In my first take on this I see a trapazoid shaped patio forming a front door patio and jutting out about 5 feet into the yard. ON the left corner of the house I see another 8 foot tall trapzoid sheared boxwood hedge and a 3-tree fastigate poplar grove out in the left front yard,

I like isabella's comment on entry patio. I don't have a specific design/shape, but I'd like to see some cool contemporary enlarged entryway experience, thinking about making it more spacious and gracious, and with architectural plant forms or containers and special lighting. You don't need a lot of shrubbery up against the house.

Your house could be "shifted" more toward contemporary or rustic/ranch, so you have the opportunity to play up or down, depending on your preferences.

With the northeast exposure I would be tempted to zen it up a little *without* using any expressly asian decor -- just carefully chosen plants, rocks, and gravel.

Thanks so much for the feedback so far.
You've definitely brought up some ideas I hadn't thought of :)

I wanted to show you guys an approximate plan of the house, so you might be able to understand what's not so clear in the picture.

There is a concrete step up patio. The gray rectangle is the low masonry wall that can be seen in the picture. The areas I have shaded green are where there is opportunity for landscaping.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:45470}}

My idea was, the opportunities for landscaping are not limited to the areas in green.

Sorry Frankie.

My statement didn't mean to exclude other areas from landscaping, but rather to make it clear that the rectangle across from the porch and next to the garage was a bed, not more sidewalk.

About that bed between the sidewalk and the garage:

It looks as if there's a solid rectangle behind the square bushes and in front of the right-hand window. Is that something that needs to be there? Because I think any landscaping in that bed should either be low or up against the garage wall.

Missingtheobvious, you have a good eye, but the rectangle you see is just my poor photoshop skills. There are only the square bushes against the window.

That does bring up a good point, though. I had been wondering if a tree shaped shrub (a crepe myrtle, for example, although that's not necessarily what I would choose) would be inappropriate for that spot since it IS up against a window. So you think it should be something low or thin that would hug the wall?

appledeco, I had also thought about the possibility of a small tree in that bed. I didn't want to recommend one because if it were my house, I'd want the window kept clear. You may feel differently about the view into and out of that window. And I don't know enough about small trees' root systems; you have the foundation/front walk double-whammy there.

I love the multiple trunks of crape myrtle, with their beautiful bark -- which is much the same color as your stonework. I'm not sure if that would be a plus, or if the trunks would fade into the stone wall behind them.

Has anyone else been thinking how to accent those intriguing alcoves on either side of the window to the left of the front door?

[I'm glad I asked about the black square -- I was wondering what it was! A strangely-located flat air conditioner? Actually, the best shape that matches it is the theft-proof stainless steel cases the Chicago Transit Authority uses (bolted to the platform) to house portable wheelchair ramps at elevated train stations.]

I'd soften the house with a curving bed going from left end of pic toward garage ending at sidewalk. Have some shrubs starting at left & things getting lower as you go right. You have rectangles right now. Soften the look to make it more inviting. I take it the front door is not seen from the street but is in the wall of the room towards left. You need to create an interesting entry walk with plants. Go out into the yard a few feet as you get closer to garage. Maybe even remove the low wall of stone & make a patio there in a half circle with plants to front of that.

I wouldn't get boxed in to planting something again in the area next to the garage that has the square shrubs. This area may need to become more patio. It isn't large enough to handle most small trees, and then the tree further crowds your entry way. I'm not saying you could never find the perfect species for that location, but you have to think about shape and spread and rooflines and all that in that enclosed area. So I'd doodle a bit with some design that opens up the whole area between the door, windows, and garage, with hardscape/stone/containers, perhaps--not excluding low in-ground plantings, but trying to decide WHERE they would ideally go-- and then maybe has some of the taller or larger plantings in strategic areas outside of that area so they have room and maybe are in just the right location for partial screening but still welcoming entryway--haven't really got that identified as yet.

I agree with catkim that a "zen" Japanese-style would be great for this house's landscaping, since the architecture of the house has a slightly Asian look as a result of the broad peaks of the roofs, and the double-framed, almost shoji-style windows (actual Japanese shoji screens would have interior frames).

Right now the landscape has too many straight, geometric lines to work with this house. The flat line of the lawn and the box-shaped shrubs give the house a somewhat forbidding feeling, and make the less-than-perfect lawn look pretty blah. The straight lines also make the lawn imperfections all the more apparent.

The first thing I would do would be to get rid of the box-shaped shrubs against the garage wall, and replace them with shrubs that have a more open, gently arching habit. I would select shrubs that are a lighter green for that spot (the dark shrubs that are there now make the house look too dark).

Then I would convert a generous area of your lawn into a landscaped garden area. Keep the shrubs low so as not to block the nice window shapes too much, and to let as much natural light into your house as possible.

For the landscaped area, I would definitely use a curving edge that will soften the geometric lines of the house, and make all the trapazoid shapes of the roofs look attractive.

The garage door is almost the single largest element of the front of this house. I would keep the garage doors the dark brown to help them look less obvious, but I would plant an area of shrubs and perennials along the border of your lawn and driveway to further play down the huge expanse of garage. This will visually emphasize the house, instead of the garage.

The stone aspect of the house gives you a wonderful built-in design element to play up in the landscaping. In your photo, it looks like some of the stone has a slightly reddish color, so that may be a good place to start for plant colors. I would use some plants that echo and play off the colors of the stone to pull the whole landscape together. I would add some ornamental rocks and stones to a landscape area in front of the house.

I would select the color for your entry door after you have added some landscape plants. You may be leaning toward the deep bright blue now to sort of liven up the landscape, but after you get some nice-looking plants in there, you may decide the blue is "too much". That particular color blue may actually clash with a lot of plants.

