I like the contrast of form, but I don't like the combination of the orange flowers of the Canna and the pink flowers of the Sedum, but otherwise I like the combination.

Awesome! Actually, the only thing I like about the canna is the foliage.

I don't know if I should plant the purpleleaf now. Today, I'm amazed that ground is still not frozen even if we've hit 0F many times and a weekly average of 12F to 15F. Thanks for the snowcover. However, the potted plant's soil in my garage are all frozen as well as the puddle sitting on my wheel burrow.

I was told that as long as the temp in my unheated garage doesn't go below 35F, my plants are safe. However, I am worried now with what I am noticing in my garage. My garage door is even insulated but looks like it's not helping it.

Thank you so much!

What plants are in the garage? I overwinter zone 7 roses in my garage, and they have survived 25°F or so without any trouble. I'd expect any self-respecting zone 5 plant to handle single digits in a pot.

I have the following:

1. Purple leaf sandcherry marked as zone 3a

2. Smokebush as zone 5 from Bailey Nurseries

3. and Cityline Paris Hydrangea as zone 5. However, I wrapped it with bubble wrap with some breathing.

So the freezing of the dirt doesn't really kill the roots? How do plants die?

Thanks. It was nice to hear when you wrote that info. :)

Just got back in. I decided/went ahead and planted the purpleleaf sandcherry at the same position on my picture. I covered it again with snow after putting back the dirt.

I'll take a pic later.

Here she is.

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From following your posts, I have a sense that you really like reds & purples. Here's a sample project of mine in the Chicago suburbs from a garden I installed (and maintain) a couple years ago - this is it from end of May 2008.

In this case, we used 'Forest Pansy' Redbud but the Purple SandCherry you selected has a similar look.

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Just arrived home. Brought daughter to doctor.

Anyways, your garden is gorgeous! Thanks for sharing your pics. It really helps me a lot with my designing. :)

I forgot to ask gonativegal, what do you think about my design? I really don't have any experience with designing. :) I just look at pictures and follow some rules. And as much as possible, I want to save. Hehehe.

I really don't want it to look the best but I want something that makes me happy and pleases me.

Thanks for the kind words but I should have prefaced by saying this is not my house (unfortunately) but one of my clients. I'm a professional gardener, for lack of a better word, and I do mostly maintenance but I as time permits I install a handful of gardens each season and this was one of them.

Attached, in this next photo is a picture of my house. It's very over the top and not everyone's cup of tea but I like it.

But back to your question regarding your design, agree with gardengal the canna's are the wrong color.

Your house is tall so some vertical height in the front is needed and the Foxreed Grasses & small tree are a good pick but you need to make your floating bed bigger. I would take it all the way to sideway and go as far as the property line and then space out the plants you've chosen to be further apart. I would also include some sort of short perennial/groundcover to drift in/out of the larger plants such as some of the lower growing sedums: 'Dragon's Blood', Sedum kamtschaticum (stonecrop), 'Blue Spruce', 'Red Carpet'. Sweet Woodruff is also another nice groundcover which will handle full sun. Combining different groundcovers makes for added interest as well.

Just stay away from the dreaded Vinca minor, ivy or euonymus that's commonly sold at garden centers. These are horribly invasive.

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Honestly, your last picture, is what I want to accomplish at the back. However, wife is always contradicting. I've told her many times that we really need to be bold because we have a huge backyard.

I'm really in love with your last picture. If you recall my garden plan version 8 that I posted at design forum, I made an island bed near the top left. That's the area where I want to put walkway stones just like yours.

you need to make your floating bed bigger. I would take it all the way to sideway and go as far as the property line and then space out the plants you've chosen to be further apart.
When you said "take it all the way to the sideway, would that mean that I should not leave any grass between the bed and the sidewalk? So the shape would be like a right angle?

Regarding the canna, I agree that the flower is wrong. However, the choice for the Canna shown on picture is for foliage.

Thanks for assisting me. :)

Do you have a picture gallery?

I agree with gonativegal, you need a bigger bed (of course, I am always in favor of a bigger bed because it means more plants ;-). Also, that red castor bean may get a lot bigger than the one in your picture. Plus, they are the most poisonous plant on earth, so you may want to re-think that one especially if you have kids around. Have you considered using canna "Tropicanna"? The foliage might look nice with that cherry tree. I'm not a professional designer, but it's just a thought. I do like what you're designing so far, though! Good Luck!

Please see drawing specifically the lower right corner. That's how I am interpreting your recommendation.

Thanks.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:285439}}

Yes, Tropicanna is what I will be buying next spring. I also have 3 rhizomes of Bengal Tiger Canna sleeping in my basement.

I'm glad that it's looking good so far. Honestly, I can't wait for spring. 3 more months and winter's done. Woohoo!!! LOL.

Oh, please check the bed for the sand cherry on the drawing I posted above.

Thanks so much! :D

About the castor beans, I've already informed my kids about the disaster it can bring. I have 20 seeds here which they saw while I was doing a presentation to them. LOL. My youngest son(7) asked me, "are we going to die if we look at it." Hahaha. That was so funny.

I'm so happy with my kids because I only have to say it once and they never mess with it.

hi gonativegal/shropshire_lad,

I would like to get some advice again. :)

What would be your suggestion to the area that I marked with white lines? I want to put some plants/shrubs there as well.

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Haha, your 7 year old is funny! For the area marked in white, I am assuming that someday soon a house will be built on the adjacent lot, so maybe think of putting up some kind of hedge in the back for privacy. The rest of the area looks open so it is probably a sunny spot...just fill in with sun-loving shrubs, small trees, and plants. I wish winter was only 3 more months where I live, but it is never completely over until mid-May!

