If I understand what you are thinking about doing with your driveway correctly, my thought is if you widen the driveway two feet it will no longer line up with the side of your house. That will not look right, and it will also feel funny when you pull a car in.
I like the Y idea - my suggestion is if you want a look with a lot of color and texture make the bed 6 feet wide on both sides. Then you can install a layered look of shrubs and perennials. I would also think it would be better to make it curved - both the walkway and the planting beds.
Good luck

I see what you mean by the driveway not lining up with the house ---I hadn't thought of that. I suppose it would look odd.

I'm not sure I understand when you say "...make the bed 6 feet wide on both sides". On both sides of the driveway?? -If so, it won't work as there is only about 1 foot of room on the right side of the driveway.

I had planned to incorporate a little curve in the walkway, but for ease of trying to explain the layout, I omitted it.

My reason for making the driveway wider is because 1), it is narrow, but 2), on the right side of the driveway is the neighbors short brick wall (again, about 1 foot away) and the car door always hits it. For that reason I always park to the left side of the driveway which means I step onto the lawn when exiting.

That also leads me to walking thru the lawn...which is why I wanted a walkway..

Thanks again.

Here's a couple ideas: I think it would be fine to put the pavers and widen the driveway. You would still be parking on the old driveway, far to the left, but when you got out you would be able to walk on the pavers. I think if you had the budget for it, you could make a curved patio from about where you exit your car and curving maybe to the left of your front door and up to your far right window. In other words you would not have grass nor beds on the right side of your house in front, but rather have a patio with maybe a small fountain, water feature, and colorful containers. That would be your pop of color, flowers in them or just the containers could be very colorful. The house and front is very rectangular, so that is why I am suggesting a curved sort of patio and round containers, foutain. For the rest of the front I would be thinking easy care native plants, grasses, succullents. You would need to water the containers so hopefully there is a water hose near, we use rain barrels to collect rain and use that whenever we have it to water our containers. The rest of the yard hopefully would take care of itself (xeriscape it's called). If you were so inclined you could paint your front door and/or windowframes a bright color too. Hopeyou like some of these ideas.
Laurie

Any chance you could get another pic of front of house a little closer to house. I enlarged the pic but there is so much shade it kind of knocks out whatever is there. So far I think that Laurie is right in making a curved sidewalk going to front door but I think I would leave some planting space under right windows, trouble is we don't know if the planting area that is by the house & seems bordered with blocks with caps is 3 ft or 6 ft wide? I'm kind of going by plants that are in there. Is that a wheelchair ramp,it looks a little crowded, I'd like to see area around front door attractive & more spacious looking. But is that dirt right up to the window beside front door? We need a better look. If that is a ramp you need to have walk wide enough to walk beside them or visitor able to walk beside them. My walk was a little narrower than I like & sometimes I would see 1 person step off onto the grass. I mentioned it to DH & of course he spent next weekend putting brick on each side-cemented in so 2 people could easily walk side by side & continue their conversation. You want to get your front door area to be inviting & easy to get to without tripping or having to follow another person. Plants you can do later. You want an inviting look for guests & step 1 is a proper walk. Then you can figure out any painting of door & where plants go.

Sorry, you said how wide it is 3 ft. But it still looks muddled up there so a pic with better light would really help!!

Attached is a picture of the front door area. Hopefully it helps the cause, without hurting the eyes. Well, it'll hurt the eyes...let's hope no one goes blind.

The windows next to the fron door go all the way to the ground - they look like they could be doors, but they are not. There is about a 12' wide slab of concrete in front of them, then the planter extends about 2.5 feet in front of that.

What looked like a ramp in the first picture is the current/original walkeay from the driveway to the front door. It's standard width -- maybe 30 inches.

Thanks again.

Here is a link that might be useful: closer shot

To the left of the front door, where there's no walkway, I would extend the foundation bed out to the same depth as the walkway.

For path, maybe something like below?

{{gwi:49158}}

I need to make a major correction to my earlier post on Thu, Sep 10, 09 at 11:20 -

I said "There is about a 12' wide slab of concrete in front of them, then the planter extends about 2.5 feet in front of that"

It should read " There is about a 12 INCH DEEP slab of concrete in front of them, then the planter extends about 2.5 feet in front of that."

