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

Looking again at your diagram, I'm hoping that on the right side, the triangle by the little sidewalk is meant to be paved. If that is your car, I would do quite a lot of paving area, a landing pad if you will, perhaps with a bench or table to help with unloading the car - really expanding on as you've shown, or fully replacing, your little sidewalk. Focus on the shape of the paved area, it should be nicer than you've drawn. Your plants can be around that, but which plants they are is irrelevant at the moment, all that can be certain is that they will die from being stepped on if the area is not big enough! Plants will come and go over the years anyway; just get the paving right. Even if that is not your car, I would be surprised if neighbours did not step there. The left side can be your gardening extravaganza side since it doesn't have to be passage to anywhere. Just make paths of some sort through the planting areas. I would not worry about symmetry. The house is so symmetrical that nothing can "throw that off." And since the yard is already not symmetrical, I would simply ignore the issue. In a yard this size, the task is really what I call "microlandscaping" - meeting your needs at this spot, and that spot, with the outcome being the sum of the parts. My observation in my area of historic houses with tiny yards is that the overall effect is usually good. The house so overwhelms the space that the gardening can't alter the impact the house makes. So, in a bid to win the award for "worst sketch ever posted on the LD forum" I hereby submit a diagram of my postage-stamp front yard abutting a house very similar to yours, with a full-width elevated porch and central door. Please be clear that I am not recommending this, but just showing it as a model (if you can't be an inspiring example, be a horrible warning...). My space is really reflective of ME, and as we slowly approach the idea of selling it someday, I know I will be changing it a lot in order to sell it. When we bought the house, there was basically nothing, well, except for a flowering quince off to one side that was poised to consume most of my gardening time for the ensuing 5 years with first pruning and then removal. The "design" process has been incremental, marked by what were sometimes good ideas that did not work for the existing constraints, for example, a diamond-shaped patio on the right that we removed because it quickly got buried in debris from the neighbour's giant-and-growing conifer (now removed). This layout evolved partly in response to existing constraints and opportunities (one bed, for example, is where it is to incorporate a large shrub that I was not ready to remove), and partly as an actual design as we gained experience living in this space and learned what our needs were. To explain the diagram below, I've put in grey the lines of sidewalk as they originally were, and shaded in overtop in red what we did as paving instead. The green areas are the planting beds, and the white open space is simply mulched. The big circles denote the canopies of major trees and shrubs. There is a fence that I haven't shown. Also, out front is a public sidewalk, and a hellstrip before the street. To say it's crowded would be an understatement. With most of the plantings being shrubby or tall, the white areas are quite enclosed - and I think the drawing makes them a bit too big; other than the red patio it is not quite to scale. The small patio to the left makes an amazing difference for such a small adjustment. It gives me a space to "be" and to keep stuff in the front yard that is comparatively private, shielded by what I call the "isthmus" of plantings extending from the left property line. Converting that sidewalk to a patio also allowed me to enlarge the foundation bed on that side (yes, I do have foundation beds!) which I wanted to do because that seemed to be a place that my favourite plants thrived. The patio is just dry-laid 2'x2' slabs, some cut on the diagonal. All the beds are actually raised beds enclosed by boulders; My porch foundation is fortunately masonry so I can pile dirt against it, and I am on a bit of a side slope so the beds are built up to even that out. In real life, the whole composition is just a mass of canopy, but that is how I like it. My primary gardening interest is in foliage; the overlay of different leaves and the contrast among them, as well as in the up-close changes that plants go through, so being really immersed in the plants rather than seeing their shapes from a distance works for me. The driveway is not ours, by the way. Regarding your arch over the entryway, it might be relevant to mention that I have an arch "in effect" due to overhanging foliage that is actually an irritant. If I am standing on the porch, I can't make eye contact with someone standing on the sidewalk unless I bend down to look through the "arch." So when you have an elevated door, I would not recommend the arch, especially not with plants growing riotously over it. From the outside, the arch frames a view of the bottom half of the door or of your feet if you are there. We actually had to put our address on the top step (riser) because no one could see it above the door. I hope that helps for starters. You will develop your own garden personality and way of "being in the space" that will drive later decisions and amendments to whatever you do now. And in that process of discovery, for me, is the fun of home landscaping. And this is very different from owning a larger lot, although perhaps your back yard is bigger. On a small lot, you do tend to spend time in or use every corner, so nothing is really just for looking at - it is all about how you experience it. Karin L

Violet you've been so helpful to me on this thread! Pictures help me so much to envision things! I've been following this because I too have a hot, tiny yard. Crekha, I think Violet is on to something by extending the patio beyond the roof. Envisioning two spaces instead of three separate ones. So the brick from the patio melds with the path along the garden and out. That would make it look larger simply because it wasn't chopped up into three separate surfaces. Also loved the idea of a low fence with a gate to add two separate "rooms." And the use of the big pots with big plants instead of the little ones. Put your little pots on an outdoor etagier.

Nice house and lot. Well placed 4"x4"x8' treated posts with four brackets on each for hanging baskets of flowers and/or wind chimes and/or bird feeders and/or bird house(s) and/or motion sensor solar light(s) would be better than digging up the lawn in your small yard or having snow bury your flower beds.