hey liz.. royal oak eh?? [from your members page] .. grew up in livonia... and bought my first house there ... first.. refer to the link .... for a suggestion as how to proceed ... linds ... did it right.. by catching us.. when we were bored out of our minds.. prior to the weather breaking ... note the pix we requested.. as well as having her define what her goals were ... and they did not end up being what she started with ... and its your use of common terms.. that is confusing you .. and us.. as to where to go with this ... e.g... evergreens... well.. that covers a wide range of things ... i THINK you are talking about conifers ... if you are.. that is where linds started .... and that is usually the backbones of the front of ones house ... but there are many other plants that are .. in essence.. evergreen ... so you need to define what you are talking about ... and technically.. conifers are NOT shrubs.. though i also called them such for decades .... but it is not helpful in defining where we want to go .... BTW .. your link doesnt work.. and that pic is not going to be helpful to anyone defining a plan ... and take a walk some evening.. and snap a pic or two.. of what other peeps have done with the front of their houses.. to help you define what you like.. and give us some guidance as to where you want to go ... you are spot on with the foundation ... when i had my first house in livonia.. i learned that 3 feet AT THE FOUNDATION .. should be left blank ... so i could get a ladder in there.. to do gutters.. paint.. xmas lights.. window washing.. etc ... and if you agree with that.. then you should 'see' that your bed is horribly out of configuration .... lol .. i just glanced up.. and i see the neighbor still has the ugly old improperly planted conifer .... and the root of your problem might be this forum.. but you never know ...... the conifer forum is much more active.. than the shrub forum.. and not every one of the peeps there.. come thru here ... so if this post dwindles.. try over there ... my best suggestion ... is to define and build some great beds.. for planting in fall .. the next proper season for planting conifers .. and trees.. as i doubt you can properly build those beds in time ... you simply should not plant such.. in the heat of summer ... but .... once you define the beds.. and add some of your annuals.. and perennials.. then we can get the backbones in place in fall ... of my 600 conifers.. about half came in the mail ... and that is how you get truly unique things.. rather than JUST what the bigboxstore offers ... well.. that and a budget.. lol .. of course .. as compared to me in adrian mi ... you have some great large upscale nurseries in the area including bordines .. english gardens.. etc ... so.. get us some better pix.. that perhaps we can photoshop ... and lets try to find some words that explain where you want to go .. oh.. i would expand that bed to about 10 feet from the house.. which would make it only 7 feet deep to work with .. it would NOT be straight across.. and we would have to figure out how to deal with what i will guess is an arcing walkway .... [any chance you want to replace that with brick as a part of the process] ... and i would insure.. that some part of the plants introduce a vertical element.. as compared to your 1950's metro detroit ranch ... good luck ken Here is a link that might be useful: link

I'd suggest sorting out what will do well in the winter shade right against the building first. Kangaroo Paws will grow just fine there, but really bloom best with full sun. Most of the Kniphofia/Poker Plant cultivars will also bloom best with full sun. You also have an Angel's Trumpet/Brugmansia at the left side of the unit, and this can get quite big over time, but can easily be trained to be a multi-trunk tree, and will be bloom well in these light conditions. The cultivar 'Charles Grimaldi' is my personal favorite, and has a warm orange shade of bloom. I'd also suggest that some really big ceramic pots at the walls flanking the steps, with a colorful foliage plant such as Phormium 'Yellow Wave' or 'Cream Delight' could give you year round color, as well as foliage texture. Alternatively, you could also use specimens of Strelitzia reginae or Euphorbia cotinifolia in pots, perhaps with trailing Euphorbia myrsinites, or succulents such as the lavender tinged Graptoveria 'Fred Ives' or Echeveria imbricata. If you wanted another larger growing shrub with nearly year round bloom that could be kept relatively narrow, the Princess Flower/Tibouchina urvilleana does really well in southern California, but does need regular watering to bloom well. The Mexican Lobelia is also nearly year round blooming and grows well in shade and with little water, and can be sheared into a hedge and treated like boxwood. You might also consider using a bold foliage plant like Giant Walking Iris/Neomarica caerulea, having a similar form to a Phormium, but with waves of deep purple blue flowers on 5 foot tall stems all summer into fall. Another really cool shrub with purplish tinged foliage and blue flowers in late winter/spring is the uncommon Ageratum corymbosa, which also does well in light shade. Kalanchoe carnea modoc is another sculptural succulent that is winter blooming, takes shade, and would do well at the front of your building. With the formality of the building facade, I would suggest that treating it as a formal symmetrical planting and massing foliage plants with some color would give it a more integrated look in the front. You might also consider Reed Stem Orchids, Epidendrons, for a narrow yet tall and everblooming airy plant. Some narrow growing palms such as Chamaedorea tepelejote or C. plumosa could also look cool in front of the building, and will do well in shade, without getting too big. If you want to do the Gingers, they typically do want more regular summer water to do well, but things like H. greenei, H. gardnerianum, Alpinia zerumbet variegata could combine well with the Brugmansia and Tibouchina water wise. I wouldn't recommend planting the Horsetail/Equisetum unless it is contained at the roots, as this is a rampant spreader and will choke other plants out over time. You could plant the similar appearing South African restio, Elegia capensis for a similar look, which is very lacey and ferny foliage. Asparagus retrofractus is another tall ferny/lacey looking plant that would like these conditions. Good luck with the project, and post some photos of what you decide to do!

