"@Yardvaark - How much would a redesign cost?" By that I think you're asking about the cost of a major (80%+) renovation ...? How much does a diamond ring cost? Between $250 and $250K, on average. I'm not familiar with your regional economy and that has great bearing on the cost of landscape work. I think you may be able to get a substantial renovation done for much less (half to two-thirds) of your estimate. That's not to say that one couldn't find easy ways to spend the whole estimate and more, though.

When the roots of trees begin to surface and grow large, disturbing the lawn, often the best solution is not changing the grade, but changing the plantings in the affected area. It's one of the reasons for having groundcover instead of turf.

In your 4th photo, the big plant looks like butterfly bush and the small one to it's left looks like variegated euonymus. But I really can't tell by that photo. You'll know if it's a butterfly bush when the blooms pop open.

It looks like the largest shrubs with the coarse foliage are Buddleia's, the yellowish variegated foliage shrub is an Euonymus, and the cubed shrubs are Buxus, with the dying flowers look like one of the Alliums. You might consider just doing a good prune initially, and live with it a year to see what you've got and what you like versus don't like.

Yes, congratulations on your new home. It is lovely, I love all of the mature trees and shrubs and would not be in a hurry to tear anything out until I got some advice and knowledge as to what you have. Does your town have a local garden club you could join, that might be a start. Also, like others have stated your local garden centre, take pictures and some leaves with you. I have a slow growing yew that got much too big, over the height of roof of house, had inquired about tearing it out and a friend and I got looking at it and cut it down to half its size, I am so glad I did not tear it out as it is so established. Yes, yard sales are a good place to find garden tools, also check craigslist and local paper, lots of avenues. I just LOVE the look of your house, enjoy, and keep us posted.......

Why remove the tree? It's a valuable asset if it's in good shape. I agree with the above posters, make beds around the tree roots. Adding soil will just kill the trees. Also, learn how to do pavers yourself. It's very DIYable. We've done several.

Remove the columnar yews, greatly prune back the butterfly bush and the spirea, clean up the dead foliage and then post new pictures. If you can include some from farther back, you will get better advice.

Thanks for all the wonderful responses! Unfortunately, we're quite strapped for cash right now and I'm doing the work solo as my wife is watching the little one.

Here's an updated photo from over the weekend. Still a lot of work to do on the flower bed, but really curious what people think about the trimming I did on the trees. Too much, not enough, perfect?

There's one branch that's pretty low on the tree closest to the house on the right. I left the branch there for now as their is a bird next with baby birds in it. Once they leave I'll trim it back.

I did all this work thus far with gardening gloves, a spade shovel, and a 10" pruning saw. Needless to say it was a lot of hard work.

A few comments based on the responses thus far:

We feel the tree closest to the house on the right will eventually need to be removed. It's disturbing the walk and would likely disrupt any pavers we put down.

I like the idea of ground cover to mask the roots, but am worried since the three trees across the front are so far apart ... we'd likely lose a lot of lawn due to ground cover.

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I think you did fine on the large trees - any additional big limb cutting would be a job for the pros.

I'd still dig out (or hack down) that shrub against the house in front of the window immediately to the left.

My philosophy is; not every tree needs a ring around it. Tree roots are like the old VW Beetle, it is what it is. But tree ringing is something many people seem to like so I'll stand alone as a naysayer.

I'll agree with Dib that the shrub near the left corner needs to be removed or pruned way back. Given it's propensity to size, I'd remove it, if in my own yard.

The trees look better (wish we had this same view to compare with "before.) But I think there is still too much of the house face being obscured by foliage. When determining which limbs need to be removed, one must ask themselves, "Where will the limbs be in a few more months?" And the answer is that they'll be hanging lower than they are now. For my suggestions of what you should still remove, I've placed a red "X" on the branch. At the central tree where a yellow arrow is pointing to a limb, I'm not suggesting that you remove it now, but am commenting how unfortunate it is that this branch (and the one above it) was not removed when it was no greater than 1/2" thick. As it grew, it turned from a branch into a limb and is beginning to compete to be one of the major trunks. It's unfortunate because it, and the one above it, caused the rest of the tree to lean rightward. Removing it now would cause unbalance. But a single trunk tree--which would easily have been possible--in that position would have been a lot better than the spreading "Y" configuration.

