Another pic

Yews themselves are high class, quality plants. What's ugly about the ones at the corners is that they are not shaped as perfectly as they could be and that they are being undercut into balls. (They should be domes in order not to lose the bottom foliage.) I would reduce their height a little to start the improving process and measure them while cutting so you end up with a matched pair.

The ivy on the bank COULD look good (as a section of it does) but the weeds are being allowed to destroy it.

Wow this is great Yardvaark! Thanks for your illustration.

I love the idea of a Crepe Myrtle/tree.
What else might you do if not the Crepe Mrytle? Thoughts on a Plum tree?

Point taken about the Yews.
So the bottoms should not tapper in as much but rather wider foiliage on the bottom?

The ivy has been a love/hate ordeal but I do like how you preserved it in this illustration. We have had problems with poison ivy and when I bought the house the Maple tree was overtaken with the ivy but now needs to come down since its rotten and infested with black ants. We lost a very large limb during a storm this summer.

Thanks again for input and any others reading.

"So the bottoms should not taper in as much..." The bottoms should not taper in AT ALL. Tapering in is what will turn nice shrubs into ugly shrubs on stilts. (Generally, it will be markedly worse in a shady condition and less worse in a sunny one.)

Just because the tree in the illustration looks like a crape myrtle doesn't mean it is. It must be something that grows well in your area. Plum will get much larger so it would not be my choice. I'd be looking for a "shrub" that maxes out near the 12' to 15' ht. range ... so you're not sorry later about its getting too large. (Beauty bush, compact burning bush, lilac ... that sort of thing.)

Why "hate" the ivy you already have? Isn't it doing its job? With a little help, couldn't it do its job better? When it does, it's actually quite good looking. And it's generally tough and durable. Seems to me the only thing to hate is the weeds within it. The key to loving it all the time is learning how to manage it. I speak from experience having maintained, for many years, areas of it larger than 1/4 acre each, on 2 properties I previously owned. In addition to this, I was responsible for maintaining MANY acres of it (collectively) on institutional property. I have nothing but good things to say about it. It seems, however, that I can't say much good about it here without a few others getting on their soap box about how English ivy IS the devil infoliate. Like many groundcovers, ivy must be edged, but that's nothing extraordinary or difficult. It's just routine landscape maintenance. It must be kept from climbing on structures. Depending on the circumstances, this can be accomplished similar to the edging routine, or with herbicide, which is easier. Personally, while I didn't want it climbing my trees, I liked to let it grow waist high on them. It only took a few minutes to trim it back to that level once or twice per year. (It could be trimmed off like this at ground level ... but then you'd have to bend over!!) As with any groundcover, once weeds are eradicated, spraying or pulling the new ones that crop up was not difficult or time consuming ... if gotten while they are small. (It never ceases to amaze me how many people, when pulling weeds, instead break them off at ground level as though this is a meaningful endeavor. Actually, it's just pruning weeds and insures that they branch out nicely! One must develop a better strategy in order to get rid of them.) Making English ivy easily manageable requires a back-pack sprayer with a fan tip so that spraying can be done with near surgical precision.

The lawn you have could be quite charming if it was perfectly circular and surrounded by groundcover (while kept open on the driveway side.) ... especially if it had a nice mowing strip bordering the grass.

Poison ivy is VERY easy to get rid of. Round-up does an excellent job.

Yardvaark - Your comments are well appreciated, thank you.

YEW: Got it!

FRONT CORNER: Good point about a non-tree for the corner. We'll have to consider your recommendations. We have a large Lilac shortly past our front door along the driveway. A feature we very much like. Although something different for this corner would likley be sought after.

IVY: Trust me, the labor on removing the Ivy does not excite me. It really does come down to managing the boarder and weeds. On the lower section, the stones below are actually doing a great job keeping it off the grass. Edging on the top would then need to be addressed when renovations take place.

