If you want beds at the end of the driveway, make them large enough to fit the shrubs you plan to plant there (kept low enough to see over, for safety) and think about the shape of the adjacent lawn rather than the shape of the beds. In particular, pay attention to how you will mow along the edge of the beds without leaving awkward corners or bits that have to be trimmed by hand. Think of the position and placement of the tree and any shrub plantings in relation to the house. You want to use them to enhance the appearance of the house, while using them to make the transition from tall house to flat lawn seem less abrupt. Make the house "nestle" into the lot. You don't neccesarily need beds out at the end of the driveway, and may be planning them because other people have them, but without a real purpose. They do "dress up" the driveway entrance, but you want to call attention to the house/entry, not the driveway. Unless your border continues up the driveway on the right side and curves around to lead you and your eye to the entry, it only distracts from the house. As they are, they are too small to make a "grand entrance" and may only serve to increase your maintenance chores. If you use the juniper to hide your trash cans, try to use a couple more elsewhere in the planting plan. A one-off plant can tend to call attention to itself, defeating your purpose.

I wonder if an "oval" of grass would help in this case??? I just looked up the definition of an ellipse on mathworld and my eyes are still spinning :-) I think Reyesuela makes a couple of good points. The first, regarding the grass shape, is that when you make your beds, you should pay attention to the shape of grass you are creating, not so much the shape of the bed - the bed shape will be more or less immaterial once you get it filled, while the grass shape will always show up. And actually, since you like formal, I might almost play with a rectangle of grass under the window surrounded by straight beds on three sides, obviously not going right to the road to avoid the snow plow - or putting low, tough plants like the most vigorous hostas on the road edge. The second, if I understand correctly, is to create a space within your front yard where you can be, or to enclose your house, rather than making it a sort of frame for your house to be simply looked at. I strongly agree that, especially when you have a small amount of space, what matters most is how you want to feel when you are in it or in the house looking out. Depending on the feel of your street, you may want to be visible; I don't know. What complicates this approach is what you say about the snow plow... you might be best off to make the front edge grass, along with the edges of the driveway where your car door needs to open. I would not not not do a standard foundation bed under the window. So predictable. I think a pretty patch of grass, tidy beds - not necessarily symmetrical plantings, but formal is good - there is really something about that row of Rhodies that just looks right. You could remove sod under them, joining their little patches into a long straight bed, underplant them a bit if you widen the bed. karinL

Thanks everyone. Okay, the pictures showing the house are what is there, except for the roses (Red Blaze & pink and white Fairy roses) on the fence (not shown), with tall Bridleswreath spirea bushes and a Forsythia with old-fashioned Day lilies. It is so dry along there. This year I added a small white Rose of Sharon. The other FLOWER pics on the entry page are just plants I have that I was considering using to add some color to the front yard in Summer and then in Fall. I would like to plant roses on either side of the front steps to grow up the pillars to mingle with that dark green ivy, but worry about the thorns. There is a huge buttery-yellow flowering Lady Banks Rose on the south side (right side of the porch). I would love to add roses out front...shrub roses which are hardier and bloom from Spring thru' Fall. I am going to remove the purple garden phlox on the left (north) side of the porch. It got crowded out by the Nandinas and has become scraggly looking the last few years. Time for a change. I would like to add a Winterberry shrub out there somewhere, and some pillar-type evergreens, and three Colorado Blue Spruces...maybe some meadow flowers around the spruces and some big rocks. I can get big rocks anytime