Given the distance from tree to tree, I would not link them with groundcover. When I hear the term "tree ring" I am repulsed as it brings to mind visions of granny plantings around tree trunks in tightly pinched circular beds, ringed with thin dimension, cheap looking, big box edging that is hideously installed ... meaning that the pieces are not straight, matched, of a uniform radius, or level. The overall look is as if someone placed some garage sale junk in the front yard and forgot about it. A simple, perfect circular bed of a single groundcover (without any raised edging) is superior and perfectly acceptable. It should be of a dimension that corresponds proportionately with the tree it surrounds. It should be planted solid ... not like a ring of plants with several feet of empty space between them and the tree trunk. In the yard here, what's planted at the outer flanking trees should match and not be too tall (18" or maybe 24"). What's planted around the central tree should be low (12" or lower.) Or they all could be low. If a bed abuts or comes close to a walk, it could assume a "D" shape with the flat side being adjacent the walk.

I think you've made an adequate case for removing the tree you've mentioned.

@duluthinbloomz4 - Thanks! The bush on the left of the house and near the bay window will be trimmed back/removed once I get rid of all the branches I cut.

@Yardvaark - Thank you. I plan to make many of the cuts you suggested. I think all but one can be made without a pole saw - the other will have to wait.

Do you have a photo of what you're thinking below the trees for ground cover?

Maybe something like this:
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I just noticed the columnar shrubs are gone. That's a major improvement and I doubt you'll miss them. The bush I was referring to originally was the relatively small one directly in front of the shutter on the left - I doubt that will ever become anything worth having as a foundation plant.

As for a tree ring, the one pictured is quite attractive with a mass of color. I say that primarily because I bought wax begonias this year instead of my usual impatiens. I'd forgotten that I liked the begonias and they do well in shady spots. They're annuals though and would have to be planted each year - they do take off once in the ground and are showy.

Good job, I can see your front door.

The picture you show of the begonias, BBdude, is the general idea. Here are more examples ...

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First of all just want to say what a lovely home you have purchased!

In terms of the landscaping ideas,all I can add is that there are already some great suggestions provided however my advice would be to just focus on the back end as that looks the most work. In term sof the tree, this can wait a few more years as long as its managed properly as it looks quite nice.

I have done literally hundreads of new home purchase transformations in terms of landscaping, turfing, fencing etc - without sounding too self-promotional, I have attached a link to my site so you can see some of the different examples we have done.

Cheers

Carl

Here is a link that might be useful: Landscaping Ideas

Thanks for all the advice to date. Wanted to post an update - photos at the bottom.

We've completed the tree pruning and ripped out half of the flower beds. It was much more work than anticipated and we broke a spade shovel in the process when trying to remove stumps. We still have ~10 stumps to rip out! We're going to try to rip them out with a handle winch, but who knows if that will work.

Once everything is wripped out what needs to be put in the flower beds? I guess we'd need to rototill the flower beds and mix in some good soil? When should we aim to put in plants?

Any suggestions on plant selection and how it should look etc. would be helpful (we're in Southeast PA).

Since my wife and I don't have any gardening/planting experience, I'm considering hiring a professional. After all, the amount we'll save in money/aggravation/time will probably be a wash if we do it ourselves.

We'd also like to do a paver walkway, but given the anticipated cost it may have to wait 1 to 2 more years because getting laid.

Thanks for all the help so far!

After some significant pruning
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After pruning is complete
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After first half of flower bed is removed
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Good-looking house you've got there!

Something to consider at this point is how deep the bed on the right is (the distance from the walkway to the front of the house).

What do you want to put there? Not what exact plants, but what sort of plantings do you want? For instance, do you want shrubs by the house and flowering annuals/perennials in front of them? Or do you want something else, and if so, what?

Then once you've decided that, how deep will the bed need to be to accomodate those plants? (Keep in mind that you want to keep the shrubs at least a foot from the wall of the house -- and by that I mean not where their trunks will be, but where their back edges will be -- and not when you plant them, but several years from now. That space allows for window-washing, house maintenance, and shrub pruning.)

