Hello, I've just bought a new house with a medium sized garden. At the moment it is basically a black canvas and I would like to know if anyone has any tips for starting a new garden (ie what are good focal points (preferably relatively inexpensive), and whether I should group certain plants together, and how I could add depth). I would really love a country garden, but am a complete novis when it comes to gardening. The garden is south facing. We have a small patio outside of french doors (leading from the sitting room) and a door from the kitchen with 3 steps leading onto the lawn. We have a boarder on the left hand side with a small tree which seems to fade out into grass. We have a wooden fence adjoining the neighbours. The back of the garden backs onto our garage (brick) (which I would love to grow a Clematis over, but would like to know if it would damage the brick work). In the middle of the back wall is our gateway to the garage. On the right of the back wall we have a few shrubs (I take it that it is because it is more shady), and not very much down the right hand side which is a brick wall. We don't have a big budget to start the garden with and was wondering whether there are any plants which would thrive in an alkali clay soil that would grow to make the garden look "lived-in" for the summer? I could do with all the help I can get and thanks for any advice in advance.:confused:

One of my evergreens does not appear to be doing so well. I planted six of them that I bought from Lowes about five months ago. One of them is turning brown and 'leaves' are falling off near the bottom on one side. It is getting worse as winter goes on. I believe they are Emerald Evergreens and they are planted in Cincinnati, Ohio. They are all getting the same amount of light and water. Any ideas?