Could use a shot of the whole front of the house, the ones you took show portions of it, but not the whole thing at once.

Definitely an odd sort of planting for this kind of house, with the little shrubs lined up in a row. Are those light fixtures colonial style? Hard to make out in the photos. The house isn't really symmetrical, it's more "L" shaped. The only things that are symmetrical are the plantings. Once you get rid of the little shrubs, it will look much better. The double doors look too big for the house, and changing the color to one that is closer to the color of the house body would make their size less apparent. Right now they look massive and heavy. You might try it before replacing them to see if it helps, or do it with photoshop or something.

Basically, the way to create an asymmetrical design and still have "balance" is to imagine a line down the middle, and give equal visual weight to each side. Imagine a see-saw with you on one side and two or three small kids on the other. Equal weight, but made up of unequal size (or visual weight) elements.

Fine textured objects look denser than coarse or airy textured ones, in general, so they may "look" heavier. So a plant with small, closely spaced leaves like a boxwood is fine, something like your palms are coarse. Fine textures can also give the illusion of being farther away than coarse, a handy tool if you want to force perspective. You probably already know this.

Are you going to enlarge the beds so that you can have plantings and still have them stay clear of the house? You can probably start by sketching in some overall shapes of plants and add texture without choosing specific plants until later.

I would treat the entire area between the curved concrete and the house as beds. Now it is all chopped up into little boxes, completely unnecessary, and rigid when thinking new design. Your Phoenix roebelenii are nice, and even the other tropical-looking shrub, except that they cover your windows. Could they be pruned up leaving only canopy? (Canopy is good for growing tropicals.)

What direction does your house face? I'm wondering about the little tacked-on awning -- is this functional? If this is south-facing and you need some sun-control, a large open pergola structure spanning the entire U-shaped front section could be very appealing. It would give you structure for growing a tropical vine, create a quiet corner for a small pot fountain with baby tears and ferns growing around it, and protect tender beauties from the hot sun.

Remove the boxy edging from around your palms and look to fill in the empty spaces with luxurious foliage plants suitable for your zone. No grass needed, fill it all up with foliage, maybe edge with a couple of rows of ophiopogon japonicum to contain the riot of tropical jungle.

Symmetrical? Tropical is rarely symmetrical unless you have an estate-sized garden.

Unfortunately I haven't been able to get a full shot of the front because of moving vans and trailers. The house itself is symmetrical (U shaped-Right side garage door, left side windows for a bedroom) Fixtures are umm, old and need replacing after we do the door style decision.(faux double doors are definitely going to be replaced by one)Photoshopping styles in will be a great way to get an idea of which way we want to go there.

That's exactly what I'm aiming for... Asymmetrical balance. Perspective in plantings. Now that is something I didn't think of, but do think it will be fun applying it to this project!

*Phoenix roebelenii* Umm, could you point those out to me? ;-)

I think the huge plants covering the windows are schefflera... They were trimmed so many times, the base is a huge bunch of sticks... But I do like the canopy idea and am going to think on that further!

The awning would be functional only for rain as the house faces north. I like the pergola idea for aesthetics- never thought of extending it past the door (more Photoshop magic)A small fountain would place it in front of a window- which would be great from inside as well!

I like the idea of getting rid of the grass and extending it to the curve of the driveway.(which also gets rid of all those angles YECH) We're going to see how much room there'll be for folks getting out of the car. I really hate to kill guests that step on my plants... But it has been done before. LOL!

I'm thrilled y'all think I can get away from the symmetry of the plantings... I'm not even sure my brain would allow me to do that. Hehehe

THANKS!

Phoenix roebelenii

Those are the palm trees. Common name is pygmy date palm.

*pygmy date palm*

Ahhh, now that's a name I know. Thanks hoovb!

Leann,

Welcome to zone 9. We are transplants ourselves, from Chicagoland to central Florida. When you get to the point where you want to know about specific plants, then the Florida Gardening forum should be very helpful also. I can't see what the front shrubs are. They may be salvageable or can be transplanted to another spot, depending what they are.

I concur about the schefflera, they grow rampantly here. They also have roots that can damage underground pipes.

I don't have bug problems with wood mulch, but I always buy the bags at the store. Once I had non-bagged mulch installed, and I did see a bug that must have come with the mulch.

Good luck.

Thanks Lynne! I'm just about to de-lurk in the FL forum and do just that.