Well, it depends. As Laag once said, the way that people take pictures tells you what scale they're thinking about, and I get the impression, therefore, that HunterGPT just wants plant suggestions, not overall design advice. Having typed my fingers raw a few times giving design advice to people who just want plant suggestions for the "design" they've already done, I can say to Hunter: don't take the big picture photos if you aren't interested in any advice regarding the big picture. It's your house, you can "design" the garden or not to your preferences. Sometimes people have trouble achieving or even developing their vision, and that's where a forum can be helpful. If you want plant suggestions, as I've also written times without number, your best bet is usually your local nursery. Because even if people across the continent exert themselves to suggest the perfect plant, either here or on the shrubs forum, all good ideas are wasted if the plants named are not in stock locally. If you want to use a forum for advice, then your regional forum may be best as those people may have a better idea what you can find locally. And I might also add that it happens that people ask for big picture photos, and then appear to never visit the thread again. So if you do it, be prepared to not get any response beyond the initial. Sometimes that may be because there are actually no design issues, just plant selection, suggesting again that this forum isn't your best place for plant suggestions. Finally, your shrubs will grow. I am just reading a book on landscape design by Joe Eck, and just finished a section he calls "Time." In this he talks about how the maturing garden (in this I substitute the words "yard" or "landscape") becomes shadier, for one thing, and for another, can accommodate fewer plants due to root competition and growth. So do not panic, time is on your side, especially with a Vitex in the picture! I love my Vitex, but the thing can put on major mass every year. KarinL

I can't offer you much help (I tried a bit later on here)on the specific plants to use because my area is colder than yours. But here are some basic ideas on how to start your landscaping. The first thing to do is find out which way your house is oriented. In the plant world it often makes a difference whether you are planting on the north side or the south side of the house, garage, tree, etc. Keep in mind that the north side is cooler and shady, the south hot & sunny, the east gets morning sun and shade later, and that the west is in shade in the morning, but gets very hot sun later in the day. You also need to take a look at the overall sun/shade issues. Is your planting area shaded by a wall, big trees or shrubs, etc.? Is the shade from trees from deciduous trees or evergreens? Is the shade from dense trees or loose and open pine trees? What I am getting at here is how shady is the shade and is it seasonal. Is your soil loose and easy to dig in? Is it sandy or clay (hard, sometimes very hard, to dig in & a sticky mess on your shovel)? Is it alkaline or acid soil (ph number)? You can do a soil test (kits are available that work so so, or send away soil samples to the local extension center) or for now you might simply ask at your local nursery what the area soil around you is generally. I'm not trying to scare you off here. Most plants grow fine where you plant them, but azaleas and rhodos, for example, really like the soil more acid than mine for example. They get pale and sickly unless I fertilize them with a fertilizer for acid plants. Also it would help everyone here to know what your zone is. If you do not know yours, you can check the link below by using your zip code. (Depending on which ones of these kind of places you check, you can get somewhat different zone info, but it will get you close enough.) Is your planting location wet or dry or average? Do you, can you, do you WANT to water? Does it lay in water after spring rains, dry up later in the summer? How much time in general do you want to spend on your yard? Is a neat lawn and a few plants all you have time for now? Maybe you want a playscape area for the kids more at this time. Start making some notes, even some rough sketches about these issues. Nothing has to be to scale. Just things like really sunny here, wet spot over here, could use something here to perk up the area. Decide which areas are most important to work on. (I believe that you may have already done this part by choosing the mailbox, patio, and retainer wall which I have addressed a little further down this long post.) Do you want to make changes or develop the front first? Are you starting from a blank slate, nearly blank slate, do you know what you currently have? Have you been in your present home long enough to know? As Donn said, once you have some specific goals take pictures and post them and people will help you out. Also as Donn said, Bluestem is great source for ornamental grasses. As for your specific areas that you mentioned, around the mailbox, for the first year I would plant annuals. Keep the area around the box accessible to the mailman, keep the plants short, pick a color scheme and choose some easy plants like Marigolds if it is in sun, or Impatiens if it is shady (these are northern gardener choices, there may be better ones in the humid southeast). Find out if you (or your husband) like veering the lawnmower around a bed around the mailbox. Learn if you stand digging in your soil, improving it, edging it. At the patio make a small perennial bed, possibly small curvy edging to one side or 3 quarter circle bed on a prominent corner. Keep the plants on the low side (at least some of them) so that you can see out into the yard. You will be seeing these plants up close and personal from the patio. Consider textures, big leaf against small, rough leaf, shiny leaf, strappy or ferny leaved. Pick out a couple of small grasses for the area(grasses are great contrast plants for other perennials and have a very long attractive season), or maybe one tall one, add a couple of sturdy perennials, probably no more than 2,3 or 4 varieties for a small bed. Buy in 3s if the plant's eventual size is fairly small. Singles are fine for a larger (eventual size) plant. Up here if I were suggesting this for a friend, I would suggest something like daylilies, sedums or Salvia May Night, and mums for sun and a hosta, astilbes, and Lady Fern for shade, with a couple of clumps of daffodils & some siberian scilla or crocus for spring bloom (these bulbs will take both sun and some shade here in Michigan, especially if it is deciduous shade, and would work for both sun and shade beds, but I don't know how well they grow where you are). For the retainer wall I wasn't sure if you meant planting in crevices or vines on the wall. Things like small sedums, basket of gold (aurinia), aubretia (rock cress) or saponaria (rock soapwort) would work here and viticella clematis are an easy choice for a vine on the wall, something like, Clematis Mme Julia Correvon or Etoile Violette, or Polish Spirit or Betty Corning if the wall is big enough :~). There may be better choices for your zone. Here is a link that might be useful: USDA Plant Zones

