Ok, neighbor (I live down by LAX), I'll throw in a couple more cents. First of all, no, you're not silly, you just shocked the heck out of us is all...I think it was the evening view toward the house that did it!!! Secondly, don't give up your questions because you do want to make *some* changes otherwise you wouldn't have asked. It sounds like the 'sterile' observation hit a chord, so work with that. I can't tell from just the two pics, but is this a fairly new property, because the landscaping seems small, either young or groomed that way. As someone with a passion for gardening and I would think the feeling you have being in the garden may be add odds with the straight, although beautiful, lines of the columns and house since you had the idea for the English garden. Sooo, take a deep breath, with any house, let alone a large one, it's a marathon, not a race, and there's always things that need changing. So, since you asked, here's some thoughts that come to my mind, in no order.... -For sure keep the view from the house to the ocean open, it looks nearly like an infinity pool, is stunning, and I would think very relaxing and good for the spirit. As mentioned, taking out the pool entirely is probably not the best thing if you move, and if you're not old enough for a jacuzzi yet but you will be eventually so that's a must keeper if they are the pools on the sides! ;-) Or, for that matter, if you re-arrange the pool a bit later, I'd keep the 'therapy' water in the design. Folks may not swim, but most everyone has a bad back, etc. and what better than enjoy the therapy looking out over the ocean??? -Is that a balcony in the middle of the house? What about some _modest_ sized, so as not to eliminate the lines of the house trailing plants or even roses? Bouganville would be monsters unless you could find a small variety, but would be drought tolerant and match the style of the house. -Urns would match the decor, but not soften the appearance if that's where you're going. Also, don't forget, unless you specifically drain water away from pots, they'll stain the concrete around the pool and it will look ghastly. -I have to agree about finding a professional for more guidance in the pool area. There must be a ton that work up there. There are so many landscape designs up there drive around at least for ideas, and if you're really brave, knock on the door on a weekend to see if they'll share. If nothing else, they should take the question as a compliment. -Knowing not what I know not, I wonder if there are pool people that could change the style of the pool to (it sounds like?) something elegant but more garden appropriate, more pond-like as mentioned above, ie, darker bottom, garden waterfall into it, etc. If it's chlorine you can have a gizmo put in that somehow makes chlorine for you, eliminating some of the maintanance, or go for salt water, some people like it, I don't know the pros and cons. -Weather. It gets chilly up there in the afternoon, let alone other than the summer season. And foggy. If you do make changes, do keep in mind some protected space if you don't have it elsewhere, if you want to sit outdoors and enjoy the view of your new garden design and the ocean. Ok, gotta get back to work, but do take to heart that although I'm sure you love your new house and the view is amazing, you wouldn't have posted if you were 'comfortable' in the pool area. Follow your instincts and see where you go. It's your space, keep asking questions until you're happy with it. Best wishes!

My original business plan was to publish a gardening newspaper for this immediate area. I spent years compiling all the data. I worked up samples and walked them around to local garden themed businesses. Plenty of people were impressed (I was shy of my goal, but close to half of those approached supported the idea of a newspaper). After a few months of investing heavily into it the interest from the businesses waned. They weren't making much money selling such a low priced item (and it featured ads from their competitors). Within two years I was shutting it down due to lack of distribution points, not intrest from the public. I had to have places to sell it to the public in order to stay in business and every month or so I would lose another distributor. I might add that I was doing all the work - so even if little money was being made, they weren't extending any effort (I stocked, delivered, collected, billed with a S.A.S.E., heck I even dusted the counter tops). Another disappointment was that the gardening publics interest was insatiable during the spring but non existant during the heat of summer. In addition to the newspaper I had printed up a gardening calendar with week by week advice on what to do in your garden. I had a truckload of them to get rid of and hated to just throw them away. So I got a "drop in" spot at the local flea market and tried selling them. They moved a little but my bigger success came from selling the plants I had brought along to decorate the booth! So my business name stayed the same but I shifted gears into plant sales instead of publishing. In my fantasy world I would rather be the garden guy at the market with edible food crops for backyard farmers. Seedlings, rooted cuttings of herbs, fruit and veggies from around the world. But the market that is the most convenient for me to sell at doesn't have enough of those types of customers. The result is that I sell a lot of ornamentals and not many functional plants. I believe it will change and that it will only take time. The one component that no one told me when I started all this was the amount of time it takes to build up a clientele. You have to be patient, there are few overnight success stories.

