Well ... my first thought ... is that you are going to want some type of soil-holding ground cover in that sloping bed.

That was what the Vinca was doing when you got there.

Other possibilities are Wintergreen Euonymous or Ajuga.

Then within the bed (surrounded by the groundcover) ... you could place some shorter, more spreading type shrubs.

I'm partial to horizontal (spreading) juniper.

Aegis, thanks for your thoughts. The vinca groundcover that was in the bed was trampled to death when the trees were removed and stumps ground.

I guess we are hoping to do something a little more "exciting" this time. I would love to see some perennials and specimen evergreens in this bed. I'm still mulling it over

We are planning to get estimates on redoing the walk so it is less steep and not as straight. We would also consider having a retaining wall (or series of walls)put in, but I think that would be out of our budget. Maybe if we had a couple of low walls it would be something we could do ourselves. Just the thought of digging in those tree roots makes my back hurt!!

Any ideas on plantings that would complement the gardenias? They are very happy there, but I think they look unfinished the way they are.

Some bed dimensions may be useful...
The foundation bed = 8'x 30' to the right of the door and 8'x12' to the left of the door.
The front bed is about 30'wide at the top adjacent to the walkway) and 40' wide at its widest point near the trunk of the dogwood. The bed is about 35' deep from the wild cherry on the right back to the walkway.

Thanks again for taking the time to respond.

I think that you can do the perennials/specimen evergreens in your bed ... just have the ground-cover surrounding it (instead of mulch) ... so that the soil is held better on that slope.

I also noticed that the current foundation plantings look unfinished.

My thought is that you could add-in some denser shrubbery in the gaps you now have ... something like pyramidal juniper ... or similar.

These would help to create a more defined foundation planting effect against the house.

Finally, ... I like the orange doors and shutters ... and I definitely like it much better than the light blue.

I think that you should stay with a color that's darker than the brick ... maybe a dark blue, or black, ... or brick red.

I would make the (currently light blue) siding white, ... along with the entirety of the door frame.

"Curb appeal" makes me think of selling the house. Your posts don't sound like you're planning to do that; rather, it sounds like you're planning to live there for a while. Given that, what would be appealing to you? A lush, dense feeling?-- since you're in zone 7, you could have lots of trailing and flowering plants with big leaves (or at least that's my naive zone 5 perception!) Something crisper and sparser? Also, it looks and sounds like the plantings need to be fairly low, since you don't want to obscure the gardenias and the grasses by the mailbox are too high. That lets out most deciduous shrubs, although a dwarf clethra or a fothergilla might work down by the mailbox -- they only get 2-3 feet high. I'd love the look of big hostas of various sorts in the shadier areas under the trees on top.

Do you want a unified edge? (That is, the same plant or a repetition of plants all the way down the edge?) Sydney Eddison has written some helpful things about plants that work as edging (although she favors stachys ["lambs ears"] too much for my taste) and I think a recent issue of Fine Gardening also has suggestions.

It really depends on the feeling you want, though; without knowing that, the best advice is what others have given you already -- make sure that you have enough ground cover/densely rooted planting to hold the soil in place.

I, too, like the orange and do not like the light blue at all. :-)

I am going to take a stab at a kind of critique for which you really need more of a design eye than I have. Also it is not aimed at making you feel good but is aimed at the first request for street appeal and aiming for a design perspective.

Something is going on in your photo that is jarring. The house is symmetrical and formal and from the street the entrance is front & center and very visible. But then you have a very asymmetrical planting that winds in front, and the bad concrete walkway, and the mass of planting and driveway on the R (as seen from in front). So to me it looks very unbalanced and the landscaping does not "go" with the house at all. It's like the games of, match the hat to the person...and yours don't match. That doesn't mean you have to make them match--people buy formal houses and plant informal landscapes and vice-versa--or that you even have to consider this aspect. You can focus on what to plant in the area between the walk and yard or what groundcover to use on a slope.

But to me the most interesting design issue is how to make a better overall match between your whole planting design and your house. You would not necessarily have to go totally formal, but some more symmetry and balance is needed. Also I think the style of this home lends itself to the walk and plantings stretching out forward from the house more rectilinearly.

That is all I can say about it. I don't know enough to know how to modify it. Someone else may be able to take it farther.

Wow! So much food for thought. I really appreciate y'all taking the time to give your input...

Mad Nil, you are correct in your assumption that we don't plan to move anytime soon. I would say my preference leans more towards lush than sparse and crisp. I mentioned taking out the large grass at the foot of the driveway because in the summer it gets to be so tall that you can't see oncoming traffic as you pull out. Other than that, I don't have any strict preferences related to height. I love hostas and also envision them in the bed. In fact, I have a few planted in the shade of the dogwood, along with some sedum Autumn Joy, caladiums (white) and white impatiens. Also I like big leaved plants with different texture and color variation. I love cool blue, purple and white blooms with accents of yellow. When I'm out watering my plants in our hot summer evenings those colors (esp. white) glow. A photo of a garden look I like and bookmarked from Southern Living is linked below. It's for a shadier spot than this, but maybe it gives an idea. I'll see if I have any other links to add tomorrow.

