It seems like you both have lots to think about, just keep your lists and portfolios going, and check in with him again when he is up to it. Just keep thinking while you get started in the spring, working on getting rid of the ivy, and doing the general cleanup. Wear gloves if you are allergic to it. (I didn't know I was until I tried to plant it one year. I'm not allergic to poison ivy; they say if you are allergic to poison ivy you can handle the English ivy just fine, but I'd not push it in either case.) Your screen idea is good, is the frat house the older one on the left side as you face the house? Do look into the rules on fences in sideyards at the local level. A fence is the only thing that will keep trash, and people out of your yard. Will it stay a rental/frat house? If there is any chance that it can be sold at one point, then if you do ever have some nice neighbors then having a 'shared' green wall of a mix of plants would be nice for both of you. (A chain link fence is still a good idea). It sounds like you need to be a 'guerilla gardener', and not make any enemies that will hound you for years to come. The evergreens are good, but also think about mixing in some decideous shrub-trees (amelanchier is one, it comes as a very large tree, down to a nice shrub size). Think spring flowers, fall color, and the smaller evergreens like azaleas, there might be a tree-like holly (you can't grow yaupon but there must be others). In the best of worlds, letting your neighbors have some sunlight in those windows-but filtering the view with more open shrub-trees will look like it was meant to be, and will give your husband his 'forest' look he is after, and if there are flowers then all the better to make it fit the neighborhood, and be more welcoming. I just looked at your survey, you really have a narrow lot, so you will have to think about vines, and trellis along property lines. They are a great way to fill in the spaces between the shrubs and trees that you do finally chose to go along that north property line. There is a very funny book of this concept of stealth gardening. I've only read the one, but she wrote two. The other one is 'Mrs. Greenthumbs Plows Ahead'. As for your backyard, you said there was even more ivy; I'd start removing that too, and check the health of your trees if there are any that are surrounded by the ivy. My parents had a backyard of ivy with a 'forest' of trees coming up through it. Everything was fine for YEARS, until this past year, and 4-5 trees toppled over. Trees broke off at the ground level even though my mom had been diligently removing any runners off of their trunks, it seems the ivy was keeping the ground and bark moist and finally rot took hold and down they came. If you have any maple trees in any yards nearby, be on the watch for their seedlings, and if you have 'baby' maple trees-get rid of those too!!! Japanese maples are lovely, and there are other nice trees to treasure in a small space. (Before you plant any crabapple trees, check their sizes, and if any of you are allergic to them.) The snow melt, and water table are very high in the spring, it's called 'surface ponding', and is usually not too bad, you just want to make sure you add those dried pucks of bacteria to help keep the mosquitoes and gnats at bay in the springtime. You said there was a pond there as well. Do you think 'Bob' decided to go with a pond to collect any spring runoff, as a way to deal with the drainage that way? Are you the lowest house in the area and it just collects in that area anyway? I know there are codes that say you need to keep any runoff on your own property-we had large 2x2 grates that led out to the street and then into storm drains at the end of the street and all that snow melt was held in large basins. We planted things that could take seasonal flooding, and made some planting beds that were more like berms to grow plants that needed more drainage. Maybe your pond is still a good idea if you use the type of plants that you both would like, it seems that 'Bob' was a minimalist and if you make it a 'real' pond with a more natural looking scene around it, it might be what your back yard needs. Another book, there are lots of good books, is 'Lessons from Linden Hill' Nancy Ondra is one of the writers, she has a great webpage, and quite a few books-get to know your library to check these and many others out, and use the interlibrary loan system if they don't have it in their system. You guys can do this, and there is so much to learn in the process!