if I catch the county road grader guy when he goes by. He will push them to my driveway. I just have to get someone to help me move them into the front yard. Whatever goes out there has to be tough, I can tell you that. Cameron, There are many types of prairies. The type most people thik of when they hear the word "prairie" is like the one you see on the old TV series, "Little House on the Prairie". That is the Shortgrass Prairie, which is in the American Savannah. This area where I live in Central Oklahoma is where the Tall Grass Prairie changes to Hardwood Timberland. This Eco-Region is called, "Cross-Timbers and Southern Tallgrass Prairie" The Native trees are: Black Willow (aka Creek Willow or Pond Willow) Blackjack Oak Post Oak Chinquepin Oak Red Oak White Oak Shumard Oak Boxwood Elm Slippery Elm Bur Oak (introduced) Hackberry Cottonwood (I also have 2 large Aspens) Oklahoma Red Cedar (State Tree) Oklahoma Redbud Texas Redbud Texas Buckeye Wild plum Chickasaw Sand Plum (a shrub-like tree) Mulberry (introduced) Catalpa (introduced) Mulberry (introduced) Paper Mulberry (invasive tree introduced from China) Persimmon Osage Orange Possum Haw Fringe Tree Sweet Gum China Berry (introduced) Texas Ash Black Walnut - all I can think of off hand. Winged Elm (introduced) Black Haw Black Hawthorn Elderberry (a shrub that can get as tall as a small tree) Red Osier Dogwood Carolina Buckthorn Prairie Grasses: Big Blue stem Little Blue stem Inland Sea Oats Switch grass Indian Grass (State Grass) June Grass Love Grass (introduced) Muhly Grass Buffalo Grass Frost Grass Eastern Gramma Grass Side Oats Gramma Blue Gramma Woodward Sand Blue Stem Prairie Sand Reed Canadian Rye Panic Grass (introduced) Tall Fescue (introduced) Blue-eyed Grass Foxtail Barley (There are others, but I cannot recall them now) Prairie Flowers: Purple Poppy (aka: Wine Cups)- love these! Snow-on-the-Mountain Orange Butterfly weed Silver-leaf Nightshade (blue flowering) Clasping-leave Coneflower (yellow w/brown cone - waxy leaves) Purple Coneflower Pale Coneflower (Echinacea pallida) Narrowleaf Coneflower Gray Coneflower Purple Prairie Clover Prairie Dogbane - waxy leaves and purple stems Stenosiphon (tall growing w/small fuzzy white cone flowers) Wax Goldenweed Compass Plant (sunflower-like flowers w/ fern-like leaves) Ashy Sunflower (very stiff ashy looking leaves) Wild Quinine (purplish stems w/ tiny white flowers Joe Pye Weed Iron Weed (purple flowers) Yellow Iron weed Tall Boneset (tiny white flowers) Daisy Fleabane - tiny white daisies Carolina Larkspur (tiny plants) Lanced-Leaf Coreopsis (aka Tickseed) - golden yellow Plains Coreopsis - golden yellow w/reddish brown centers Rocky Mountain Bee Balm Spiderwort Lemon Mint (Horse Mint) - purple flowers Wild Four O'Clocks Blue False Indigo (blue flowers) Wild Indigo (cream flowers) Mist Flower - minute purple flowers looks like purple mist Yellow Gaillardia Yarrow (white to pale lilac) Maximillion Sunflower Pink Primrose Arrow-leaf Violet Passion flower (flowering vine) Yellow Primrose Gayfeather (purple Liatris) Dotted Gayfeather (Liatris) Rough Blazing Star (purple Liatris) - aka: Snake root Yellow Coneflower aka: Camphor weed Blue Speedwell Bitterweed Flannel leaf Mullein (grow your own toilet paper!) Mexican Hats Prairie Rose Gentian Indian Blanketflower (State Wildflower) Red Honeysuckle Yellow Japanese Honeysuckle (introduced) Blue Mealy Sage Blue Sage Cardinal Flower (Red Sage) Golden Rod (short variety) Golden Rod (tall and stoleniferous) Obedient plant Black-eyed Susans Brown-eyed Susans Scarlet Indian Paintbrush Prickly Poppy (Cowboy Fried Egg Flower) Wild rose (white rosettes - very fragrant) Prairie rose - tiny leafed, low-growing 8" plants False Garlic Nodding Onions White Prairie Aster Purple Rose Verbena Slim Prairie Aster - blue-violet flowers Heath Aster Wild Violet (has triangular shaped leaves) Leavenworth Eryngo (thistle-like deep purple flowers) Bull Thistle Globe Thistle (introduced - I think) Blue Indigo Ox-eyed Daisy (one of my favorites) Buffalo Burr (such a mean ting!) Partridge Pea (yellow pea-like flowers) Catclaw - Sensitive Brier (fuzzy pink flowers like a Mimosa) Shepherd's Purse Purselane Gerardia - low growing w/pink buttercup-like flowers Sow Thistle - similar to a dandelion Musk Thistle Spider Milkweed (cool looking green flowers) Illinois Rattlebox plant Poppy Mallow (light pink) Yellow and pink Wood Sorrel