Backyard garden plan 2010-revised

Updated my garden plan over the weekend. Changes are below:

• Corrected the hard landscape layout; I didn't include the stairs of the patio last time.
• Updated the border. After few rainstorms, it became obvious that grass is thinner in some area than others. Reduce the size of the flower bed on the left but expand it around the cherry tree on the right accordingly.
• Give up the purple leaf sandcherries; now in favor of Proven Winner hydrangeas (maybe Invinsible Spirit?).
• Plan to divide and reuse more perennials from other areas.

I am hoping to divide and transplant as many plants as possible not just to save money. The growing condition at the back is not too bad; a bit of gentle morning sun but scorching afternoon sun. Some shrubs (e.g. dogwoods) also suck up a lot of water and leave little for smaller plants. So it's time to turn to those trial-and-true survivors in our garden.

For the past few years the shady garden right behind our house is a testimony of Darwin's theory - Survival of the fittest. TripleQ has had enough of the "mess"; I think he lost it after seeing all the forget-me-not growing out of the shady garden boundaries and into the lawn. We will wipe out the whole shady garden and leave only 1 or 3 (in a roll) specimen plant(s). Unfortunately I don't have pictures of the shady garden in previous years. I think our shady garden was kind of cool though; the garden was ALWAYS full from late spring to fall. If I didn't like a plant, I just snipped it. But I agree that it could look messy when you are up and close.

There are snow-in-summer, forget-me-not and catmint (Nepeta mussinii) in the front garden and they all try to take over the garden. It gets a lot more crowded than the picture taken about half month ago, especially after the peony and herbs are back. Time to move big chunks of snow-in-summer, forget-me-not and catmint to the back so they can "run" wild. :-) Hopefully I can create a relaxed, low-maintenance pretty garden.