Thanks for the feedback! I think I may be thinking too much about this. After all, I can always rip a shrub out and replace, right? Obviously, Im new to all of this. My gardening experience is limited to an 18- by 18-foot cottagey-style mixed bed that is in its third summer. Yes, I was looking at the "shrubs for sun" selection. I will have to check the exact timing, but I would guess that the eastern portion gets sun from sunrise to about 1 p.m. and the northern side from sunrise to about 10 a.m. Also, the sun is intense here because weÂre at 6,000 feet or so. Perhaps I should look more into the shade-tolerant choices though. I will keep in mind the tendency to grow away from the house. Although it makes perfect sense, I hadnÂt thought about it much before. I am mostly OK with mostly sticks in winter. I am willing to forego winter interest for spring and summer flowering in the case of the hydrangeas and weigela. I was hoping that viburnum might offer some fall interest and possibly berries for early winter. I just donÂt care that much for evergreens I guess. Ideally IÂd love a layered look with evergreens at the back of a bed, but I donÂt think weÂve got the space for that. Plus, there's no unsightly foundation that I need to cover up. I love the look of dogwood in the winter, so IÂm willing to have a plain old green blob the rest of the year. I was hoping that perhaps I could get three to four seasons of interest: Virburnum and weigela for spring flowers, hydrangea and roses for summer flowers, color-changing leaves and hydrangea blooms for winter, red dogwood twigs and boxwood for winter. Berries in winter or fall would be a plus to the viburnums. I decided I disike the thorns of barberries as well. I dislike holly for the same unfriendliness. Hmmm. I never thought about the foliage not being varied. I LOVE Japanese maples. I tried to plant one two years ago and it did not last. IÂm not sure if it was due to my inexperience or not. However, we do get pretty nasty winds that IÂve heard can be difficult on them, especially in the winter. I guess my desire for the Black Lace Elderberry is because it is as close as I thought I could get to a Japanese maple. Finally, I guess I was focused on dwarf varieties because 1. IÂm terribly afraid of planting anything that will outgrow the space and require tons of work. Also terrified that anything I plant could hurt the house. 2. I guess I thought if I used smaller shrubs, I could use more of them and get a more layered effect. I really know very little about foundation planting design, so I may be way off base. As a little more background, the house is a two-story stucco house, about 2,000 square feet. The eastern-facing portion of the bed is about 14 feet or so long and 5 feet deep. ItÂs also mostly stuck between the house and a paver patio. The northern-facing space is also about 14 feet long and varies in width from 4 feet to 7 1/5 feet. IÂll try to get a photo or two on here. Maybe that would help. IÂd like to try to photoshop things in to see what they look like, but I havenÂt gotten around to it. Are there any good websites out there that discuss foundation planting styles? Thanks! And sorry again for being so long-winded. I'm really interested in design and gardening though, so I'm having fun learning!

Well shoot, I had a reply typed up and it didn't save! mazerolm, great pics!! I love your collection of conifers and I definitely need more in my gardens. That new growth on Taylor's Sunburst is so eye-catching. I didn't know cotinus is hardy in your zone - which one do you have? I have been eyeing the 'Winecraft black' which is supposed to stay a manageable size. I looked up Isaac amelanchier and sounds like a good find! I've been trying to plant more no-spray fruit bearing plants, even if it just goes to the critters. So far I've planted pawpaws, a persimmon and have an Asian pear coming this fall. I plan to get an amelanchier and kousa dogwood down the line (more focused on the ornamental aspect but with edible fruit as a bonus).

First, I should say that I mentioned the idea of "specimen" because in your inspiration picture #3, it seems to have a number of what I'd gather to be large trees with the spruce, maybe a maple tree (not sure), but then a bunch of smaller shrubs with the dogwood, and ninebark, and then a smaller tree with the Japanese Lilac? on the far right . Usually a single tree on its own would be the specimen, and in many professional plans, the specimen would be flanked by groupings of much smaller plants/shrubs. So you don't have to have "specimen" items, but if you decided to have a single redbud in a hedge border, you'd probably want it to stand out, hence be the specimen, and you wouldn't want it to be lost in a sea of shrubbery. In the inspiration picture #3, the Japanese Lilac is a beautiful small tree on its own, but once the nearby spruce trees grow, you really won't be able to see it as a beautiful specimen tree. Say your specimen is the redbud. (We can't grow them in Ottawa, so I'm not familiar other than they look stunning on google). I gather that it is a relatively small tree (as compared to maples). It seems to me that because it is such a stunning tree and it is relatively small, you don't want to place the largest of the large shrubbery underneath it or right beside it. Ninebark from what I've seen are quite large, 8feet or so (but maybe there are dwarf varieties?), so I wouldn't put a grouping of ninebark right nearby unless they can be maintained at about 3 or 4 feet, but I like the ivory halo dogwoods because they are the smaller version of the standard dogwoods. Where I live, the ivory halos are maybe 4 feet high, so a nice height. And they are very easily trimmable. Again, I'm not familiar with redbud, but I could suppose that a grouping of ivory halo dogwoods might be nice on one side, and on the other side, another similar sized shrub - hydrangeas? I think you could also do more than one redbud side by side, but I wouldn't do a redbud right beside a serviceberry tree, especially if they have the same form and the same projected height+width. I'm not sure of the mature size of the service berry - I've only ever noticed them in my area as 10 feet high shrubs, but I see them on the internet as small trees. If they grow to a similar pattern as the redbud in your area, then I'd separate the redbud from the serviceberry and consider the serviceberry as its own "specimen".All of this is not to say you can't have 8-10 feet high shrubs - it is just that they should be visually separated from the specimen tree, especially if the specimen tree is relatively speaking, small. If it is a huge maple tree, no problem. So if it were me, and I had a redbud, I'd probably flank it on either side with relatively small shrubs, and then go for the larger 8-10 feet high shrubs like ninebarks. I don't think the blueberry shrubs can grow where I live, so I'm not familiar with them. But so far it sounds like you've started to simplify your plan and it sounds good. You might want to think about working in some evergreen along the right side of the property - you had mentioned a fir tree at one point. I don't know the mature size, but if large, maybe it could be a "specimen" along the side, but closer to the house.