Prairie Ragwort These wildflowers WERE all growing up in my meadow until the new land owner next door sprayed with Herbicide to kill off "weeds" and native prairie grasses. The wind blew some of that over into my side and then the rains carried the herbicide down the hillside thru' my property. Bye-bye wildflowers. Some how the grasses survived, except for the Love grass which was growing next to the fenceline. (grrrrr) So I am now reseeding the meadow. Except for the large native trees and one very old and very large Lilac bush, I planted all the trees, bushes, plants, groundcovers, and flowers in the one-acre yard around the house. The other acre is the meadow up on the ridge. There are two natural wooded areas that border the meadow. A small one on the west side (downhill) and a big one further up the hill on the south site.

I have to disagree with you, Emmarene, that the slope is too large for a single groundcover. A groundcover can be the LAWN where a mowed turf grass lawn is not possible. One must just pick the groundcover that works for such a size. Some "timid" groundcovers work best for tiny places. Some more aggressive groundcovers work well only when the area is large enough, considering that mainly, one is managing EDGES. An aggressive groundcover in a small area would be a constant battle, but in a large area it can be one's best friend ... making ground green when grass can't, or won't, do it. The place to begin is finding out what others in the surrounding area (town/county, etc.) are using to solve the exact problem in their yards. Then one knows it grows in the area and is probably well suited to the size & job. If one groundcover is used predominantly over all others, then it is the groundcover to use. This is not the place to "be different," trying to express one's individuality. This is especially true if there is groundcover in use in a neighbor's yard. It would be an impossible battle trying to keep two different groundcovers from mixing at a property line. If one type of groundcover flows from one yard to the other, then there is no edge to maintain at the property line, making one's list of chores less. As an example, while risking bringing the haters out of the woodwork on account of the mere mention of it, I'll say that if this property was in Atlanta, Ga., the clear cut choice of groundcover would be English ivy, as it is the one in predominant use there for hilly and shady large areas (and some surprisingly small ones, though that is not my taste.) While many froth at the mouth at its mention, it nevertheless proves to be successfully manageable by many. (For me personally when I lived there, I considered it easy to care for, a lifesaver ... more or less worthy of worship on a grand scale, as it was the most versatile, hardest working horse in the barn.) In the typical case, since it commonly flowed from neighbor to neighbor, there was not property line trimming of it. Where it met lawn, many people were happy just to let the lawnmower be the one and only edger. Where ivy grew into the lawn, the regular mowing kept it from being noticeable at any distance. That left the only edging to be done where the ivy met paving. There, it needed to be trimmed a couple times/month during the growing season. One trimming per year kept it from climbing trees if one so chose. At back alleys and buildings, its leading edge could be sprayed with herbicide (such as Round-Up) in order to keep its advance in check. Or it could be manually cut, if one preferred. (Another advantage of it is that it was extraordinarily cheap/free/easy to create massive quantities of it, if one learned some simple propagation techniques.) Insofar as dividing groundcover from lawn, one would mark out all space that is too shady for turf grass to grow, or too hilly for it to be mowed. And then apply some simple art to it in order to come up with a dividing line that looks pleasant. In this case I would leave an "L" shape of grass next to the street and the drive, where it is neither too shady or too sloped. A radius transition between the two legs of the "L" would work well around the tree. The tree would be in the groundcover section, a visually comfortable distance away from its edge. Speaking of the tree, it is well past time to remove the scruffy looking bottom limbs from its trunk. The "shade" should not be hanging down, obscuring any front portion of the house.