I shall take this as a cautionary tale and be very careful with myself this week, as I am definitely out of shape from lack of gardening, digging and lifting for the past 18-24 months.
Two weekends ago I spent several hours at Coker Arboretum and the NC Botanical Gardens. Coker Arboretum is a small and very well planned Arboretum behind the planetarium on the old main campus at UNC-Chapel Hill. Too many exotic tree and shrub specimens for what I have in mind, and they have wells from which they irrigate quite freely, which I can not do. However, it was very inspiring from the standpoint of thinking about garden design under all the trees here. They have planted sweeps of hellebore foetida under the trees, that are just lovely, and will remain so well into summer.(expensive!)
I had not visited the NC Botanical gardens except in winter for many, many years. It is very strong on native plants, shrubs and trees, and is going to be very helpful to me in thinking about shrub selection to create an under-story of mostly native shrubs for better bird habitat, as well as a privacy screen. Some very appealing native hobble bush species really caught my eye. When I was there, trout lilies were blooming profusely, and the earliest trilliums were colored up. Lot's of blood root also. The may-apples were up and just unfurling their leaves.
I mentioned previously that Sis had taken down a diseased dogwood in the back yard last fall or winter. I'll have to wait until the oaks have completely leafed out to be sure, but I think taking down that tree is likely to result in enough sun for a sufficient little veggie garden in 3 raised beds, as well as borders for sun perennials. Maybe even some dahlias!