@ hosenemesis--Your yard is so lovely! It has the exact feel that I'm looking for--a nice spot to just sit and watch the flowers/birds/squirrels. I really like the trellis on the walkway--maybe I can incorporate it next to the herb garden somehow, maybe with wisteria to cover it? (not the invasive kind, but the N. American "Amethyst Falls" wisteria--Wisteria frutescens ). @ hoovb: I've considered Italian Cypress and White birch trees, but I think I have my heart set on a gingko, they're just too beautiful. I won't mind the bare branches too much in the winter--I think if I position it just right, just having the tree branch/trunk obscure the power pole will be enough. :) In regards to planting by the fence, what's the best way to do it? Should I just keep the ground level as it is right now and NOT do a raised bed? Or should I line the fence with stone/edge border to minimize fence rot? I love gardening but I just realized I'm a total beginner at this. Any good resources/books to get started? Thank you!

See attached pics of my corner drawers. I like the idea and the functionality, but the cabinet itself is a little wonky. (The drawers aren't aligned well and they don't have adjustment options, there's a gap between the two faces on each drawer.) My GC and I spent the last two days adjusting cabinets and installing handle hardware and he fought with those drawers a lot and they're still not completely aligned. (I have the Belmont 1900 series, so they weren't cheap, either.) (Although you can definitely tell in the close up, now that we've spent some time on them, they probably look fine from farther away. Both my GC and I are sort of perfectionists, which means both that we work well together and that there's no one to step in as the voice of reason when something is actually fine. Heh.) They work great though and I probably would get them again vs. other options, but I'd take a closer look at quality. (One thing that no one really mentioned to me about buying material is that a component that's less expensive to purchase might end up being more expensive overall if it is significantly harder to install.) I also like this idea, although I didn't have enough space for it: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/157837161913145771/ BTW, one idea I had seen when I was first planning my kitchen was to leave the corner as dead space in the kitchen and install a drawer or shelving niche in the space on the other side of the wall (in the room next to the kitchen). Obviously whether or not that would work would depend on the house layout.

I originally planted Medallion in a morning shade and tough afternoon sun against a white wall and near asphalt. It does amazing. I am not sure about frost, because I have this rose in Florida, however it is rated down to zone 6..... I am not sure how cold that gets. Medallion puts out huge bloom... bigger than bronze star. I can't really smell it, but i have had people tell me they can, and they like it. It is my BEST shade rose.

I'll try to find out more about the fence...at minimum it needs a 3' setback and no higher than 3'. Even a fence that is inside of the trees would create a small private space, I guess I need to consider whether or not that would be worth the cost. I need to find out if there is any possibility of a 5' fence. If I cannot install anything that would create real privacy, then I don't want to bother with a fence at all and would rather just get rid of the lawn and underplant the trees with shrubs/perennials/groundcovers to make the front and this side cohesive (but making this be clearly a side), widen the driveway, and put up a sign that tells people to go the front door around the corner I guess. Now that the plants have gotten overgrown, the door isn't visible to the street except at night when the light is on. Here are some photos of the front. Yes things have gotten overgrown, the style of this landscape when we moved in was that everything was a tight rectangle or ball. In the process of letting things get a more natural shape, it became very clear they are too close to the house so most or all of the foundation shrubs probably need to be taken out or hedged (dislike the hedging option). Also the lawn makes our water bill high and it's mainly there for the neighborhood dogs :-P So I want to take it all out. The house is a 60s suburban ranch style. The front of the house faces south, so again the shade is needed. BUT I dislike that the house is hidden AND at the same time it doesn't feel at all private. Some of the things I'm thinking of taking out: Both purple leaf plums are at the end of their lifespan according to the arborist, and the one I've "x"ed out has Ganoderma fungus at the base. She said the "x" tree could probably live a few more years so we've had it treated and will be cleaned up soon along with the other...buying some time while I dither over the landscape re-do. One idea I had was to flank the front entrance yard on either side of the house with 'Natchez' crape myrtles. We love them and they do very well here, and the arborist said we have enough space. I'd like to keep their canopy open and high so that we get shade without blocking the front of house! The "?" is a planting of two Feijoa sellowiana; they are too close to the front door walkway, and the walk needs redoing and to be less curved to the left. Right now they are dropping fruit daily. Currently undecided whether to remove the Feijoa, or cut them down and allow to regrow in a prettier vase form, or leave them alone and just raise the canopy and accept all the strange branching. Behind the Feijoa are four meyer lemons that have been hedged for years. The bases are 2.5' at most from the house. I'm thinking about taking out 3 and allowing one of the bushes on the left to grow into a small ornamental tree...but again it might just be too close to the house and needs to go. I am in the process of trying to hire a designer, but I want to be sure my expectations are realistic and I want to be able to be more clear/reasonable when I tell them what I'm looking for in a design. Barriers to a productive design, on my end, are that I'm indecisive and I cannot find an online example of a front corner like ours that is landscaped in a way I like, and I'm struggling with trusting someone to create something I'd like. Examples they've shown are either huge yards with more normal layouts, or corners that the front side connected to the back. One last goal I had for a re-design: all around the footprint of the house, about 4' from the foundation, are approximately 20 "moss rocks" that are about 2-3' in diameter. I'd really like to incorporate them as more a feature somehow. I wanted a designer to figure that out though, once they are moved we really don't want to move them again. Here's one example of a yard I quite like: