Calling All Gardeners!

A couple posts ago I wrote about wanting to make the garden outside this house mine. Yesterday I went outside to take some "before" shots. The blue flowers above are a bulb I planted last fall.

I knew it was bad out there, but I didn't realize how bad until I saw the pictures! Of course, spring is only just beginning here in Maine. And this is a somewhat new house for us - two years and we have done a lot of work to it that doesn't show in these pictures - new driveway, new roof, new flooring in the upstairs, cleared 20 trees in the backyard to make some sunshine accessible, etc. We've done almost nothing to the garden other than remove some things. I love the house inside but whoever sited it was indulging in some substances at the time and put the plans backwards. Okay, enough explanations.

Here are the before shots. And if you have any suggestions (you're a landscape designer, etc, or really good with plants) please make suggestions for Zone 4b, shady plants, please that are deer resistant. And beautiful ;-)

As you can see, we have deer in abundance. The bush above will be replaced with something smaller.
Strike up the chain saw, honey!

The holly bush above really thrives there. This side of the house doesn't really get viewed any time at all. It's in total shade, so whatever I plant there needs to love shade. The way my house is situated the first thing you see when you drive up is this view below...pretty boring. I want to put some hardscape things in - trellises along the front garage wall so that it will break up the boring expanse. I'd like to hang a barn star or paint one on the end of the garage. If we're going to see the garage first thing as you come up the (long) driveway there needs to be somthing more interesting than two old garage doors. Plus, when we paint or side the house (not this year!) I would love to see it a warmer color.

Add some ladder trellises for climbing vines?


or maybe shutters instead?



I'm going to pick one section for this year, and another for next year. We'll see - hopefully I will have some "after" pictures that will be worth showing.