Just finished prunning and cleaning up that front yard section. I just can't believe how much sun there is there now. Anyway, the older bigger roses in the front bed, which were put in 2007 had no damage worth mentioning. Did need some hard prunning to get rid of broken limbs here and there but as soon as they leaf out and start growing that will be unnoticeable. The newer bed section that had Heirloom roses from last year and the year before took the worst of it. Nearest the tree trunk so most flattened. I had to dig and loosen soil around the roots on some of the rose shrubs and pull them back upright as they had ben pushed down. Broken limbs so they got harshly prunned. Then the really little ones from last year are in truely bad shape. Two of them are just not there at all, must have gotten dug up and lost with all the trampling and root digging. I will just replace those as if I need an excuse to buy more roses from Heirloom. The rest of the babies in that section got beat up badly but own root roses come back so they should be fine after awhile, even if extra small. I was also out there on my hands and knees with a cutivator and trowel digging and brushing dirt off the buried Siberian Iris. I was happy to find many of them. So while most are still there some of a partial row is totally gone. That would be were they dug to get to the tree roots that went straight down so that they could have accress to cut that root with the chain saw and lift out what was left of the stump. So now I am going to have top find my lists and see whats missing from that area so I can replace them.

Greening - Your comment " . . . the house is quite tall for that small a front yard. Unfortunately, deciduous trees in the front yard aren't going to happen-- they aren't good for the roof and the roof needs all the help it can get" has been percolating around in my head for about a month now, and I've finally found time to respond. I agree with Mayalena, KT, and Paririemoon2 that you should at least consider a deciduous tree, since I think without something to tie the tall house to the lower level garden, you'll be unhappy because there won't be enough of a transition or connection between the garden and the house. Look for varieties that are labeled as columnar or fastigiate or narrowly weeping. I think a tree with a trunk and the branches and foliage up above will give you more planting room than a large shrub like a Hamamelis (witchhazel) or a Philadelphus (mockorange) which is about as wide as it is tall or even than a columnar evergreen which typically has branches down to the ground. I noticed in glancing through the website below that they include at least some columnar trees, but probably most major online woodies nurseries have a search function that will let you search for columnar, fastigiate or fastigiata. Forest Farm nursery (forestfarm.com) has a category of columnar plants you can click on http://www.forestfarm.com/search/route.asp?indexkey=2C&x=72&y=12 that lists 37 genuses that they carry with columnar plants. Another resource with a list of columnar trees in the book Dirr's Hardy Trees and Shrubs, probably in your local library or bookstore. On pg 450 he lists about 2 dozen varieties of columnar and fastigiate trees. I think somewhere I've seen a reference to a columnar Stewartia, which might fit the bill perfectly. Stewartias in general have flowers, gorgeous fall colors, and in winter peeling, multicolored bark, so you'd have multiseason interest and get the most bang for your buck (space.) I think you mentioned planning to replace the solid front of the porch with balisters (sp?) and a rail. You could also add a trellis or even just netting with clematis/honeysuckle, etc. as using the vertical space will add to how much you can plant. Clematis in particular looks quite at home in a cottage garden and would like the coolness to the roots that shade from the porch would provide. I've also done some reading about folks who grow clematis through shrubs and small trees to add longer season interest. I haven't yet seen anyone who has grown one through a rhodie, but that might be a possibility to give you some winter green. At one time there was a thread in the shrubs forum here on growing clematis through shrubs, but it may have disappeared by now. Regardless, you need to match growth rate and ultimate size of the tree or shrub with the clematis. A couple of final thoughts - since you've got such a small space and you'll presumably want to be planting it intensely to fit in as much as possible, take the time to really work on your soil before you plant, turning in lots of organic matter like compost or well-rotted manure (which shouldn't smell) so that your plants thrive. Also, if you are visual, to help with your planning, take the photo of your house and do overlays on transparencies or tracing paper to help plan your space, even just cutting out silouettes of plants in proportion to your house and moving them around to see what looks right to you (or maybe you can do it all on the computer.) Hope I've helped some. Babs Here is a link that might be useful: smallplants.com