It's lovely, but if it were my yard (nice house!), I would want some taller plants worked in there for visual effect. It looks too flat but maybe that's the way you want it. The color splashes and different varieties of plants are nice. My neighbors did their whole front yard and both side yards in hosta and heuchera. It is shaded and looks nice, but overkill. Now I see they have the grass shaved off and neatly levelled bare soil on the part where you have killed yours. I don't have any ideas for what to put there. I'm thinking of doing the same thing because I don't have enough full-sun spots for my flowers, but I don't want to just plant it willy nilly, and I don't want portulaca no matter how fancy it is, I like have something nobody else does but complementary to what grows natively in my zone. I don't know about moving the rhododendron, but some fullness and small flowering trees nearer the house might be an idea like dogwood or redbud. I've no idea what that one name you mentioned is. Also there's no real accent like a bird bath or shepherd's hook for a feeder/hanging basket or anything like that. I don't care for garden statuary, but a lot of people like it. It needs something though. I wouldn't recommend a gazing ball, but I broke down and got one and perched it on a makeshift trellis for my clematis so I hope it will just show a little bit. Sigh. I wish I hadn't seen that dead grass. Are you going to use a tiller? I want to strip off the sod and till it but am afraid because there are some utility lines under there, don't know how deep but do know where they are. Now all the above is from a novice POV as I'm not trained for landscaping and don't have a particular knack for putting things together right so bear that in mind. I do know what I like when I see what others have done.

Thanks so much for everyone's time in posting. I think my response is going to be longer than my initial post! The lemon treemaybe I should take a picture from the sidewalk. The picture I posted was taken from my neighbors deck as the "before" of our roof. I think the tree looks taller from the sidewalk. And we like it covering the window. We can see out, but people on the sidewalk cant see in. All the yellow lemons are really very pretty from the inside, almost like Christmas ornaments! We dont spend much time out front because we have a large, gorgeous backyard. We get shade from several other trees. Matter of fact, I am always concerned about having too much shade to grow some of the plants I want. I really do feel very strongly about the natives. I volunteer on an annual native plant tour. I raise butterflies in the backyard. The front garden needs to be drought tolerant, deer resistant and butterfly friendly. I could probably accomplish that with Mediterranean, but the natives are important to me. Mediterranean plants are in very heavy use in our microclimate. Maybe Im having a Mediterranean backlash like I had a purple backlash several years ago. I guess part of wanting a "strong design element" in front is based on the fact that with natives, the front yard isnt going to be in bloom all year. I want it to be interesting to look at. Also, I spend a lot of time maintaining our backyard and really cant come up with a whole lot more time to spend on the front every week. I have driven around looking at front yards and I like the ones that look like the owners spent some time on the design rather than just an accidental collection of plants. But I dont want a highly formal design. I tend to be a plant collector in the backyard, so I want to have something a little more restrained in the front. I have seen dry streambeds done well and not so well. So I understand your concerns. I'll put that in the "don't do that" file. I should probably explore berms, but I dont know if they look any more natural than dry streambeds. One of the main plants I know I want is the vine maple and I want it to be well planted and integrated into the design. With our backyard, we could divide it into sections and work on it a little at the time. The front yard seems to need a cohesive plan. I will have to have some dirt hauled in, so if I am going to add any dirt, I probably want to do that before putting down the new flagstones. I'm not really seeing this as increasing the hardscape unless you are talking about the streambed as hardscape. We are basically going to redo the existing front walk and then where it going from the front walk to the driveway. Yes, the fence would go all the way to the drive. I was almost embarrassed to post that picture. The fence has been taken down in sections as weve had the work done on the driveway and the roof. Weve got to get rid of a ton of red rock and black plastic. Im under no illusions that this is going to be easy, but I want to make sure I dont get to a step and realize that Ive done something out of order or something that created another problem. Later, I am going to bust up the concrete between the sidewalk and street to get rid of those diamond shaped planters that have been so hard to deal with, but that is further down the road and I can easily separate that from the main project. Ill give more consideration to a post and rail fence painted white rather than a split rail left natural. My partner found a round stone patio with a bench in one of the library books I brought home. If I could find a bench that really spoke to me, I may go in that direction. Oh no! Now I'm feeling unfocused again and that makes me afraid that this project is going to keep stretching out... Yes, the chimney is quite the focal point! There are several like it in our neighborhood.

That looks like a good way to protect your palms close to your house.Are you gonna do the same for the palms at the outer edge of your yard?I've seen protection methods like this and I wonder how I could do the same for my palms.My palms or out futher in my yard kinda like the last ones you posted.I can build the structures,but If you run a electrical cord across your yard,wont It kick the breaker when It rains or snows?I use to do electrical work,and more types of construction trades.It has to cost alot of money to run those space heaters outside all winter,even more now that you have more palms to protect.We use to have space heaters in our old house and It ran the electric bill through the roof.You must have the heaters off the ground,on a shelf or hanging.If it works well for you keep doing it. I can build the structures.Mabey I could put a small solar pannel on top of the structures for power for the heaters.Good Job.

No one is to blame for the blob shape other than the trimmer. I believe the main shrub could be saved. You just need Michelangelo to get in there for a couple of hours and straighten things out. Whoever is trimming is following pre-existing forms created by irregular shrub growth. Their job is to ignore the irregularities and replace them with defined, artistically acceptable forms determined by what coordinates well with the architecture. (I drew the dashed cut line in red to give you an idea of an acceptable form. At the left side there's a lot to cut off. At the lower right side, there's nothing. The black line shows you how far out of whack the form has been allowed to become. Trimming but once per year will let the shrub grow into a nice finish for the remainder of the year. (If it ends up being too large, then the cut line needs to be reduced to a smaller form.) The next thing is the bed line. It needs to be changed to something that fits the house, as opposed to fitting a cruise ship, and allows for a fitting foundation planting (not a smothering foundation planting.) Give an actual location. Zone 6 occurs countrywide.