The designer house is being built now at the open lot. The garage door entrance is facing my house. The shrubs that you see on picture beside my garage are redtwig dogwoods. This wall is facing north so it doesn't get enough sunlight. It starts to get sunlight in morning and slowly goes away starting 10am until 6pm.

There is another shrub that I love and that is Tiger Eye Sumac. However, I'm worried about the suckers. Are they very invasive or not much invasive? If slightly, I can live with pulling suckers every year or prolly give them away. What do you think about the Tiger Eye Sumacs?

just found this on google. It's gorgeous!

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For a hedge, I would go with something evergreen...they are not too fussy about light, plus they give you privacy even in the winter.

Tiger eyes will sucker but not a lot in my experience. In my opinion, it is worth the annoyance of pulling the suckers. Some suckers came up on the other side of the fence. The neighbors liked the plant so they created a bed around it so we now share a Tiger Eyes. Sufficient sun is required for the yellow foliage. Otherwise it stays a light green.

I'm trying to visualize the pergola structure you posted on the Design forum being placed in the picture with the white lines above. It might work as an entrance tunnel to the backyard but you'd have to remove those shrubs and there might be issues with setback limits along the property line. The other place to consider putting it is to use it to make a covered patio/summerhouse/sitting/garden viewing area in that L in the backyard behind the garage. Somebody (I can't remember who) posted a while ago on either this or the Design forum (I can't remember which) a picture of a beautiful structure that looked a bit like it was used as an outdoor living room. I thought of that when I saw the pergola picture you posted. Are there any patio doors that open onto that L area? I think using it as some sort of seatiing area would work better than to use it as an entrance arbour.

One thing that puzzles me in the pictures here and the plans you've posted on the Design forum - there doesn't seem to be any pathways leading from the frontyard to the backyard...? And, is the absence of fences because your house is in one of those strange HOA things that doesn't allow fences?

About the fences, we are allowed to put fence but I'm not sure if I want to put one. I'm still thinking about it. My neighbor on the left has a fence.

And yes, regarding the pathways, I should definitely plan about it. I was drawing it yesterday but I wasn't happy. That's why it wasn't included.

What are your thoughts about the new crabapple tree plan and the yellowtwigs on my 2 drawings?

Thanks ginkgonut about the tiger eyes sumac. I've been wanting this shrub for almost 4 years now but I always forget to buy it.

On the issue of fences... - I absolutely hate the look of those 6' wooden privacy fences - I always feel imprisoned in a yard with those :- ) On the other hand, when you have dogs - as we do -, you need a fence. We are lucky here that all the immediate neighbours are seperated by 4' chainlink fences so the individual properties remain distinct but the overall look is open (which makes all the lots look bigger...) and dogs stay where they belong! I know most people don't like chainlink and, if money was no object, wrought iron or wrought aluminium would be nicer. The black chainlink is the best because it visually 'disappears', especially if you use the fences as supports to grow vines, which I do.

On alley pathways... - Your alleys are wider than mine so you have a bit more room to play with but I'm in favor of keeping things simple. Both the path in my north alley and the one in the south alley are straight, with no fancy curves - the alleys are transit routes and not really places to linger. I aimed for attractive with the plantings but functional by keeping the route direct to make moving things like a wheelbarrow easy. You don't want to have to follow a curving path when you're moving a wheelbarrow or lawn mower or snowblower through a passage - you just want to get there quickly and easily. There are pictures of my north alley path and a link to more on the before-during-after thread in the Design forum. You might be interested in the air conditioner screen we built to disguise that ugly lump! My south alley is the main 'public' route to the backyard (i.e. the one visitors take more often) so it has a bit of a fancier entrance and we are in the process of developing a rose swag along it. There are pictures at the link below.

I confess I'm not a fan of yellowtwig dogwood, especially in front of the house (I assume the yellow circles are the dogwood?) I think your house deserves something prettier in the entrance! I'm not sure what though... maybe some classic shrub roses with good red hips for winter and grow some clematis through them for extra summer interest?

Are the circles with the pink the crabapples? I like crabapples (especially if you can find edible ones - I love stewed crabapples! :- ) But I don't think putting them in a place that will block the view of the front door is the right place for them. I think trees should be off to the side and lower plantings are more appropriate for along an entrance pathway.

Here is a link that might be useful: south alley

I've added the pathway plan but still have not decided on the patio yet {{gwi:285449}} I love how my old patio looks like. You can see it from this link. I built this website when I was selling my previous house as "For sale by owner".

Anyways, I added more items to the plan. My daughter likes the flagstones that I've added. I like it as well. Honestly, we like where I placed the Donald Wyman.

Woodyoak, both of us agree on the looks of the fences. I honestly don't like them. This is the reason why I'm putting a lot of border plants so that wifey can forget about the fences. She gets mad at me everytime I say NO to fences. LOL.

For the redtwig, it was the builder who planted it 2 years ago. Actually, I like it. However, it's not showy. It's just a regular plant during summer.

Are the circles with the pink the crabapples?

If you are asking about the small pink circles, they are cleome plants. I have tons of cleome seeds that I will sow in early April. I also have tons of calendula seeds that will get scattered the same time and so for white/purple cosmos and a few seeds for purple coneflower. I also have flower blanket but I am not sure if I really got the seeds. I only have one crabapple right now and that's the one near the house close to the honeylocust sunburst.

You have a nice garden. :) Hopefully, I can at least achieve 50% of my plans next year. I'll start shaping the bed by mid March next year. I'll take pictures of it.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:53796}}