No pictures. There's a "test" forum if you need a few tries to figure it out.

I moved pics to webshots, I hope you can see them now.

I need some landscaping advice for the south facing area of the front where the junipers and that crazy cotoneaster at the corner, and around the west side of the house where the junipers wrap. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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Still no photos for me. Maybe try Photobucket, and paste the TAG line from the photobucket photo to the body of your message here.
Or use the linking function that follows the message space to link to your webshots album.

KarinL

Here are two of the photos sewnice is trying to post.............

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There are a couple of issues here. I see what you are saying about the junipers and cotoneaster feeling "heavy" in relation to the rest of the plantings. But they do provide a purpose--they screen what would otherwise be an uninteresting blank wall and help to soften the corner of the house, making your eye turn the corner more easily.

I would not remove them, but let them be a backdrop for a garden area similar to the one closer to your front door--in other words, to expand your smaller planting bed to the front of the evergreens, using similar soft lines to the current bed.

Look for foliage hues that will show up against the dark evergreens--ones with chartruese greens or barberries with their red foliage. In order to connect the new plantings with the bed by the front door, you would need to plant something of the same variety or color in your current front bed, so you may have to move things around a bit.

A new bed with contrasting colors will help to break up the dense-ness of the junipers, while allowing them to perform their function.

I think it looks unbalanced, with so much visual weight on the left compared to the right side. I also think that river birch is planted too close to the house. Where I live, Lady's Mantle would fry in a southern exposure, not sure about where you live. I'd like to see a picture of the whole front, including the right side, from the street.

I would remove the two Junipers to the right, and replace them with smaller shrubs. Leave the ones out toward the left corner of the house, unless they are touching the siding, in which case I'd remove them as well, and replace with something farther out from the foundation to keep it off the siding. You could also prune to keep them off the house, but unless you know what you are doing, and even if you do, the natural shape is spoiled.

If you want to keep the Junipers, the suggestion to make the bed on the left deeper and plant smaller shrubs in front is a good one.

Can anyone see the pictures in the first post? I can see them. I am not sure what I am doing wrong. I tested on the test forum and everything seemed fine.
Thnaks for your help, I hope I can figure out what is going on because I love this forum!

It does look unbalanced with the view we are seeing, however if we were seeing a view from farther away I'm wondering if the heavier side would tie in with the house? In which case the suggestion to add to the plantings, extending the new beds and adding additional color would very likely be the best solution. (In effect, assuring that the eye would see the heavier landscaping and house as an unbroken background, staging the newer smaller plantings as the true landscape attraction.) I personally prefer a taller backdrop for my plantings.

FYI...I cannot see the pictures in the "Fri, Sep 1, 06 at 14:02" post. I can see the pictures in the "Sat, Sep 2, 06 at 12:25" post and the same two pictures are duplicated in annz's "Sun, Sep 3, 06 at 1:02" post.

- Brent