Thank you for the suggestion. Your picture shows flowers in the front yard as well as two shrubs and a pergola(?). The rest I'm not quite sure what I am seeing. The Pergola you show, however wouldn't work as our heads would smack right into it as we went up the stairs! Assuming it is against the house. I love the idea though. I also am concerned it might be too costly for us. I need to stick to inexpensive hardscape. Things like cinder block hidden by plants or pea gravel. Maybe some basic concrete work. I might be able to rope my uncle into helping with that. I have access to plants and I hope to have time to dig it all up over the next summer or two but I can't bust the concrete steps without hiring someone. I'm not very landscape-handy. I also like the tree in that picture. I guess I was concerned that the tree covers the front of my house a ton. It's blocking the view both from the house and of the house. It also STINKS! It's one of the worst smelling trees! That might be just myself and my partner though. I have never liked bradford pear trees. Perhaps I could leave it and consider working the landscape down around it as you have though. I attempted a drawing for myself. Anyone want to comment on this? I'll attempt another one with your idea in mind yin49 :)

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.

Hello Friends, swrancher - Yes I have tasted the "Black Pearl" Way Jambu. My tree had like 9 or 10 fruit. Very interested texture. It was kind of like a cross between a regular apple and a radish. Very Juicy and very refreshing. It was sweet, but not as sweet as I would have liked, still very nice though. simongrow - Thanks for the kind words. That Emperor lychee tree in the pictures is not mine. Those were pictures posted by ajaysr5. I have a Brewster, Mauritius and 2 Sweetheart Lychee trees. Pictures of My Sweetheart are posted at the top of this thread and it is flowering and fruiting right now like crazy. As for th Emperor, last time I was at Mimosa Nursery in Los Angeles, they had some of them. I do not remember the price, just that they had them in 7 and 15 gallon. - Jacob

Lol, mustbenuts, you have quite the aviary there! I love the blue jays too but they can be big bullies so they may drive out other birds. I am pretty thrilled about my birds exploits too. I used to have a very old, beat up and rotting out bird house and every year a family of house sparrows would move in and I'd get to watch them hatch and fledge. Well it finally just bit the dust. It was so old and falling apart that it wouldn't hold together anymore. So I replaced it with a beautiful new one. Nothing too fancy but a nice one. I put it out in March just like I had done with the old one. Nothing. 4 years of nothing. Not a single nest ever built. I was heart broken. Well after 5 Michigan winters it doesn't look pristine anymore. Some of the cedar shingles have chipped off and the paint is faded out and guess what...it has a nest in it! I was sitting on the patio the other day and saw a flash of something by it so I turned and looked. There she was, a beautiful yellow finch carrying a twig into the house. Now I'm thrilled!