Do you want to keep a straight walkway, or curve it a bit? (In either case, I recommend that the walkway abut the entire front edge of the porch.)

Anyway, my point is that the location of the walkway determines what you can do in that foundation bed ... and what you want to do in that foundation bed determines where you'll put the new walkway. You don't need to do everything at once -- but you do need to have a general plan.

At the beginning of the thread, I could envision the inside of the house with a counter lined with pill bottles, the smell of vitamin B and a jazzy motorized wheelchair parked in the livingroom. Now, it's all seeming a bit more youthful. Raising the tree canopy has made a big difference (though I would still finesse away the scruff that hangs below the 2nd floor eaves.) Oddly, removing the foundation plants does not yet look wonderfully better. They were wrong and needed to go away, but stark emptiness is not that great looking either. Since we know you're on a path to something positive, it SEEMS like a major improvement though it doesn't really look good yet. Redoing the walk could greatly elevate the overall status of the property, so it gets my vote. Curved or straight? ... either could look good. It's a matter of integrating the geometry with the overall artistic statement. If you're considering professional assistance, the person providing it should make those decisions. One "artist" must see that everything works together. Surely, they would take advantage of the opportunity to move the walk away from the building so that a decent-sized foundation planting area is available.

Before you rip out more stumps, you might want to get an idea of what will go in their place. If only small plants, you may not need to remove the stumps, but just cut and kill them. I've found that in many cases I can work around old shrub stumps much easier than removing them. Chances are, most are planted too close to the house now. New plants would likely be installed farther from the house wall, so sometimes, the old shrub stump and roots are not that much in the way ... especially when you consider the amount of time and labor it takes to remove some of them by hand.

Brainstorming ...

Brainstorming ...

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Yardvaark - you're quite the brainstormer! Our house looks a million times better in your photo - we love it.

Also like what you did with the walkway. After reading your post we're going to look into the walkway before doing anything else. Convincing myself to do the pavers myself is not an easy task, but it would save us a lot so we can spend the savings on plants, etc. Still not sure if we should redo the stoop with pavers as it's in great condition - our neighborhood has some stoops in pavers and some paver walkways left the old stoop.

Either way a paver walkway is in our future!

It seems like you could improve the overall scene a great deal with a new walk, without having to re-do the stoop. I don't know your skill set so don't know whether to encourage or discourage doing your own pavers. It's not difficult, but it does take time and work ... and using some proper equipment. A brick saw would need to be rented for a day. And a tamper twice ... once for the base and later over the top of the installed pavers. (I've done pavers this size with a hand tamper and gotten good results, but it's definitely a job for a young, fit person!) While it's a relatively simple process, there are places an inexperienced person could screw up, so It helps a great deal if you can observe a paver job being installed or can tap the knowledge of someone who's done it before. Though I have not looked, there's probably a lot of info on the Web ... Youtube & such.

Hope you can glean the basic ideas I'm trying to show in the picture. But there's plenty of opportunities for modifying, tweaking and personalizing.

Here's a question for you..how do guest reach your front entrance door? From the picture, I see a car in the driveway but don't see any path or walkway to the front door entrance. Am I missing something? It looks like a sidewalk on opposite side but can't see where it leads..I'm talking about the side where you have removed all the shrubbery. probably vinyl siding side, not brick facing.

I can picture hostas and other shade plants around the trees. Trees help cut down on your A/C cost and they are planted far enough from the house to look like they belong there.

Remember Rome wasn't built in a day and most new homebuyers have a limited budget when they first move in..Call in some professional landscape designers, the more designers you talk to, the more information you will gather. If you like one better than the other and feel comfortable with his or her knowledge and personality, get a price for doing it in stages and ask how much you can save by doing it yourself. You said you were outside of Philly..what borough/city? Beautiful home..Congrats! Is this your first home?

