MPG, yes, cut the large arborvitae down around the front doorway, and keep the ones in the backyard. You might also think of removing a few more of the large ones near the garage. I think you can get away with removing half or 2/3 of them, leaving just few for your accent points. I'd take out the large green 'meatballs', and I think you would be fine not to replace them with anything. It looks like they were planted to screen the driveway and it's cars so people outside the yard couldn't see into the yard from the street. If you still feel the need to screen your driveway then think about placing shrubs and trees in the lawn area well off to the sides of the driveway. You have a formal French-Italian villa look to your home, I'd play that up with the choices you make for any additional plants you choose. Since you are in a dry climate, lavender, rosemary, herbs, and a few shrub-trees that look like the olive trees in the Mediterranean area. But do check out books that cover your drier climate. Every place has a palatte of plants that look the best for it's area. And think about painting the white trim on the house, and the trim around the garage a shade darker than the existing color the house is currently painted. If you don't like the house color then, when you remove the large arborvitae, it that would be a great time to repaint. Whatever color you decide on, you would do the same thing, you would paint the details in a slightly darker shade of the main color so they stand out just a bit, almost like a shadow. And when you do remove the plant material, you will have to slice through and loosen them from the foundation before you have them pulled. They have sent roots under your foundation if you are on a slab. You will have to grub out the old plants' roots, and add more soil to those areas where you have taken the plants out since they have used up all the organic matter and all the nutrients. Cruise through magazines and garden books, focus on homes that look similar to your's to see how that style is enhanced with plants. It's not always very formal, the rustic Italian farmhouse and the extremely formal French city villa are miles apart. And check things out through interlibrary loans from your local library if garden books are few in number. Go ahead and remove the extra plant materials, and amend the places well ahead of anything going back in, and take your time living with the blank canvas so you can visualize any new ideas better. I think you have a fantastic project ahead of you, have fun!

Below are some pics of the back yard. Between the garage and the sidewalk is about 8' wide. From the garage corner to the walkway (before hitting the back of the house) is about 40' long, not including the 8' x appx 15' section next to the garage. Im thinking I can make a decent length of foliage to block of a good portion of that street view by mixing a few things together out there. I picked up a couple Hydrangea's and a few other pieces today. I think it will look better if I have a few varying height pieces to give it some depth and varying shape/color. Im also going to end up putting in a few taller things to plant the hydrangeas around, perhaps a pair of smaller foliage/shade trees like a japanese maple...any other suggestions? Here is what I picked up today: Hydrangea "Endless Summer" Hydrangea M Glory Blue mophead Purpleleaf Sand Cherry "Prunus Cistena" Japanese Spirea Goldflame "spirea japonica" (2) Golden Vicary Privet Ligustrum

We've put a lot of thought into this as we've been working on our house's decor. Certainly, being bold and taking a gamble on easily-changed things like paint colors, lighting fixtures, furniture, draperies, etc is much less dangerous than more-permanent things. As the trend is for people to be spending ever-more money on permanent decor like stone countertops, natural stone and ceramic tile, major plumbing fixtures, major appliances, exterior stone, major patio fixtures like outdoor kitchens, and innovative architectural features, it's very important to think about trendiness both for resale and for the "what was I thinking?" factor. The guiding principle for our design has been to look at what has stood the test of time. Some design elements, like hardwood floors and ceramic tile, fell out of fashion in the 60s during the craze to carpet-over everything, but they have prevailed in the end. Ultimately, it was the over-use of carpet that was trendy. We have determined that hardwood floors are a safe bet. Ceramic tile is also a winner, though a neutral color is safest. (We chose white, in a combination of square, subway, and octagonal). Pedestal sinks are safe, though we opted for some awfully contemporary ones. White bathroom fixtures, I'm afraid, are by far the most prudent choice. Maybe almond. Cabinets with a clean design and a neutral stain or paint. (We chose a shaker style maple with a honey stain). In other cases, we're taking a gamble because you just can't live in a beige house. We chose a bold granite countertop that will be expensive to replace. But we think that in high-end homes granite is here to stay. Though people's tastes in colors and patterns will certainly evolve. We chose travertine marble tile in our entry, because thousands of years of Italian architecture can't be wrong. We chose stainless-steel appliances of an professional/industrial look, because that's practically expected nowadays. Also, I think that stainless is here to stay, though I suspect we may see a movement away from restaurant-look to a more sleek modern look in the future. Today's looks that I think will end up in the "that's so 2000s" category in a decade: vessel sinks, the use of ludicrously expensive Sub Zero and Viking-type appliances in relatively modest homes, earth tones (I think we'll see a trend toward more color). Things I wish would cease to be trends: "Potempkin Village" homes with stone or brick on the front facade and vinyl on the other three, phony-looking fake stone, builders who spend money on flashy flourishes like expensive appliances or countertops, but skimp on craftsmanship, insulation, good building science, and other things that can't be upgraded later.

Agree with floral. First, it is definitely a bigleaf hydrangea, Hydrangea macrophylla. And you want to be careful about cutting back or "evening out" with these as you run the risk of cutting off latent flower buds that were formed the previous summer. Removing dead wood is fine and in our area, bigleaf hydrangea are leafing or already leafed out, so dead wood - branches with no buds - should be readily apparent. But it won't hurt to wait some if you are unsure. And I have never encountered the practice of "leveling or evening out" a hydrangea!! Hydrangeas are living plants and they grow the way they want to grow - some branches shorter and some branches longer. Hedging them or confining them to a smaller than natural form will only reduce the amount of flowering potential they have, at least with any macs. Most hydrangea growers recommend keeping pruning of these to a minimum - just the deadheading of old blossoms and the removal of dead/non-viable stems - so that means siting where they can be allowed to grow to size or if needs must, doing a wholesale chop every now and again to reduce size. But this will remove any potential for flowers for that season in most cases. Not a plant you want to be dong much trimming or pruning on if you are growing it for its summer flowers :-)