In otherwords, there is a little bit of the foundation (12 inches worth) that is infront of those 2 big windows, then it's dirt.

Yeah, minor error.

I've attached a third picture that shows the depth of the wakway and planters a bit better.

Here is a link that might be useful: another view

That is a really attractive line that mjlb has drawn, especially on the left. I think I would take the left in so it just tucks into that recess for the long windows. That area in front of the windows could be patio or an extension of the stoop.

You might also give some thought to Louisiana Girl's suggestion of having no in-ground plantings on the right, just maybe a bench or planters or some statuary - a place to put things as you load or unload the car. Plantings on that side will do little besides get in the way - the ones there now add nothing. Perhaps your plantings on the left can extend along the outside of the new pathway far enough to do some screening, but maybe it need not be at the foundation.

I suppose there is also scope for an overhang or roof extension over the door and windows in the centre.

KarinL

What I meant in my post yesterday is a bed that is six feet from the foundation to the walkway between the front door and the driveway. and a bed of equal width or depth on the other side of the front door between the front door and the large tree.

Maybe you could get some ideas from this website: http://landscapecontest.com/winners.htm

These are winners for the "California Friendly Garden" contest.

The existing succulent underneath the tree looks like an Agave Attenuata. You could try incorporating 1 large showy succulent as a focal point in that sunny clearing on the left. Some that come to mind are aloe arborescens, aloe alooides, aloe ferox, aloe africana, aloe Thraskii, Agave Vilmorniana. Or you could opt for not-so-common palm like Dypsis Decipiens, or Dypsis Decaryi. Then you could fill in with several other succulents and small leafy shrubs (manzanita look amazing when mixed with succulents, as do Kangaroo Paws and Proteas). One thing to keep in mind though is that you don't want to plant one of everything. Instead, plant things in groups of three or more to give it a more formal look as opposed to a jumbled mess of garden jewels.

Check out some of these front garden ideas from Sunset magazine too:

http://www.sunset.com/garden/earth-friendly/lose-the-lawn-low-water-landscaping-00400000041830/page18.html

I especially like the 4th, 5th and 6th ones.

2nd & 3rd pics are very helpful!!I see you have a Ca. pipe system.LOL can you get that down where it can be covered with dirt. PVC pipe doesn't last too well in the sun. Pipe is going towards front door,is there a sprinkler on it?? May be water going into house, we have lot of Micky-mouse plumbers.If it can't be lowered get a couple of pieces of pipe insulation in brown & slip over it so will last longer & not show as much.Comes in 6 ft lengths & you open the slit & pop it on. I would widen the front slab to be 1 piece & come out about a foot past the lower step doing away with that planter in front of windows. That way you could turn around etc. If you don't have to have that railing there you might remove it & use it somewhere else, I think 1 of those wrought iron ice-cream sets, small table 2 chairs would be great in front of those windows & give you place to put stuff down while you are opening up the door. If you get the walkway going something like the red lines with some plantings on streetside of walk then you would have a fairly private front patio that you could use & enjoy. It just all looks so inconvenent now! Hope you are getting a feel for what you want to do.

I love the lines by drawn by mjlb and I'm now looking at all the other great ideas and how they can be incorprated around/within those lines.

Installing nice pavers in that design will give me the width and walkway I mentioned earlier and it will soften the lines of the house.

Extending the stoop infront of the big windows is appealing too. Getting rid of the railings is a must.

As for the links to the gardens above, thanks. I wish the California Garden section had larger pictures. And I loved the ones from Sunset magazine. The 5th one was my favorite.

California pipes....yeah, Bob Villa would be proud. It looks like once upon a time it was part of a sprinkler system. I found a brass sprinkler head in the yard -- on it's side and with about 4 inces of pipe attached to it.

I did turn on the system once..the only water that came out was from the manifolds.

I'd like to test drive some ideas digitally before I buy the plants or break any ground. Can anyone recommend reasonably priced software that will let me upload a picture of the house, then add plants, hardscape, etc to it?

Thanks again for all the great ideas, keep 'em coming.

You have a very nice house. You just need to have great front yard landscape. I hope this helps. I found this from searching the web. Thanks!

Here is a link that might be useful: Front yard landscape design