I do however need to address the Ivy in our rear yard since I have no edging. I attempted to cut all Ivy that found its way into the yard and mantain weedwacking the boarder. But a good edging stone is needed. The constant weed wacking has left a 6" gap of dirt between grass and ivy which is not really attractive but is allowing me to keep an eye on it. Its a work in progress.

CURRENT FLOWER BED:This is what we have been working on just short of the front door. Starting to get alittle crowded but ideally this bed would get extended to the Yew on the corner. The two bushes between the current flower bed shown and corner Yew would get removed.

Thanks again.

"On the lower section, the stones below are actually doing a great job keeping it [ivy] off the grass." I have a hard time grasping that to be the case and think there must be some other maintenance occurring. In my experience, Ivy will grow up and over anything in its path unless something -- edging, mowing, spraying, etc. -- is done to stop it. (Of course, those are all pretty easy things to do.) On another note, if you did get rid of all the ivy on the bank, what would be returned in its place since turf is not going to be bank friendly? Whatever groundcover went back would require all the same things ivy requires. Maybe the details would be different, but the basic operations would be the same: weeding & edging.

As far as where ivy meets grass, it will work its way into the lawn, but can never make substantial and serious "takeover" progress because of the regular mowing. Many people in Atlanta (where I best know ivy) just mow the grass to the ivy and not worry about what creeps in. It stays short because of mowing and never get very far. If one can tolerate that appearance (which is not bad) then that's the easiest way to maintain it. If one wants (or needs) a clean cut edge, then it's better to use a dedicated edger on it. If one is stopping it from encroaching at the perimeter of the yard, then the easiest way is periodic spray of Round-up, spraying frequently enough that the growth cannot mature as the fresh growth is MUCH easier to kill.

Regarding the "current bed" that you are working on, as a garden I think is overcrowded. When the plants begin to develop to their full size, they're not going to fit. More importantly, I think to load so many different things in so small a space does not make the kinds of artistic statement that plants should be making for a house the size yours is. It's large and imposing so needs plant statements sized correspondingly. I think if the bed were filled only with Rudbeckia (or something else) then it would be a better show. Also, I detect a wavy line (I'm not talking about the radius curve at the bed end) and think there is nothing surrounding this bed (outside of the picture) that the wavy line would correspond with since it is bounded by the straight house wall and straight driveway. If that's the case, I don't think it fits as well as a straight edge would fit, or a single arcing curve in along bed. (But one would need to see the entire space in order to determine conclusively what fits best.)

BTW, Nevik, if you were starting with an empty slate and looking for a nice, fat pair of full size yews to place as I suggest, you would be spending several hundred dollars each to have such large plants installed. (If you could find them at all!) Personally, I would be grateful that they could be used without moving and only needed a little fine tuning in order to be truly useful.

Thanks again! Comments are well received.

For comparison, I took out the stone and narrow strip of turf and brought the ivy to the city walk. Also, added mowing strip at the lawn.

Thanks again.
I do however prefer the stones. But I will say they need to be reset for a more uniform look. In some cases they have moved from their original spot.

While I have your attention, care to think about another issue?
I have thoughts on approaching my neighbor to plant a tree between our homes but on their property.

Wouldn't might your thought on trees if you have one.
Have a look and thanks for your time:

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/trees/msg0720520626817.html?6

I love Zelkova, but there will be lots of shallow roots. Ginkgo would be my top choice. The mild slowness is worth the wait. give it extra water & fertilizer and it won't be that bad. Personally, I think Skyline Honeylocust is overrated. It's scraggly shade is practically non-existent. I cannot even be under one without sunglasses.

Can be touchy trying to massage neighbor into wanting a tree where you do. My strategy would be up front: "You know, a such & such tree would be great for me here and I think it might be good for you, too. If I buy and plant, would you be interested?" All they can say is yes or no. If it's "no" you have to add cash on top. :-( The advantage of Ginkgo (besides good looks) is that all the leaves fall off suddenly so there isn't a dragged out leaf clean-up. Before they fall there are weeks of gorgeous luminous golden light from the yellow leaves. Be SURE and get a male clone so there is no messy, smelly fruit bearing. (Females bear fruit that when fermenting smells like dog poop, but not unless you squish it. Would not be good for driveways!!)

