways to get what I want without spending a fortune!! Good Luck!

1.) Yucca 'Color Guard' (Best variegated yellow foliage and stays nice all winter!) 2.) Dicentra 'Gold Heart' (Gold Bleeding Heart) Spectacular! 3.) Aralia 'Sun King' (Looks tropical!) 4.) Heuchera 'Citronelle' (It's not weak to me!) 5.) Heuchera 'Electra' (Not weak and has grown great for 3 years now!) 6.) Hosta 'Sun Power' 7.) Sedum 'Angelina' 8.) Sumac 'Tiger Eye Gold' 9.) Tradescantia x 'Sweet Kate' 10.) Vinca 'Illumination' 11.) Agastache 'Golden Jubilee Also, I love Heliopsis 'Loraine Sunshine.' It's not gold, but the white in the leaves really 'pops.' It brightens up the garden and also has yellow blooms in the summer! Sorry, I didn't have time to post photos of all of these.

You folks are too kind. Yes, this is the worst flowering I've ever seen since I started gardening, but then, it's just flowers. The plants are generally fine. We haven't had any slides (quite a bit of earth shifting and bulging, though, with all that rain in the winter). Some plants have actually been beautiful, though the roses are a distraction; and I never thought I would find myself saying, "Thank goodness the roses are nearly done blooming and the garden can start to look decent again"! I was down in the big garden yesterday evening. My husband had mowed most of the main paths, and the contrast between the mowed areas and the beds with their shrubs and cultivated herbaceous plants and wild grasses, with Italian cypresses sticking up here and there, was, from certain angles, beautiful. I'm not taking the weather well, it's too sunny and too warm and leaves me sleepy and lethargic, but it has been lovely the last few days, the air washed clean and blue, a breeze blowing, the trees the deep green of early summer. The lavender and common wild daylilies (the only ones I like) are in flower now, strong colors that go well with each other and with the colors of sky and woods. Down in the shade garden rose 'Centifolia' has somehow managed to preserve a good portion of its blooms and is looking most satisfyingly romantic, without losing its dignity in the process. 'Chapeau de Napoleon' also looks pink and lush, if you don't go close enough to see the beetles, and is entwined with the silver and gold of anthemis: a happy sight. I appreciate all the sympathy, but in fact I know that this doesn't even come close to being a disaster, not even a second-rate one; certainly not to be spoken of in the same breath with people who've lost their homes to a tornado. All of us, everyone who has written here, goes through hard times of drought, flood, winter ice storms, spring freezes, humid mosquito-plagued summer, dreadful bug infestations. Even with this bad spring, I consider myself one of the luckiest gardeners around, with a soft job when it comes to getting plants to grow. Many of you have harder conditions to deal with than I do. Today DH and I went out to the far end of the property where there's an old pear tree in the middle of a field. Years ago we planted two roses there because at the time we didn't have any other place for them: 'Alberic Barbier' and 'Gloire de Guilan'. They're out of reach of water and have gotten practically no attention since we planted them, but lo and behold, they're alive and blooming--with no beetles!!--and with a good firm tenacious hold on existence, too. Last fall or winter we went there and cut away brambles and wild clematis and hawthorn from around the roses, and today we trained 'Alberic Barbier' further up the pear and gave the brush another haircut. GdG is still small but appears well established. The countryside is really, really lovely this time of year; and on the way back we stopped by the cherry tree--the best cherry tree in the whole world--and picked a colander full of fruit before returning home. Really, the world is a beautiful place. Bart, your spring sounds exactly like our spring; DH and I share your frustration about those weather reports. Our inch of rain was probably a couple of millimeters. Good luck with your watering: it sounds like a lot of work. Do you have a shady place to sit and pass the summer? That's a must in Italy, plus a long siesta every day, and try to get things done early in the morning and in the evening. Jackie and Jeri, I'm glad for your rain, which sounds like a blessing! Though I can, with some mental exertion, imagine getting tired of rain. About the supplemental watering, we don't water our plants after the first year, and we have a regular summer drought that runs from two to four months, THOUGH we get a generous annual rainfall, about 40". The plants do fine, perhaps helped by the depth of clay under them, though of course the roses don't bloom when they're dry. But everything lives. (I hope that's true this year as well, with a drought that begins in spring and not in summer.) Sammy, I like your comment about the companion plants! It's very much that way in my garden! But then, in spite of all the roses we grow, I've never considered mine a rose garden. Good luck to you as well! Laura, I hope your garden gets better weather too! Ingrid, for heaven's sake, rejoice in the lovely garden you've had this spring: it makes me feel happy just to hear that it bloomed really well. I appreciate your and others' good wishes. We have a wonderful amount of beauty here, and are definitely not objects of pity, the plague of beetles notwithstanding. Jana, Well, that's pretty much our rule. Different people garden in different ways. Greybird, you're one of the gardeners who make me realize what a soft, cushy gardening job I have here. I'm glad you finally got some rain!! We suffer from wind too, not to the extent that you do, though. I imagine windbreaks are not a possibility? I'm looking forward to the maturing of the seedling trees we keep planting. No doubt I'll be an old lady by the time they make their influence felt. Paula, one of the many kind voices I've heard after my complaining. I think the truly beautiful, albeit dry weather we've had since I wrote my first post has had a beneficial effect on my mood. Plus the roses are nearly out of their misery and the garden is entering a new phase. We're doing pretty well, and a good crop of cherries certainly helps one's mood. It's okay for the moment. We may even get some rain in a couple of days! Thanks for listening folks! I wish we may all have a change for the better in our weather! Melissa