"I don't know what to mix in this case - any thoughts?" Sorry, but I can't suggest appropriate plants as I've spent little time in your part of the world, and none in northern LA. I've spent several weeks based in NOLA for work, that's it. I just wanted you to be aware that you won't get an even dense hedge of one species with the variability of light levels. I have a more casual style (I live on an old farm) than what appeals to you, so instead of hedges of one species, for the most part I have mixed shrubs, with multiples of each species, mixed along the length of the shrub border. Only in one spot do I have a row of all the same species, and that is in full sun from all sides so that the plants grow at a fairly similar rate. My usual suggestion in this type of situation is that you visit neighborhoods where the gardening appeals to you to get ideas, or if there are garden centers or nurseries with demonstration gardens or if there is an arboretum or public park or botanic garden where you can look at the various types of plantings that they have. To get an ID on a particular plant (if it's not in a situation where it is labeled) take photos of leaves, blooms or fruit, branches and the whole plant, and post on the Name that Plant forum. Or visit the public library and look for books that have landscaping photos for your general area or look at photos here on Houzz that are from your part of the US and see what inspires you. You want to keep in mind that you don't want a huge amount of pruning (so check growth rates once you know names) and that you don't want excessive amounts of shedding of blooms, leaves, seeds, and branches, so something that blooms all summer might be messier than you want to groom. Here's a photo from Derviss Design/Michelle Derviss - she sometimes participates in these forums. Though her area is different (CA coast) it shows a similarly shaped yard with varying light levels around the perimeter and so a mix of plants. She hasn't tried to totally cover up the fence, but there is a mix of different textures and foliage color and varied plant heights. If you look at the closer photos of the pots (go to link below) they also rely largely on foliage rather than flowers. I am not suggesting that you try to emulate this, just that this is one way to approach your problem. http://www.houzz.com/projects/312471/napa-valley-outdoor-living

You can't add enough gravel or soil to flatten the slope enough to make a suitable badminton court without killing trees. If there are small holes, you can fill them to even out the ground a bit to make for easier mowing, but I wouldn't do more than that. It's clear that the ground is getting enough sun for a light layer of shade tolerant grass, but even if the ground was level, this type of grass isn't dense enough IME to stand up to the foot traffic that a sports area gets. If you want a badminton court, I would put it in a spot that is level and has enough sun to grow dense grass. This might require a low retaining wall with proper footings and the removal of more trees or siting elsewhere. The area you showed in the photos will be most easily maintained for now with mowing I think, though as the trees fill in branches to take advantage of the new light and space created by tree removal, it will not continue to support grass, so you may want to plant a groundcover - depending on the type of trees, you may have issues growing many plants since shallow-rooted trees compete for moisture and nutrients with herbaceous plants and shrubs. In my area there are some energetically spreading ferns that make a lovely ground cover in this type of area. At least if you are in the eastern half of North America, you will have weeds, particularly woody weeds (maples, honeysuckle, buckthorn, oaks, etc.) since this area always moves towards forest if left to its own. So to my mind, the woody plants seeding in is a far greater issue than removing leaves from gravel in the fall. Mowing will discourage woody plants from seeding in - that's how we returned our brushy fields back to fields and how we keep the woody plants from becoming reestablished both in the fields and along the sometimes shaded road verges. And you can't mow gravel, so weeds (woody and herbaceous) would need to be removed by hand if you spread gravel since even a weed whacker can throw gravel to a point of being dangerous. Gravel is a fine mulch if you live in a very dry area, but not good in areas with a respectable amount of rain IME.