Great insight Yardvaark!
I'm glad I put you on this topic too.

Thanks for the comments on Zelkova and Honey Locust.

The Ginkgo really does seem like the right fit. The slow growth is a bit unfortunate but much better than the wrong tree all together, especially since my goal is to plant in my neightbors yard! The Male Ginkgo would have to be a MUST then.

I kinda thought the same tactic on appraoching the neighbors. No one likes being told how to spend their own money. But FREE always gets good attention.

My only concern; if all goes well and the neighbors agree, is how they respond to watering, fertilizer and healthy/corrective pruning. They don't really have a green thumb or I should say its less green than I have at least. I would offer 'joint' maintenance since we at that point would both have a vested interest in the success of the tree. While simple, dealing with neighbors can be tricky business sometimes. Worth a shot though.

If another tree comes to mind other than a Ginkgo let me know.
But I'd say for now thats a good start. I'll look into this.

Thanks again.

Yardvaak -

Just a follow up on the Ginkgo.
Apparently this can be a risky endevour.

In some cases it could be years down the road when the male graft does not take and the original female generates fruit on what was sold as a 'male'. The odds of this taking place is a little concerning. I don't claim to know the science but I'll need to consider this.

Discussion I read in the link below:
"We had 79 Ginkgos planted in 1988 on a project. Trees were direct shipped from Halka Nursury, a very reputable tree grower. It took up to 5 years, but we now have 13 of them setting fruit every year. That means 16% of them are producing that foul odor for a month of the year. Every fall we have crews stopping by almost daily to clean up under them to keep complaints down. This is just one experience of many where we have gotten females when we were sold a male clone."

Further discussion can be found here:
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/trees/msg1018373628483.html

Nevik, I perused the bulk of the link you provided and didn't see that anyone discussed what's really happening. (I'm sure it's a well kept secret!) The Ginkgoes find out when the owners are going on vacation. Then, they book a high-dollar round-trip ticket on an overnight flight to Bangkok for a quick sex change, fly back two days later where they are nestled into the ground and completely recovered long before owners can have a clue. Years later .... fruit!! They (the Ginkgoes) say that no one knows what it's like to be a woman trapped in a man's body! Ha ... I'm sure!) They are able to do this at taxpayer expense I might add. When the public gets wind of it there's sure to be a massive controversy that will easily top that Central American children are crossing over our southern border!

With some of the precocious Ginkgoes the above scenario happens at the nursery before the tree is purchased. Then, it's not difficult for the aware tree buyers to discover and avoid selecting a tree that has already "been to Thailand." Normally, where a scion (the upper portion that becomes the tree) is grafted to a root stock, there is a visible scar or swollen portion where the two join. When so, it's pretty easy to tell if the upper tree growth is coming directly from the root stock, or if it's coming from the scion. If it is not apparent that the growth is coming from the scion, do not buy such a tree.

Other than with these "personal problems" that some Ginkgoes seem to have, I still think, overall, it's an excellent tree. With extra care, its growth can be urged along more quickly so I don't consider the wait to be unbearable.

Everywhere I've lived, I seem always to landscape a few things beyond my own property boundary. Sometimes it's been in "no man's land" kind of places where no one cares what I did. Sometimes, I've needed permission from the next door neighbor. In those cases, I've always offered to pay for and take care of the whatever-it-is. A good relationship with the neighbor has always helped a lot. If the neighbor is not really "into their yard," that makes it easier, too.
{{gwi:41973}}
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An amazing tree!!!
Your humor is great by the way.

And a great education, thank you.
"Normally, where a scion (the upper portion that becomes the tree) is grafted to a root stock, there is a visible scar or swollen portion where the two join. When so, it's pretty easy to tell if the upper tree growth is coming directly from the root stock, or if it's coming from the scion. If it is not apparent that the growth is coming from the scion, do not buy such a tree."

Humor? .... that was straight-up reporting of documented facts! :-)