Here's a better view of the empty bed that I want to plant something in this Fall (between the Emerald Greens and the Yellow Ribbon and also to the left of the Yellow Ribbon. Secondarily, this is what I see when I walk out my front door and then from the sitting area on my veranda; right on a corner so very exposed. Since unfortunately there's a huge utility pole RIGHT in front of my house, I have to make the best out of a poor situation. I was thinking of having somewhat of a screen eventually with the Ginkgo biloba, Alberta spruce, and Bloodgood Japanese maple; then taper downward toward the walkway with the (please excuse any spelling errors) Picea pungens 'Globosa', Chamaecyparis obtusa, and Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Gold Mop'. Also in that front bed there's Artemisia schmidtiana 'Silver Mound', Sagina subulata 'Aurea', and Sedum acre 'Aureum'. Here's what I have at the other end; a few of which will be getting moved this Fall. This bed consists of Juniperus squamata 'Blue Star', 3 Euonymus (that were salvaged from previous homeowner's beds), Purpleleaf Sandcherry (was also there from previous homeowner but I never moved it due to its size). I replaced the grass around the Sandcherry with what you see here. In this bed there's also Juniperus sabina 'Calgary Carpet', some Festuca glauca 'Elijah Blue', Picea abies 'Nidiformis', Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Vintage Gold' (definitely getting moved this Fall; notice right side of plant that's not thriving due to lack of direct sun light...plus it would need to get moved anyway due to proximity to Sandcherry and Euonymus). This is directly in front of my veranda that all I've done is get rid everything that was there except one shrub (planted too close too), and put down some mulch to help suppress weeds until I can redo the walkway into something wider and more flowing, and then figure out what to do. This was from Spring 2011 when I was figuring out the new main walkway. Notice a few less plants. Thank you very much. Looks I'll be doing a lot of reading about the suggestions made :) Regarding the large Alberta spruce beside the entrance; it's unfortunate that it's so close to the house and not in more of an open space. It looks very bulbous in relation to the scale of everything else, but it'll probably stay for a while until the yard is more complete and then I can reassess. Sorry for the large low-end photos.

Thanks for the replies, all. Marianne, it is nice living in the country. We love it and really dislike even going to Dallas or other large cities now! We're close enough to some towns to easily get our shopping done but not in the hub of activity. It suits us well. :) Melvalena, the oaks are pin oaks. And I do like oaks - they're really great trees. There are 8 or 9 in the front pretty close to the fence so there are a lot of leaves from them. Some of the roots are close to the surface and some peek through. I even trip on them now and then and I think roots are responsible for our walkway at the end by the gate breaking up and falling apart. That's yet another project - replacing that walkway. I'm considering some kind of ground cover all along that front fence line where the trees are. The roses and daffs there don't do much at all and might be better off moved to another spot and replaced with ground cover, even mondo grass. It might help cover the roots some and at least give it a greener appearance. I'm not sure which one to use and am researching several. The last two pictures show my spindly thin gardenia (hmm, what's wrong with her?) and the daffodils that are just about finished blooming. I'm considering using a mold we got for the walkway and using the same mold to create a circle in the middle of the yard. The mold isn't a small one and the interior of the circle is where I might plant some things for the cottage garden sort of feel. Maybe in well defined areas as you suggested. The area has some shade from those oaks but it's mostly sunny and yep, the leaves are an issue. I even thought about making a circle of sunflowers! I think those would grow there nicely and it would certainly take up some of the bare space! lol Jacquelyn, see above reply to Melvalena about the area where I'd like the cottage garden. The moss we have only was there because of the leaves, I think! Normally there isn't much moss around here though right under those pin oaks it stays pretty cool and often damp. Not in the throes of summer, though! About 3/4 of the area where I want the little cottage garden gets full sun in the summer from about 10 AM til about 4 PM. The other area, which is shown in the first picture gets no full sun because of the shade of the trees. That area is hot but not in full sun. What perennials might do well here? And what seeded annuals? I haven't much luck yet planting anything! What's there now is what was here when we bought the place.