Question for anyone with a "green thumb"

[Tina]

I have an area of space between a sidewalk leading to our deck and the house that needs some sprucing up.

I'd like a possible mixture of color-- maybe some red leaved, some green... maybe something streaked with white.

I don't want anything that blooms-- because of the attraction of bees, yellowjackets, etc.. and we don't want to constantly have to fight them around the deck.

The space is 4 ft wide and approximately 16 ft long. I don't want any type of shrubbery that would grow up to the windows on the back side of the house.. so I need something that has a maximum height of 2 -2 1/2 ft.

I can use graduating heights of things, and possibly plant two rows of plants/shrubs. I plan on using pine bark mulch or something to fill in the area around the plants/shrubs.

Anyone have any suggestions?

[Digging4Truth]

For the shorter ones... the old faithful japanese (little leaf) boxwood would work.

It generally stays under 3' tall.

Here is a pic

If you like the boxwood.

[Hoovie]

Golden Japanese Barberry has yellow in its leaves. And the standard Barberry has nice dark red and green tones. http://www.hoerrnursery.com/CatalogI...rberryAtro.jpg

[rgcraig]

hostas

http://www.hostas.com/hostas/index.html

[Ferd]

it might not fit exactly what you are looking for but, I love those dwarf Japaneese Maples. red leaves, only around 4 feet tall but they are a tree.

love those things.

[Tina]

Thanks for the ideas... if anyone thinks of anything else-- please post. I still have a couple of other areas of the yard that need some landscaping done....

Anyone that has any pictures of ideas you've used for flower gardens & landscaping ideas would be wonderful.

I've checked out some books from the library with gardens in them... but they are WAY more expensive than I can possibly afford to do right now.