As far as planting a unified edge goes, I'm up in the air. I have considered that. Lots of my neighbors use mondo grass or liriope for that. Some also use smaller hosta varieties, which is pretty but dies down completely in winter. I'll have to check out the article you mention to see if that might be something different.

Frankie, thanks for the "frank" thoughts. Sorry I couldn't resist the pun. :-) This type of feedback is exactly what I'm looking for. I never thought about how lopsided the front bed looks, but now that you point it out I definitely see it. The Colonial style of our house is definitely formal. I don't think I necessarily want to stay as formal in the landscaping as the architecture is. We have some neighbors with the all evergreen shrub mounds completely symetrically placed across the front of their houses, which doesn't do anything for me. I could envision extending the bed on the left hand side to make sort of mirror of the right. The walkway would still need to go to the driveway, since that is where our guests park and access the front door. It would definitely be better as less of a straight shot from the stoop to the driveway. Maybe if it came farther forward in the bed then curved toward the drive.

I'm surprised at the support of the orange and dislike of the blue. My husband and I both hate that orange. We have considered creamy tan for the siding and black for the shutters, but that seems dull.

One more question...should the gardenias be pruned differently? I have just been maintaining what the previous owners did, but I'm not sure what I should do with them after they bloom this year.

Thanks again for all the feedback. Now I have even more to consider!

Here is a link that might be useful: Southern Living Vignette Photo

Also think about how to keep it from looking like your yard is falling off at the right. The height and mass of the plantings need to shore up the corner of the house--I THINK--unless there is some other overriding principle. That might mean plunking down a larger size specimen there to get good balance.

NEITHER the light blue nor the orange appeal to me--one is too insipid, the other too much of a color yet not as earthy as the brick. If you can possibly utilize one of those computer imaging programs (sometimes paint companies offer on-line) you can try out different colors. I am thinking maybe dark but more subdued than the orange. Even black or blackish green. Anyway, playing around with the actual colors and contrasts will allow something to jump out at you and say, yeah.

I will add another broad concept although you are likely overloaded already! Decide if you want to really do the "design" yourself or if you are confusing installation with design. You can hire design help and install yourself. But if you are trying to design it, you will need to put a lot more into the basics of that--such as making drawings, roughing out areas and shapes, evaluating your growing conditions and researching plant requirements. You haven't read too much--you are likely not comfortable with a design process and haven't read or experimented enough to trust your own ideas. Or, if you are not that concerned about how it looks and functions, you would be charging ahead and not bothered by how it turns out. That's not a criticism--that defines most of the folks on the forum, I would guess! It takes a long time and a lot of effort to educate yourself ( I doubt I will even get to the right destination myself) and if you are in more of a hurry, that's what hiring experts is for.

One step that can help you make move forward in DIY design is to focus on plant forms and not specific plants. Make some rough sketches and experiment with FORMS. For example, you sketch or photocopy a view of the house, and doodle and say, hmmm, a large thing about 8'tall x 4'wide would look good here and a group of 3 things 3x3x3 would look good over there. Add in color, and season (an EVER-green thing; a mass of color that complements brick; a tall thing that is green in summer but bare in winter) etc. Then you add in growing requirements and look at area nurseries and get some ideas-- a moderate to tall broadleaf evergreen for partial shade could be...a camellia! or..a holly! etc. Then at some point you try to overcome analysis paralysis and pick things that seem reasonable. You can't predict everything and a thing or 2 might die or have to be replaced or you change your mind and that's life.

I often get ahead of this process myself and focus on plants too soon and so have found returning to form is very helpful especially in bigger decisions like front yard plantings. For example, you are talking hosta, sedum but it was not clear whether you needed year-round structure in that area or were okay with bare mulch 6 mos out of the year. Always remember that photos are shot in the most lovely season.

If you are thinking of getting some advice on the front walk, I think that is the priority. If you ended up with something like a series of nicely done brick landings, or whatever makes an appropriate and really nice "approach" over the slope to the door, then that would carry a lot of the front design all by itself--great hardscape can stand alone--and the simplest of plantings--sized appropriately for your house--suffice to complement it. The price will be steeper than a few shrubs but it would be a good investment if it you feel good everytime you see it and use it, and in your zone you have so many choices that you can choose more economical plant material. Then you could implement your Southern Living planting schemes a bit at a time, moving outward from the more solid and controlled hardscape & foundation plantings. A typical caution is, don't bite off too many beds at once (by yourself).

