Garden Overhaul

Hi!
I am feeling energized by the wonderful weather lately, and am finally motivated to do something about the lackluster gardening situation in my backyard.
We have 2 BIG trees in our backyard, which means that we get a lot of shade.
This is a great thing for the summertime when it's nice and cool on a hot day.
It's not such a great thing for growing grass.
We've tried and tried shade tolerant seed, and really it's been a losing battle for the 6 years we've been here.
A couple of years ago I bought a garden kit from Springhill Nursery which has made one side of our shady yard into a little oasis of lovely flowers.
I decided to try it myself without the kit on the other side of the yard.
I went to a couple of great small garden stores, got some advice about good shade plants, and went to work.
You can see that we really need a change in these before photos.
The first thing I did was move our swing which had been crammed between the tree and the flimsy fence.
The second thing I did was remove the flimsy fence.
Then I laid out the new garden plot, helped along by the tree roots that I encountered, and marked it off by some leftover stones that I had in a big pile, which took care of two problems at once.The Hubby suggested that we swing the hosta border around from in front of the car to follow the line of the garden, then the back and side gardens could be one long garden.
He told me that I'd thank him for the best suggestion in the world, and here I am to agree.
Great suggestion, My Love.It took a couple of years for our other garden to get established, so I will wait and see with cautious optimism how this one will work out.
Now I just have to deal with the vermin who insist on eating my crops.
While I was outside just now, there were 3 squirrels having some kind of squirrel Olympics in my yard and my neighbor's as well as in the wheel wells of my car. I think they were hopped up on the sugar that they got from Eating MY Strawberries.