Another suggestion is to take a walk or drive through your new neighborhood; if you see residents working outside on their landscape, walk up and introduce yourself and compliment them on their landscape if you like something they have done to theirs. When you get settled, have a small party, maybe start with inviting a few over for dessert or Open House affair. It could be something simple. Doesn't have to be anything fancy or expensive. Send or drop by invitations with RSVP included and your phone#.. It's a good way to meet some of your neighbors. Hopefully they will invite you and your wife/family over first. It probably is best to do it on weekends. The weather is now Fall in our area, great time to host a small gathering. Don't be offended if some people can't make it or decline because they are not socialable people. You will be able to feel out others which neighbors are sociable and nice or just shy. I hope most of your neighbors are in your age bracket but don't overlook those that are older because there is sometimes a lot of wisdom there.

Back again .... March is coming and we've made some decisions, but first to answer some of the additional questions asked since my last post.

@pippi21 - The walkway connects to the driveway. This is our first home and we're in Bucks Co. Our neighbors mostly keep to themselves, but given all the snow we've made a lot of friends since we only have a snow shovel (and a 400sqft driveway).

A few questions / comments:

- We will not be doing a paver walkway this summer or anytime soon. The tree on the far right is close to the house and disrupting the current walkway, but will have to wait another year or two to be removed.

- We haven't had any quotes yet, but will get a few once the snow is gone. However, we suspect we will be doing this redo on our own. A few questions:

1) The beds are now empty, what's a good resource on understanding what we need to do? I haven't the slightest if we should rototil the bed, how to take care of the bulbs we missed, how to plant/when to plant, etc.

2) Similar to above, what's a good resource to understand clearing around the tree bases to prep them for plants to be added?

3) What's a good place to understand how to improve our lawn? Not a forum, but a resource/guide we can read/follow to strengthen our lawn. We have a lot of crab grass and the section between our older trees in the front is sunk so the water sits after it rains.

Thank you in advance!

As simple as some of the things you're asking about are, you cannot obtain all the information from one source. Obtain a few books on landscape gardening, from the library or Home Depot and just start exploring. The common concepts will be reinforced in several sources. I am frequently asked, "When is the best time to ...(fertilize, prune, plant, etc.)" I'm not sure why people obsess about the best times to do these things as usually it means they never do them. My answer has started becoming, "When you can." It's often better to do something at the worst time, than never do it at all. Landscape gardening is so forgiving, that one year's mistakes will be fixed or patched up in another year. The windows of opportunity are open for lengthy periods. With container material, for example, you can pretty much plant anytime the ground is not frozen. Prune at the wrong time and you might miss a season's flowers ... but your plant will be the size and shape you want it to be which, I think, is more important.

For most LANDSCAPE planting, there is no rototilling, except for special circumstances ... which you can probably never worry about.

Unless you have some nice BEDS of bulbs, I'd get rid of them and instead, plant some nice BEDS. A bulb of this and that, here and there, just looks like pretty weeds and is not worth the bother.

For planting around trees, try to disturb the tree roots as little as possible. Kill existing plants (light-smothering is a good way.) Use small containers of tough plants that tolerate the conditions (shade and dry) ... like Hosta.

There is no better way to get over fear of making mistakes in gardening than literally dig in and get going. Everything is fixable.

More on planting around trees. Besides not wanting to disturb the roots, you also don't want to raise the soil level much. The procedure I've used for years is as follows. Weedwack or mow low the area in question. Put down two layers of newspaper each offset to minimize gaps. Cover the paper with 2-3" of mulch. Wait a while for the grass to die and then plant away. The closer you want to dig near big trees, the smaller the plants need to be. As for how long to wait...don't rush it or the grass will come back. I normally make beds in the fall and plant in the spring. The paper degrades in a while and is easy to plant through.

So I'm back and it's finally time to get things started. Bulbs are gone, removed all the plants, got rid of the ugly red strips bordering the flower beds, and moved the soil back towards the house. Redoing the walk isn't in the cards this year ... my budget for plants/mulch is ~$1,200. We're right outside Philadelphia.

Here's what I've pieced together by leveraging this site, my neighbors landscapes, and the local nursery. This is just draft #1 so really looking for input on plant selection and plant location. What we're looking for is:

- Color in all seasons

- Relatively low maintenance - pruning once a year or less

The image below is to scale (e.g., 1 square is 1 sqft). The images, however, are not to scale so they will likely take up more space than shown below. Thoughts? I've come along way since my first post :-)

Before you go further, you should scratch out a sketch, drawing over the photo, of how these would appear as one views your house from the street.

It is a better idea for those without a lot of experience in creating landscape plans not to use symbols which represent individual plants. Instead, draw the FULL GROWN outline for the entire group of like plants. In other words, create the architectural shape you will be "attaching" to the front of the house. (As if you were placing furniture and accessories in front of the wall.)

To me, your plan looks contrived, "busy" and somewhat unsophisticated. By the latter I mean fairly typical of what and how a builder (who only cares about the sale, not the future) would install. It's definitely not going to fulfill your requirement about pruning "once a year or less." Also, you're planting too close to the house.

So I'm not much of a sketcher so I purchase a cheap program to help me visualize. It doesn't have all the plants I want, but this is my first draft for Phase 1 / Foundation plants. I have ~$1,200 and I'll be doing it myself, but between plants, soil, fertilizer, and ICBIN mulch I won't have a lot left over for more plants than below.

A few notes:

On each side is golden mop cypress shrubs.

On the left would be some type of weeping tree like a redbud, dwarf cherry, etc.

On each side of the front door we have two half wine barrels we'll fill with a dracena surrounded by dianthus, bacopa, and viburnum or something similar.

The shrubs under the bay window are azaleas

The shrub between the two windows on the right would be a Buddleia.

Thoughts? There are other plants we like such as in my prior post, just no idea where to put them and likely can't fit them all due to spacing.

The most recent depiction is a radical improvement over the March 25 plan. Keep in mind that the shrubs you plant below the windows need to have their centers be 3' or 3.5' from the wall. It will seem far when they're small, but the gap will disappear. Being as the azaleas wrap the bay, they may be somewhat closer to the wall.

"There are other plants we like ... just no idea where to put them." If you were gardening, you would just find an available spot and plunk them down. But landscaping is a special kind of gardening that only permits plants which perform a job as part of a larger, artistic statement or functional purpose. Therefore, not everything fits or needs to fit. Once a person begins to study plants, they can fall in love with literally thousands of them. There is no way to make nice landscapes by having all those plants. That's what public botanical gardens are for.

I like the picture you posted this morning. Be sure to heed the advice about planting distance from the house. My boss built a beautiful formal brick home and tried to landscape it himself. He planted a lovely expensive 6' scotch pine in an inner-corner, about 3 feet from each side wall. Then he couldn't figure out why it died! Duh.

I would go back and check height and width on all plants you've planned and compare it to the space available. For instance, I notice that you have Gold Mop false cypress (Chamaecypress pisifera) under what look to be low windows. My neighbor planted a set of those less than 10 years ago, but took them all out last year. They had grown to 5' x 6' and didn't fit the spot any longer. IMO these are a plant that looks better without pruning. I can't really tell from your plans what the scale of the building is and what space is available, but what Yardvaark said about drawing to scale of ultimate growth is important, and you don't want the overgrown look of your original photos to be repeated with plants crowding the house and the walkway. It will look bare at first and you can fill in temporarily with large pots and annuals if needed to fill in the space until your shrubs reach size, but you want plants that will end up filling the space not starting filling the space.

I love Buddleia, I have planted 2 in my back yard. But they are very big, only about 3 years old and I cut them to the ground every spring. As I understand it, most Buddleias grow 6-10' high by 6-10' wide. Mine certainly do. But perhaps you know of a small variety I'm unfamiliar with.

Thank you all so much for the feedback - much appreciated!

Now that I've settled on a few plants I researched them and learned the Gold Mop shrubs grow slowly, but large. Someone down the road from me has them and they look great, but they've been there for years. Would anyone mind recommending alternatives? We liked the mop shrub because it's deer resistant and adds color during the longish winters. Perhaps something like Emerald Gaiety, Otto Luyken Laurel, or a Borderline Boxwood (green with lighter greens on the leaves)?

I also found that the azaleas are deer magnets, but perhaps with them this close to the window and with my dog they will stay away? I'd hate to replace them with more boxwoods, but that would be better than spending money to feed the deers.

