Since your house faces the street, I would think you'd want to create a presentation that faces that way and displays, as well as possible, the entrance and path to it. Doing this does not preclude plantings looking fine along the way to the entrance. In general, it would be good to keep the low plants near the walk and taller plants farther away. An exception would be things like the trellises near the garage wall. But they won't intrude into the walkway space. With this goal in mind, I would counsel you to remove the lower limbs of the birch and locust. The object with those is to frame the view and provide shelter (or a sense of it.) But instead of framing the view, they are obstructing it, making it difficult to convey to passersby that there is a charming and inviting entrance farther away from the street. It would help the grass grow below, too.

I find myself craving a small tree (such as that rose of sharon grown up) that would add a sense of shelter (as if the porch roof were extended) and provide some screening separation from the house to the left. From the street, it would hide/clean up some of the unsightlies that linger in the background between the two buildings. I think it's time to delete the juniper that is parked at the left of the red car. It's only contributing to the clutter. I'd urge you to also get rid of the raised concrete edging. I can't see that there's any need for it and it, too, adds clutter. The mish-mosh of concrete pieces are beginning to give a Haitian cemetery feel. Plants alone would edge the beds fine and give a cleaner, richer feel. Don't know what the newer shrubs in the lawn are, but they might be obstructing the entrance or pinching the path to it in the future. They might fit better somewhere near the lot line.

edited to fix picture size

This post was edited by Yardvaark on Wed, Jun 19, 13 at 12:20

Thank-you for the response.

I was actually thinking the same thing originally about putting a small tree there. When we first got the house there was tall (20 foot) narrow evergreen near there but it kept leaning over and was practically leaning against my house. Do you think something like a Rose-of-Sharon would be tall enough? I only expect it to grow maybe 8 feet around here (Toronto) and often be shorter due to pruning. Would a standard of some kind work there? My worry is blocking my neighbour's window, and potentially creating too much shade in that area since it will be in the SW corner of the front garden and block all the later afternoon sun.

I want to remove those gray concrete edgers but because of the grading issues (that we will eventually fix) water tends to sit in pools and make parts of the bed badly soggy. Not to mention washing mulch all over the place when we get our typical brief, heavy downpours. I used those instead of matching red ones because I had those grey ones sitting on hand anyway. The walkway blocks themselves have sunk over the years and with the lawn top-dressing and then new bed creation, the bed area closest to the door sits about 3 inches higher than the blocks and so I worry about run-off and messiness.

You suggested moving those shrubs (hydrangea paniculata) to the lot line. I planted those there since my neighbours always seem to be going in or out or washing the car, and I start to feel like I'm being monitored every time I go in or out of my house or use my car. Hence putting up more shrubs to create a sort of hedge. Since my neighbour puts his trash/recycle bins there I wouldn't mind hiding those, but I don't want to block his access either. Also, I worried that if I put taller shrubs close to his house, might it end up looking like HIS garden, and not so much mine? Are my fears unfounded?

One more thought: the front walkway in not centered (it is closer to the garage). Should I move the row of blocks to the other side the center the walkway, and then have garden beds of roughly equal size on both sides? Or is it better to have one narrower bed (4 feet by the garage) and then one deeper bed for bigger stuff (about 8-10 feet) on the other side?

One of my other goals is to reduce my grass lawn area. Tha's kind of how the garden got to how it is: continually expanding the garden bed to swallow up the grass. I thought of adding more shrubs along the sidewalk instead of just that juniper, and maybe an informal hedge next to my neighbour's little driveway garden. Bad idea? Can it work?

Thanks! I really appreciate getting some insight :)

If R-of-S only gets 8' ht. there, then no, not tall enough. Need 12' - 15' ... like a compact burning bush would eventually get. A standard would work, but I don't think it would have anywhere near the oomph and presence a nice multi-trunk would offer. Whatever it is, it would be a small tree. Limb it high...9' and you should get enough light below the canopy to grow things well. You can control the canopy size by choice of tree and some pruning, if necessary.

Most of the time I see the raised edging, it's because the soil was not reduced in elevation before adding a substantial thickness of mulch, therefore making the edging seem necessary. But if the soil level were first reduced, then mulch would not be spilling over onto the walk. Also, mulch (as I view it) is a temporary condition. There should be some kind of plants/groundcover holding the soil in place once a plan is implemented and grows to completion. Think of how many places you've seen a walk meet a planting, like at the edge of your lawn, for example. There is no raised edging needed there.

I think your fears about your plantings looking like your neighbor's garden are unfounded. What you need is some sort of "backdrop" for your space. If you plant a shrub that you expect to have a 5' spread, you might plant it's center 2 1/2' away from the lot line. If a little encroaches onto the neighbor's side, he can just shear it off as he pleases and since, from your point of view, it'll be the plant's back side, it will make no difference to you. He has the right and you shouldn't care. I think if you plant the same size plant right at the lot line, it would be perceived by him as somewhat aggressive, since the space is tight.

As far as lining the walk with non-grass plantings, I generally think this defeats the overall goals of landscaping (displaying the entrance and making the approach to it look and seem appealing.) Usually, this is because people tend to fill these spaces with tall plant material so the walk to the front door seems like the corralled path the cows take at the slaughterhouse. Also, plantings that are in thin lines generally do not look good as compared to those that are wide ... proportionate to the structure and space. That said, I think you could plant along the walk if you keep the bed wide and the plantings low. Place the taller plantings closer to the backdrop. And also keep the taller plantings away from directly in front of the entrance space. (Except the tree which is something raised up so it does not block the entrance.)

I think the approach to the entrance would be improved if you added another row of paving block to the left side (as viewed from street) of the walk. More spaciousness on the way to the entrance is a good thing. Be careful of subdividing your bed with curved edgings that seem to go with nothing around them. The space is small, tight and defined by large rectangular structures. Find a way to make any subdividing compatible with that. A single curve, for example, might connect two planes.

I think I would organize the heights roughly as in the picture. I'm not saying you must come all the way to the public walk, but that if you do, how you might do it.

Thank-you very much! I appreciate the insight. We were thinking of maybe having the front re-done completely in a few years (once the mortgage is paid off and we can afford to spend a few thousand!) but until then I wanted something reasonable in place, plus set the basic shape for the changes we would make later.

For the tree or large shrub, would something like a Japanese Maple work? Maybe a crabapple?

"For the tree or large shrub, would something like a Japanese Maple work? Maybe a crabapple?"To my thinking these are on the large size so would need to be controlled by some overall pruning. I was thinking something more like Lilac-sized ... though not necessarily a lilac.