Starting over on our landscaping in front of the house.

If you call in a landscape designer, they should make up a plan for you showing plants and give you all the information you are looking for, so you can do it yourself......

You have a lovely home. Before you begin, there are several things you need to think about:

1. Budget
2. Formal or casual
3. Natives or exotics
4. Color theme
5. Bloomers or texture or a combination of both
6. Any hardscapes you want to use (rocks, fountains, etc.)
7. Phase planting or all at once
8. Contact your local agricultural extension service for perfect plants for your area.
9. Look at the local nursery -not big box store- for plants.
10. And consider having a professional landscape design done. You can have the design done separately from installation.

Good luck!

Visit your County Agricultural Extension Office. They are so helpful. They have lots of handouts. That's all they do - help people with their growing questions locally.

I did that with our garden. Did research on line and landscaping books. I visited the local nurseries to get ideas colors. Wrote down everything I liked and drew a plan. You can look up plans on better homes and gardens. I recommend buying native plants. Good luck

You have a lovely home and lots of room to garden. I hope you grow to like gardening. Here are my thoughts.

1) Paint those white down spouts to blend in with the brick color ! Use contrasting colors to highlight things that are beautiful, not down spouts.

2) Move your house numbers to the front of the garage.

Photo One: Remove bushy shrubs from in front of long window. Plant matching verticals on either side of the long window. Some sort of cypress or arborvitae.

Photo 2 and 3 : The large shrubs were removed ?

Photo 4: Keep the little shrubs on the right and left of the front door for symmetery. Lose the hanging plant hook. In it's place find a small patio tree. Maybe a Japanese Maple ? You don't want it to grow big. Full height should be the same height as the roof line. Variegated plants will look great with your brick. I'd also place a trellis between the two windows on the garage wall. Would love to see two large pots in a bright color flanking the front door.

Photo 5: The second window to the left needs a shrub or two under the window. Variegated eunonymous would be cool. Or, you could replant the shrubs blocking the long windows. I would plant a few "ground cover roses" towards the front of the flower bed. This will match the roses by the garage. Also, a great place for a bird bath. Fill in with Joe Pye weed near the house, echinacea and iris toward the middle with the bird bath.

Photo Six: A lot of those stick vine things in the soil could be groundcovers that will flush out and bloom. Consider adding more rocks. I see one rock near the front with the hostas. In the flower bed near the garage, dig in a lot of compost and plant an herb garden !

Thanks everyone for your answers. I will Contact the county agriculture extension office