I previously had a Buddleia in some of the first photos of the thread. It was enormous, but the previous owners didn't take good care of it. I would plan to prune/cut it almost to the ground each fall/early spring. However, I'm not opposed to planting something in this space that might be more manageable, but my plant knowledge is limited. I'm in zone 7.

I don't remember where you live (and don't want to re-read the thread to find out!) but 'Otto Luyken' will get much too large -- and grow too fast -- for any spot in your front foundation planting scheme. A better alternative to boxwood, I think, is dwarf yaupon holly. It's growth rate is modest/moderate and it's easy to keep trimmed to a below-window size ...IF it grows where you live. Also, I can't speak to its deer resistance, so research that. Or maybe someone will comment on it here ...?

I see dwarf yaupon holly often in my neighborhood and I know it grows well in my zone (outside Philly) and also resistant to deer.

So I measured from the mulch to the bottom of the windows and it's ~32", which means the golden mop cypress may end up being a foot or so above the window sill without pruning. However, it's a very wide shrub at about 4'. If I center each shrub under each window and 2' from the facade, there should be about a foot between them at their mature size without pruning. Do you think this is enough space?

Take stated "mature sizes" with a grain of salt. Usually plants become larger, but if within reason, pruning can control. 2' from wall is TOO CLOSE. Should be 3 to 4'.

Just choose the right size Buddleia. There are many sizes including mini. Just know that routine maintenance of Buddleia includes cutting them down once a year.

You could consider Weigela My Monet in place of the Azaleas. They are supposed to be deer resistant.

Thank you - Weigela My Monet are beautiful, but they're not rated for my zone and I don't see them around here so not sure how they'll work out. I'll ask the local nursery.

I had a "Golden Globe" arborvitae in my little yard north of Philly. It grew very slowly, an excellent choice for a foundation planting. Be very careful about planting under your trees. As others have said, too much mulch and too many plants disturbing the roots could weaken and even kill the tree. Trees have tons of roots near the surface of the soil, you don't want to smother them or crowd too many of them out. Lightly mulch, and keep most plants well away from the trunk an inner root area.

I went to the local nursery today and was a bit overwhelmed ... not to mention I couldn't get any help. So a few quick questions:

I think we're going to with a Crimson Queen on the left side instead of a red bud. Thoughts?

There were so many types of Azaleas at the nursery. Is there a specific kind that may lend itself better to being a hedge in front of the bay window? We'd consider alternatives to Azaleas too.

What might be a good smaller plant, lower to the ground, to put in front of the golden mop cypress / azaleas? Something like switch grass, but a little more interesting.

Lastly, we're going to go with a smaller/dwarf buddlei so it doesn't take over like the last one we had.

It's a vast improvement over the shrub-engulfed house we first saw, merely by being cleaned up. One thing that jumps out to me as not enough, is the groundcover, which are few and far apart. The goal is usually to get groundcover to grow into a solid mass for the best look and so as not to need top dressing with mulch anymore and still have weed suppression. But I imagine you'll be doing some tweaking over the next year.

As far as watering, it's hard for someone, by remote, to tell you if you've watered long enough. There are a lot of variables in how you might be doing it and with what equipment. If in doubt, dig down and see. It won't take you long to discover the right timing formula.

The five minutes every other day does not seem like much water to me.

I always enjoy it when someone comes back and posts after shots - thanks!

One quick observation - the mulch around your trees looks to be up against the trunk. You want it more in a donut shape than a mountain, so that there are a few inches between the tree and where the mulch starts. Having the mulch against the trunk holds in moisture and encourages various rot organisms, so isn't good for the tree, regardless of it being a common practice.

If you're watering an individual plant with hand watering equipment (wand) for 10 or 30 minutes/day ... that's an huge amount. If it's a sprinkler, it could be OK. It depends on the sprinkler and how much it's putting out. Dig down after a watering and see if the soil below the surface is damp.

One plant per 10 or 30 minutes with a hose would be a lot of water.

Such a lovely house. You could, perhaps, look at some of the older types of flowers, natives, things that were first grown in America, or things like David Austin roses if you plan to furnish the house traditionally.