If you simply let the little balls grow, you will have a low hedge which is an easier and less frequent trimming job than maintaining the balls. Grass below would probably die out, or can be mulched away.

The key to distinguishing doors might be in something like pathway width and the use of different surfacing, not in the landscaping around the pathways. I can't see quite what pathways you've got, nor can I see more than one door, so can't make any specific suggestions.

KarinL

Also add traditional symbols of welcome to front door pathway. In New England a pineapple is a sign of welcome. Add a stone inlay pineapple or statuary, and anyone from NE will know the path to use.

I can't believe I am saying this, but the much bashed HGTV show Curb Appeal has many ideas to make the front entrance "pop" at not much cost, like bright color paint, cool mailbox, big pots of flowers, etc.

Thanks for all the replies.

something like pathway width and the use of different surfacing, not in the landscaping around the pathways. I can't see quite what pathways you've got, nor can I see more than one door, so can't make any specific suggestions.

Maybe I should clarify this: my driveway is the one that leads to the two garage doors, and just in front of the garage door, there is a paved path on each side that curves around the house. The long driveway in the foreground of the picture does not serve my house.

Also add traditional symbols of welcome to front door pathway. In New England a pineapple is a sign of welcome. Add a stone inlay pineapple or statuary, and anyone from NE will know the path to use.

Something like this might work. Here in western New York people might not get a clue from a pineapple as readily as they might in New England or the South, but statuary or even gate posts at the end of the preferred path might work.

Curb Appeal has many ideas to make the front entrance "pop" at not much cost, like bright color paint, cool mailbox, big pots of flowers, etc.

Have they ever done one where the front entrance cannot be seen at all? That's almost the situation here: when you're in the driveway you can't see the front door, so I'm not sure that bright paint will make a difference. The mailbox is at the street. The question is not how to make a visible entrance "pop," but how to make it possible to find the entrance (and not find the back door).

A better picture of the areas in question would help.

Maro

The thing about the path is that the one to the front door, which you want visitors to use, is more prominent, wider, and has some feature that tells them "use me!" Gate posts, a wider paved surface that makes it obviously more important, etc., will direct visitors to the correct path. The secondary, or service path to the kitchen door can be plainer, narrower, less prominent.

There have been some recent posts about your style that a search of the forum might turn up for some resources you can research. I've noticed that my library has many older landscape design books. If yours does, too, you might find them helpful, stylewise.

Sorry, I just wouldn't agonize over the 'which door is which' situation. Let the bushes grow and make two directional signs to be placed in appropriate locations. The first one would says, "Visitor Entrance" and the second would say "Servant Entrance". Does life have to be always serious?

I can't tell from the photo if that's a small overhang above the garage doors or a trellis? Whichever, you could play off of it to extend it out to the south to create a modern arbor that marks the entry to your home. You could use modern pots with plants to further accentuate the arbor.

If your sidewalk (paved path) is concrete, you could stain it to dress it up.

You could put low voltage lights (with the same lines as your roof shape) along the sidewalk and an overhead light hanging in the arbor.

For a modern garden along the sidewalk, use gravel mulched beds and appropriate plant material. A water feature would be nice along there. Perhaps a modern angular wall fountain between those two side windows for some interest. I would give the sidewalk a sense of enclosure with higher plantings mixed along the south side (think Japanese garden).

I can envision all this in my head, but I don't know if I can explain it in text very well. I don't see this as a problem, but as a great opportunity.

As for the 2nd sidewalk to the kitchen, there are some very low-key signs you can use that say "private".

For the plantings you have now, they all seem to be very low. I don't know your zone, but if it were here, a Japanese Maple, flowering deciduous trees and some evergreen accent trees with a pyramid shape (strategically placed) would help "lift" the landscape.

Would you consider a darker shade of paint for your home? It is so close to the same color as the roof.

Hope this helps.

The other design aspect not mentioned yet is to have the landing or entrance to the front door made wider and of a better quality material. This obvious differance should make it obvious to anyone approaching your house.

Don't dismiss the front door suggestions provided. As it appears your front door is visible from the road, that would be a clue to anyone approaching your house from that direction, as to the correct path to use.

As a general design rule for others before they buy into a design problem, the front door should be visible to guests as they leave their cars or approach your property on foot. No one likes the uncomfortable feeling of wandering around in unfamiliar places.

Here's a link to one resource. I'm sure you can find many others.

Here is a link that might be useful: link

The visitor problem may not be what you think it is. We have a corner lot, with the driveway coming in from the side. Two sidewalks come off the driveway - a front one that goes to the front door, and a back one that goes to the back door. There is absolutely no way anyone could confuse the two. My in-laws and certain friends of my daughter always use the back door. It can be dark and the lights are on at the front and not at the back, or the back walk could be covered with plants, but they will insist on using that door. It's not that they don't know the difference, but that for other reasons they prefer the back door.

This is particularly true if the major problem is delivery people.

Here's a follow-up.

Last week I had no fewer than three separate occasions when I wanted guests to take the sidewalk that goes to the kitchen door, because their destination was a sukkah, in the back yard, and that walk goes all the way back.

I put a line of solar path lights along that walk - chose solar so that I could move them to the main path (to the front door) later.

The first night that guests were coming, it was raining, so they needed to come into the house. Two-thirds of the guests came to the kitchen door and one-third came to the front door, so I think that the path lights had some effect. I'll be moving them to the front-door path right after the next mowing.

The house has (newish) vinyl siding, so painting it isn't feasible. Painting the front door posts and the door itself is feasible, although storm door, which is necessary, is vinyl.

Regarding landscaping in general: yes, the absence of verticality bothers me. There is not a single tree on my property, not that there is much open space, either, but there is probably room for a Japanese maple or something in that size range on the front lawn to the south of the driveway. It's zone 5 in southwestern New York. I am very taken with Acer palmatum 'Twombley's Red Sentinel'; the red shades would contrast with the grey of the house, although I gather that it grows very slowly.