I would consider an old fashioned simple, formal look that starts with widening the sidewalk by adding a soldier course of brick along each side. The hedge looks like it's on the slope and in bad shape. Redoing it and placing it at the top of the slope would give a more stable look. Using a slow growing plant that doesn't get big and learning how to shape it correctly will make the hedge look better and last longer. Or a plant that never grows larger than 3' ht. and width would be low maintenance. A groundcover on the slope instead would look better. Pushing the ends of the hedge back away from the walk would help a lot to open up the entry experience and the view to the house. I'm showing the house flanked with two small trees. Plants that top out at about 12' to 15' would eliminate worry of them getting too large. Many woody, flowering plants would qualify, depending on the specific characteristics that appeal to you. A couple of 3' ht. dome-shaped shrubs, just off the corners of the foundation, would help to tie the house visually to the ground. Annual color at both sides of the porch would look welcoming. If the lily of the valley grows good, though not evergreen it would make a fine groundcover in the front porch area. At the front of the house there are no ugly features so no need for shrubs that cover the foundation, though you might consider adding some quality window boxes at some point. I'm copying here your instructions from the other thread as it's inconvenient trying to toggle back and forth..... Front of house landscape help needed Posted by gilld 6 (My Page) on Mon, Apr 16, 12 at 19:23 Hi all, Thanks for reading. I just discovered this great forum in my attempt to look for inspiration for landscaping for the front of our house. I have never done any design nor landscaping and am at a complete loss and appreciate any suggestions! We are looking to just clean things up on a low budget and, of course, to look as nice as possible, knowing that we are not green thumbs and will need to take care of on our own. The house faces south and gets sun all day. Here is what we know is growing, and what we are thinking of doing so far: -For lack of a better solution and funds, replace missing privet bush on at sidewalk. -Pull up the weeds-turned-bushes directly in front of the house (2-3 on each side in front of windows). -Leave some of the hostas to the right and left of front stairs, but thin them out -Edge beds on both sides in front of house, to either side of stairs -Clean out most of the beds, with exception of some hostas, mentioned above -Question pulling out all of the lily of the valley -Other half says to pull it all out and add back some bushes and mulch--- I say we need texture, variety in height, texture, color, etc. but no idea where to start! -We plan to work around the house on it's right side (pictured), to the basement window (for now) as it is more exposed to view and gets more sun. The house's other side is shady because of two trees in neighbor's yard. We think the large trees/roots and shade, in part, the reason why the front privet is dead (in addition to not having been cared for for years).

The retaining wall is about two feet high between the front yard and the street. You can see it in the pictures with light brown blocks as the wall itself. In the middle of it, there are two planters and a stair as show in this picture below. This is a needed wall due the difference in height between the yard and the street. There is also a small brick wall in front of the house that you can see in the photos as well. The small brick wall nearest to the house is decorational only. I dislike the stone walls that are attached to the house. You can see that around the corner of the house and around the front door. Reminds me of the Flintstone's house. And of course, the air conditioners sticking out the walls of the house have got to go too.

As the bed is quite tight to the house, shrubs will need to hang over the front of the wall in order to have room enough to develop a proper size. Hanging over will look fine, though. At the left corner, a groundcover or low trailing shrub could look nice. Below the windows the shrubs should be something easy to keep at 3' ht. The heavenly bamboo is not going to look nice below the window. It would be best if you find another location for it where it could grow to natural size. It would be better to have dome shaped shrubs below the windows. Seasonal color could go at either side of the stoop and whatever you have growing at the right side now could be used to fill in the leftover spaces.

That looks a lot like a Camellia (maybe C. sasanqua?) to me. Has it ever bloomed? It may not that far south. If that's what it is, it's evergreen and doesn't get huge, maybe 10-12 feet. I'd find out for sure before I take them out. They don't have invasive roots, so they won't hurt the foundation or grow up into the house. Even if they don't ever bloom, they are beautiful evergreen shrubs. I'm not good at landscaping, so I have no other recommendations.