Thanks so much for the quick response. I guess part of my problem with the house looking stark is coming from a more treed area, I'm new to Colorado and am dearly missing trees! Compounded of course with the problem that the few trees we have are dying, as you mentioned aspens are short lived, particularly at 5,000 ft. We have quite a bit of room on the side of the house, unfortunately I didn't take a picture, but the existing driveway widens out in front of the garage. There's plenty of room to pull out of the garage and turn around, even if there is a car parked in the corner) There's also a path between that area and the front door. But almost noone ever parks there. I think people are worried about backing back out the driveway, particularly if there's more than one car, it can be tough to turn around. I'm not sure if lighting would help, and we are pretty restricted on what we can use. So people opt to park on the street. I've layed out the plan and I think my biggest problem is I gravitate towards more formal, symmetrical layouts and it just doesn't work with the site plan. I realize the house isn't symmetrical (frankly I almost didn't buy it because of that, the stacked double bays on the left drives me crazy, I keep thinking of a way to break up the expanse, but that's for a different thread) In my head, we could use the existing driveway and then sweep across the yard and then terminate pretty much where the island is now, it's about the same distance from the center of the door as the existing driveway is on the opposite side. With smallish trees at the entrance, exit and then flanking the front door (probably crabapples as they do well here) It "works" so to speak on paper and I like the idea in my head. I'm just worried that I'm trying to force a symmetrical plan on a nonsymmetrical sight and it will look goofy when it's actually there.

Thank you for all the replies...The project is finished (let the maintenance begin!). I ended up going with Dwarf Walters Viburnum...not exactly burgundy leaves, but they do turn dark red for the fall/winter and have lots of white flowers for the spring. The green foliage is a bit lighter than the boxwood, so the contrast will still be there a little bit in the summer. I went with this selection because of its heat, shade, and clay tolerance. I also put in some Compact Texas Sage in a particular sunny peninsula bed to the side, and its white foliage contrasts very nicely against the different shades of green from boxwoods and palms behind it. The soil in that bed is all ammended, so no worries about clay. Thank you for your discussion and suggestions!

I go back and forth on all this - I will be 66 end of the week. I just got through 2 years of intensive careing for my mother who was bedridden and living with us. The gardens got a lick and a promise - hubby did most of the work tho. Mom passed in February so I thought now it is my time to devote 24/7 in the gardens - started out great then we hit this 50+ days of Heat Indexes of 100-110 and no end in sight. I found I really can't take the heat like I use to so the gardens suffer again. I will always have flowers and always have more than I can handle but that being said yes I am going to scale back some - add more shrubs (hydrangeas, viburnums, camellias, ect) and go for lower maintenance. I love starting my annuals from seed and taking note of what is doing good in this oppressive heat - I have some real standouts - blackeyes susans, megellan zinnias, vinca, caladiums and coleus. Fussy plants are getting the heave-ho. This has been a great thread - I had no idea there were so many of us 'seniors'. It was very theraputic reading other gardeners responses because I was thinking I was losing interest because I wanted to scale back and was feeling bad about 'old age' setting in -. I was feeling that life was passing me by. In the last 10 years I retired, moved to a different state, lost a husband of 38 yrs, moved my mother in with me, met and married a wonderful man - now it is time to garden :) thanks for listening ...... Lynne

Kristi, You're tempting me. Stayed up late last night trying to think of ways to redo my "plan" to fit in another small tree. Think I've found a spot. sending you mail. And thanks all for the other suggestions. I must be doing something wrong because Pentas are simply not perennial in my yard. After about a year, they decline and get so scruffy I end up pulling them out. But I like the gaillardia idea. I've tried them from seed without a whole lot of luck (another failing of mine, I can grow veggies from seed, but almost never get a flower to pop out of the ground/seed mix/peat pot, or whatever I try.) But I'm on my way to HD. I'll see if they've got any gaillardia that someone else has germinated.