I agree that your yard is falling away, it makes me feel like I'm falling over when I look at it. Can you do some kind of retaining wall and then have the steps go from the edge of the house? I've linked to a website below that has a retaining wall to solve the same problem you have. (really I don't work for them, this just seems to fit your house!) You wouldn't have to go with that style, but it would make the area level in front of your house, then step down to the driveway.

Here is a link that might be useful: Zaretsky retaining wall

Frankie, I just have to jump in to applaud you! The second paragraph in your last post is probably the single most valuable piece of information I've seen on here. So many poster's questions could be answered for themselves if they followed that paragraph's advice. And it's phrased so clearly, too (do you teach classes?)! You rock!

Thank you, deeje, but I am just re-phrasing things that I have learned here, and read in books, and should be doing myself, but do not always.

Thanks again everyone...

I have done a scale drawing of the front yard and mapped the existing plantings. I'm definitely a planner. I actually did a scale drawing of the front yard, driveway and house (bird's eye view) and then did a larger scale drawing of the existing front bed. It doesn't look like much and is a little hard to see in this scanned image, but I put a good bit of time into it. I spent a lot of time with my tape measure, pencil and eraser! 1 square = 5 ft

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I have read (cover to cover)the Southern Living Landscape Book, Southeast Home Landscaping from the Creative Homeowner Series and The Complete Idiots Guide to Landscaping (did I just admit that?). I have the Better Homes and Gardens Landscape and Deck Designer software, but it is not user friendly enough for me and I have all but given up on that. Pencil and paper seem to be quicker and easier for me to work with. I also played around with the standard Windows paint program and the photo of the house from the curb. I wanted to get an idea of how the symmetrical beds would sort of look. Here is what I came up with

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I know I need different heights, etc. in the beds. I think the symmetrically placed beds make a big difference. Thanks again for pointing that out. I know it seems obvious, but when you've been living with something for a while it can be tough to see the obvious. I will try your "3x3 block here, low and spreading here" approach. Maybe that is my hang-up. I keep trying to figure out what plants should go where and I need to think first in terms of size, height, etc. The hostas and sedum we put in were ones that I bought last year in a moment of weakness and needed to get out of their pots. I think they'll look nice where they are for now and I told my husband that they are temporary in that location.

We are definitely getting estimates on having the walk re-done. I think broad deep steps that curve farther out toward the driveway would be nice and I had already thought that incorporating bricks would tie in nicely with the house. We need to have a new driveway installed, so that would probably be done at the same time. My husband and I already had the "hardscape comes first" discussion. I agree that it will make a significant difference. Not to mention the fact that I would prefer to plant once and not move things if I can avoid it. Have I mentioned the roots in our front yard? The 40 foot pine tree we removed had such a massive root system. I have talked to a designer in our area to get an idea of how she works and we also have a landscaper in the neighborhood that we will get estimates from on the walk and possibly the front yard layout. I wanted to try to do it myself first. If I don't feel confident enough with whatever I come up with, we will hire the designer to draft a plan that we can implement over time.

Gottagarden, I linked that retaining retaining in my favorites the other day after seeing it on another post. I saw several walls on that site that I like. My husband and I have been talking about doing exactly what you say. The expense of that would be the only drawback for us. The drawing I did in Paint doesn't show it well, but that is what I had in mind when I did that drawing.

Thanks again everyone. I really value your input.

You are off to a great start! I like the symmetry for the street view, but you can of course downplay it somewhat with more informal symmetry--you can choose things that are not exact matches. You'll have to decide whether you are changing the elevation on the slope that cuts across the front of the house, such as with terracing, or somehow compensate with plantings. Plus, I didn't mean to imply that you are going for looks only--you or your LA/LD would consider what the different designs affect maintenance, what can be lawn, what needs to be groundcover.

I have a lot of trouble with landscape "closure" myself, so I'm not able to go much farther here, but good luck with your design!

Here's a quick mockup similar to the one you did, but with plants arranged assymetrically within an almost symmetrical bed layout. I find the tree in front of the left window distracting.

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Great look for your house... Makes your lawn look a giant welcome mat with lots of curb appeal. I agree that the left front tree is concealing the house a bit. It might look better limbed up? Your house is already surrounded by so many mature >30' tall trees that this one may not be needed.

Thanks saypoint! I like the mock-up. That would be lovely. The beds look beautiful and lawn looks luxurious. That gives me some better ideas for plant arrangements.

As far as the tree in the front left goes, it really frames the view when looking out of the bay window on that side. It was limbed up some last year and before that really suffered from the pine and sweet gums blocking the sun. I'm pretty sure it will stay, but hopefully it will become healthier. As it gets fuller, we can probably have it limbed up some. We feel naked with only this tree in front of the house. You could barely see the house through the trees in the summer previously.

thanks again for all the input!