Landscaping is Hard (part 1)

Patio done sans sealing, patio furniture ready to party on.  Now I just need to make my yard beautiful!

I have more dirt to spread around and got some grass seed and a grass seed blanket thing, but I also needed to add some bushes and flowers.  It's always been bare in my backyard, especially since I took down the lilac bushes this spring.  I had three before that were where my patio now sits, but this spring was the first time they'd ever bloomed. Oh well, the had their chance to impress me and lost the battle.

I had a couple goals for landscaping.  First, I wanted to find something that could cast a bit of shade onto the patio.  I get about 8 hours of direct sunlight onto the patio in the summer, so it gets awfully warm back there.  Second, I wanted some year round color.

I'm accomplishing these goals in two ways - first by picking out an arborvitae that will grow between 7-10 ft tall.  Not only will it throw some shade, it will also give me green year round.  Next, I picked some other shrubs that flower and bloom at different parts of the spring and summer - a Miss Kim lilac and a couple Rapid Fire hydrangeas.  Then I picked some cat mint, creeping babies breath, salvia, black eyed susans, and coneflower for the pretty.

Here's the plan:

And here are the goods. 

Now its time to get down and dirty....