You may want to echo the look of the double-framed windows in the entry door as well. You could get this look just with paint, or you could look into a custom-made door with a "shoji look" adapted to a Western door frame size, depending on your budget.

I took the liberty of working with your photo to throw a little Japanese-style landscaping from the Portland Japanese garden in there, plus a more Asian-style door. It's just to get a general idea of a a possible look...of course, you will need to find shrubs and plants that work in your hardiness zone, soil, and sunlight levels. You'll also need to leave some room for your walkway!

{{gwi:45472}}

Below is a website that's a nice introduction to the Japanese garden look:

Here is a link that might be useful: Portland Japanese garden

So many ideas!

Missingtheobvious, that's a good point about the bark blending into the stone wall. That's something I'll definitely have to keep in mind so that everything doesn't just blend together.

Sunnyca, I like the idea of adding soft curves. That was something I had been considering.

Frankie, creating more patio area beside the garage is a GREAT idea and one I hadn't thought of. I had wished that the existing patio had more area for seating, and this idea would allow for that.

Topie, wow. Thank you so much for putting that image together for me. I really like all of your ideas and appreciate you calling out my blue door, lol. Would you mind if I took your image to my local gardenweb forum and asked for plant recommendations?

I think the patio is a good idea too... planting close to the house can be tough sometimes anyway because concrete foundations can make the soil alkaline, and then you have shrub roots to contend with that can cause the walkway, etc. to buckle. You may need to work with the soil in the lawn area a bit to create a hospitable place for shrubs and plants, but I think this yard has the potential to be a beautiful landscaping area.

Yes, feel free to use the image any way you like and good luck with your landscaping!

I know topie's doodling is just a start, so it does make a good springboard for pros and cons of various plantings and lets me take out my "red pen"!

That particular design has too much in the center of the yard and blocking the entryway so it cannot be emphasized properly; also, I think that too much shrubbery at the driveway actually over-emphasizes the garage and driveway,whereas you might be trying to plant more on the other side of the house for balance because the driveway itself is an element in the yard. There is already a kind of near-symmetry between garage and house "wing" proper, and maybe that can be actually played up--keeping the garage subdued in color, but recognizing that the home basically has its 3 cubes--left wing, entry, and garage.

Frankie in zone 7: I really just kind of threw that shrubbery in the photo to get ideas for colors, "Japanese" style, and to emphasize that low shrubbery would probably work best with this house. Photo morph doesn't show exact placement of anything obviously, since there is a walkway leading to the front door, lol ...

The OP may be ready to buy these plants and put in this scheme, so I think Frankies points are well taken. It's just like the other post with the white rocks along the sidewalk, one coherent idea is presented, and it's taken as the design to go with and implemented. A big responsibility.

On a totally different tangent, I always find it interesting that rectilinear styles of design (ala Brookes...) are not used more often. I guess softening architecture with landscaping is not really a concept that I can grasp.

Thanks for sharing your opinion about the photo morph isabella. Of course, as you can see, I did specify in my post that the poster will need to find shrubs and plants that work in her hardiness zone, soil and sunlight levels, and that the poster will need to leave room for her walkway, and that the photo morph was just to get a general idea of a possible look.

I read over my post again, and didn't see that I specified any names of any trees, shrubs, or plants that may prompt the poster to go to their nursery with a specific shopping list...although I did happen to notice, upon reading over the above posts again, that you specifically suggested "fastigate poplar" for this yard...in Oklahoma.

Just trying to picture a non-native member of the willow family, vulnerable to insect damage, growing in a state troubled by cottonwood borers, drought and tornadoes, perhaps planted less than twenty feet from two six-foot-tall glass windows....

I do agree with Frankie in zone 7 that there is too much shrubbery blocking the entryway and at the center of the yard in my photo morph, and that a patio in that spot near the entryway is a great idea!

Here is a link that might be useful: U. S. Drought Monitor Update July 14, 2009

isabella, you're right, this home in particular may be one in which one would specifically try to echo the rectangle shapes of the home to achieve a more contemporary look. Even regular folks can use rectangles and straight lines in a lot of landscape layouts without concern for it being too "hard," since plant forms themselves provide a lot of softening--so I bring that up because rectangular forms of a garden areas are sometimes easier to plan and install and don't have to end up looking rigid once planted.

I am not at all an architectural expert, so my comments have to remain very general or risk my ignorance just blaring through, but that was the purpose behind my original reply--if one knows something about what "evokes" different architectural schools, one can design a landscape that tends more one way or the other--some would be jarring to the home's architecture and might look completely wrong even to the unschooled, and others would just cause an architectural drift and give a different " feel" to a home and just be completely a matter of preference (realizing that all such choices are preference, but some "violate" visual principles more than others and seem "wrong" to a larger % of random viewers).

Topie didn't mean to hurt your feelings!

No worries isabella. Just pointing out, since you raised the topic of "responsibility," that hopefully respondents are mindful not only about their design suggestions, but consider whether their tree, shrub, and plant suggestions are practical for the original posters area...in this case, Oklahoma. However, I'm sure the OP would appreciate the respondents for this thread staying on topic, so, back to the landscape design for the above house...

Didn't make the connection when I read your first post between your suggestions and John Brookes, the British garden designer. I do like the minimal style of some of his work, and I think that style is definitely another option to keep in mind for this landscape, emphasizing the geometric lines and trapezoid shapes of the house's architecture rather than visually softening them.

Where in the yard were you thinking the 8 foot tall trapezoid sheared boxwood hedge would work?