I've been sizing up our little yard and trying to plan the landscaping/garden for it.

Problems include: limited money, limited space, desire for a lot of bulbs and color well into the late summer and fall, with, ideally, some winter color as well, even if it's just a shrub with red twigs.

Ojectives: Food, beauty, workable living/working/playing space, NO LAWN, and something to paint at every time of the year, including winter.

Desired trees: Red Bartlett pear, some kind of a hardy magnolia such as 'Butterflies', filberts/hazelnuts, Methley plums (have seeds and patience), and possibly another apple tree.

Also, Concord grapes, maybe a lilac, and of course, LOTS of roses.

Already existing trees that can stay: some big Ponderosa pines, a black locust (mostly because I think felling it would be a pain in the neck and expensive), a whole bunch of plums trees (some summer plums and some the better Italian prune-plums) a mountain ash, Gravenstein apple and another appple (Red Delicious? If it is, I might replace it with something better, the tree is weak and sickly and I hate Red Delicious, or I could graft onto it), a pear tree, a cherry (I haven't planted it yet), and a maple (looks like your average plain old maple tree).

Our yard is narrow, small, slopes toward the street, and in all honesty, our neighbors across the street aren't the kind I want to look at every day. They have a mobile home and they sit on their porch drinking and cussing and being your average Idaho redneck types. Their flat expanse of lawn is also uninspiring, as is the view of their vehicles. So I think my first priority, since it'll take a while to grow, is to plant a privacy screen/hedge across the front of the yard just off the street. My original plan was just roses (Rosa Rubrifolia, a hardy, unique, and tough rose with tiny, delicate single blooms and red foliage). Now I'm considering incorporating some of the Methley plum seeds into the plan, with the roses providing shelter until the plums get some size to them. I have enough plum trees though, more plums than I can easily process or use. One more tree would be plenty. What about the cherry tree? The roses are tall and shrublike, growing to 7-9 feet tall with gracefully spreading branches and not too many thorns. They're going to need a little bit of support and something to protect them from people walking all over them when they're small, so I'll probably put a rustic fence/trellis along the streetside border there.

We have to wheel the garbage can down to the street, so perhaps a path made of square paving stones. I want stone type ones though, not those ghastly dyed concrete things, yuck. I mean, concrete would be OK as long as it doesn't shout "CHEAP WALMART CONCRETE FOR WHITE TRASH WHO WANNA LOOK MIDDLE-CLASS!!!" I have seen tasteful concrete. The path needs to be wide enough to accomodate the full width of the garbage can plus ample maneuvering room within reason, or a wheelbarrow.

The bulbs- I know that I want species tulips, which need to dry out and stay relatively dry during the summer and fall. Wherever I plant these shouldn't be co-planted with water needy perennials or garden crops.

I also want a few vegetable beds.

Where to put the grapes?? Or the hazelnuts?

The front of the house has a big, big bed of irises, and they're all the same color, a pale lavender. They're OK, but I don't want that many of them I don't know what to do with them. Plant them between the rubrifloia roses and the roadside?

Oh, and I do want other roses besides the rubrifloas. I have a big Chrysler (red, very fragrant, a hybrid- I don't typically like red roses but I'm in love with this particular bush, so I want it where I can smell it several times a day) and will probably get a few more. There are also two yellow/golden climbers started on the front of the house that grow to 10-15' tall. That's probably enough for that area.....

Oriental Lilies, peonies, hellebores, probably asiatic lilies as well, lots of daylilies.....eremurus......digitalis....

And here's the thing, I really, really want a Japanese Maple, too...but have no idea where I could possibly put it....

Oh dear, how greedy I am for plants.... ;-D