I think design pics be important,shape of tree,shub,flower,stone,mud,way,everything need to design.designer show you some different style garden pics.you select what you like.this is only a style pic,maybe you select some:

{{gwi:45251}}

Here is a link that might be useful: if need other style design pics

I love what you've done with the pic! I wish I could do that because I need visuals. Thank you! And thank you for the link. I noticed in the pic you have a different maple. Are you suggesting it wouldn't be a bad idea to take mine out and plant a smaller one or is that a pic of mine pruned. The trunk of our maple has a diameter of about 12 inches-too large in my opinion for the space.

Thanks again. I can't wait to show my husband the pic you doctored up!

I know your maple diameter is about 12 inches,it is expensive.you can prune it to the shape in the pic.

Ideasshare/landscape design china's improbably compositions are always pretty, never practical. Thank heavens you've gotten some realistic input on the other thread.

You do have an interesting problem with that maple. It is the only softening influence in what is otherwise a very linear house and yard, and it is the only thing that crosses and thus muddies the rather sharp dividing line between yard and driveway.

What Laag has written on the other thread addresses the lines of your house and the DESIGN of the front yard in a way that will mitigate some of its unfortunate features: the half-yard half-driveway frontage, and the vertical linearity of the house. I put "design" in caps to distinguish it from "decorating" the yard, which is what a lot of people limit themselves to when looking at their landscapes. If you step back and think just about the lines, ignoring the details, I think you'll see the house as Laag does.

And Laag is right that its removal will leave you with a bleak prospect, a very driveway-ey house, one dominated by unattractive lines.

However, the maple is big and so I think I too would be inclined to remove it - or as has been mentioned on the other thread, try to have it moved to another part of the yard. This can be done in fall in my area, and you may get some dieback, but the majesty of the plant is likely to be preserved.

And really, if you don't like the maple, it is your house and you can't be expected to house it as a favour to the forum. The trick to coming out of this with a good design solution that will make you happy AND make your house look its best is to identify what it is about the maple that makes it a good design feature. I believe it is the fact that it obscures the line bordering the driveway, which from the driveway side is a lovely rock wall, but from the front is just a straight line that is elongated by the driveway itself and the fact that it connects visually to the nearest column. So the fact that the maple breaks up that line close to the house is key.

So perhaps you could prune the maple away from the sidewalk and just let it overhang the driveway, if you were inclined to keep it. Or you could replace it with a more upright variety and enjoy the early years of its growth, rather than the latter years of this one. Add in other softening, border-crossing, horizontal-arching plant material right up to where the green ball shrub currently is, and you may have an all-round pleasing result.

It might also be an idea to paint the columns a less stark colour, but that's not my area of expertise.

KarinL