I've been reading this one topic a lot and visiting the different nurseries online. I love edible landscaping, especially fruits and berries. I have Washington Hawthorns, Elderberries (Adams/Johns), 3 grapevines, 4 dwarf cherry trees, a mulberry tree (Morus alba), strawberries, blackberries, amber raspberries, coralberries, and blueberries mixed in with perennial flowers in my urban yard. When I stop reading the topics long enough to figure out how to post pictures, I will post some berry pics as I have two different berries that I didn't plant and need an ID. I've been looking high and low on the internet, but can't figure out what they are on my own. Both of the unknown berries were in my yard before I started planting stuff, so I know it isn't stuff I've purchased or piggybacked in with stuff I purchased. I also don't see them elsewhere in my neighborhood and the hubby worries they might be poisonous - I'm tempted to taste them every year. I planted the hawthorns for the songbirds to eat. I think I have about 25 planted and thriving since last spring. I'm hoping the birds will eat those and the coralberries more and leave me with enough of the other fruits that I end up with stomach aches from eating too much. Next year, along with doubling the amount of grape vines, I'll probably plant 5 more blackberries (3 different varieties tbd this winter.) I will also plant at least 2 varieties of red raspberries. If you haven't noticed, I like plants with thorns. I used the Hawthorns to create a hedge on the north and south sides of my front yard. But I will move them all to the north side and put a blackberry hedge on the south side. I have to do this to keep the mailman, neighbors and felines out of my yard - I have to protect my flowers also. I want my yard to be a sanctuary for the birds, but cats keep visiting and stalking the poor birds because I have several neighbors that let their cats roam the neighborhood as they please. After my thorny plants started growing, my yard hasn't been the neighborhood litter box it once was. (I just hope I don't accidently sit on my thorny babies like I did many years ago on a rose bush because I literally could not sit for weeks!) I also haven't had to worry about my indoor-only cat being worked into a frenzy from the cats taunting her at the windows. Anyhow, I realize now that there are many many serviceberries but I can't find good photos of them. I've found a lot of information, some drawings, and a few photos that looked like wilted flowers. I also haven't seen any mention of thorns - do any serviceberry plants have thorns? Where can I find clear photos of a few different types alongside good descriptions? (I'm planting thornless fruit away from the property borders.) I still need plants for my edible hedge along the front/west side of my front yard - hopefully thorny and growing at least 4' -6' high. Otherwise, I'll continue to use the Washington Hawthorns for a hedge but add 2 Rose of Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus 'Aphrodite') bushes for the butterflies on each side of the front gate. After all that, I still have a couple spots left for either serviceberry, or maybe currants. A few photos of the serviceberry growing in your gardens would help me choose.