I live on Elmendorf AFB outside of Anchorage, in a multiplex rowhouse. We have a very small garden area in the front, which our predecessors planted single white roses in, and they've spread from one bush into several. I'm in the process of digging all of the old, gray bark out of the ground (who knows how long it's been there, it's matted into the dirt) and ripping the roses out of the ground. I apologize to anyone that loves roses, but they're really ugly for 80% of the year.

My neighbor across the "lawn" and I want to fix up the front area and make it more kid friendly. We get free topsoil, mulch, lava rocks, and gardening tools from the U-Fix-It shop, and we're trying to figure out how to get things to grow in there.

There is a mature Mountain Ash in the center of it all, which is staying, obviously. Our biggest conundrum is the fact that our garage roofs are placed so that all of the snow in the winter falls off into the center area, completely burying the garden in about 4-5 feet of snow for January-early March, season depending.

I've come up with an idea for the plants, but I need someone more experienced to give me feedback, such as "yeah those won't survive the winter" or "ew, you know those things are great for mosquito attracting" or something.

I tried to pick things that grow best in shade.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1057427}}