Ebbie -- I'm in Seattle. Spring is like heaven around here. I have a formal-ish sunny garden in front and wild-ish shade garden in back under giant evergreens. We bought this house four years ago and I've been rehabilitating and expanding a garden that looked like it was very nice before it was ignored for many years. Afew nice trees and shrubs survived: lilac, English hawthorn, golden shower, Japanese maple. The entire back yard was under a foot of English ivy and blackberries.