Thank you for the suggestions. I will include some other pictures. The problem is that when the previous owners sold the estate and carved 1/2 acre out of it to remain with our house it left little (level) room in the front or on the sides. If you look at the picture our current lot ends at the top of that slope, goes in front of the pole, crosses the driveway and goes diagonally just in front of the trunk of that tulip magnolia by the driveway. The slope belongs to the developer at the moment--I have seen the mowing crews try to deal with it and it is a PITA. Until he sells more houses, he is going to be maintaining that slope and I can't touch it. Eventually it goes to our house but that is a LOT of potential terracing. If you look at the picture I took (above) you can see at the very edge, a water hydrant. Go to the last picture below and look from the hydrant to the dumpster--that is all part of the area to be ceded. PLus a strip from the other side of the driveway widening out to include the next pole. It's about 1/3 acre of slope and it does the same kind of slope around the corner from the dumpster. The shrub (calycanthus) is actually no where near the front walkway but I want to get rid of it since it is constantly full of competing plants and vines from the birds. There was a planter with annual vines on the other side of the porch, if that is what you are referring. The other shrub to the left of the front porch by the windows is a holly. There's now only about 3 feet between it and that old Kwazan cherry tree to walk through. The driveway is in the same location, just paved. No there is not a lot of shade! That first picture was taken late afternoon. The front of the house faces E by S/E. Kitchen side- N. This was the old slope pre-development--

Hmm, well, there is that Chinese drywall problem. I was always curious what actually caused that. It does not seem particularly harmful - at least on the sulfur side. According to that Wiki article, Chinese drywall gives off sulfur containing gases as a result of a particular bacteria attacking the unusually high levels of pyrite in the formula. Pyrite is nothing but iron sulfide, quite harmless. In an aerobic composting environment, I suspect that particular bacteria would decrease as others compete. Also, any gases that are produced will waft away outdoors. In fact, those bacteria probably already exist in most soils and compost. I did notice that the Chinese drywall also had more fly ash in it than American drywall. I do have some concerns about metals in fly ash, especially any fly ash from China. I would think this problem has been cleared up so any new drywall isn't going to have these problems anyway. But I would probably not put Chinese drywall, new or old, in my compost. As for fiberglass, it's first I've heard of that. There can't be much in there since you don't see it, and it's not a toxic risk. It's tiny glass fibers, which are made from silica and other harmless minerals, and would disappear into the soil. Of course it's up to everyone to make their own choices. I just try to clarify the facts.

I think someone asked and was answered about this very thing in another post. I believe the answer was "pine pitch gall" or something along that line. All the pines in my yard and in the yards of my neighbors seem to have this (we grow a lot of these and also the Monterey pine here.) I think it is just a matter of removing the dying parts until the entire tree (and this especially true of the Monterey) needs to be taken before it kills someone with a dropped branch or worse.

It strikes me as not taking advantage of what you have to place the house a mere 40' from the road. I would add another 10' at least, but more likely another 20' or 30' or more since, after all, the space is there for your taking and the potential to create a much improved setting for the house correlates with it. You would end up with two areas that are maintained very differently. The roughly 1/2 acre or less house and yard would require maintenance similar to any house and yard located in the suburbs. The remaining roughly five-acre pine forest would be essentially unmaintained outside of any particular projects that you wish to undertake, such as cutting & maintaining a trail through it. You will want to remove the dead lower limbs from the trees where they are highly visible from the yard, on account of their being unsightly. It will cause no damage to the pines and can be done anytime. It would be pointless to remove them from the remaining 5 acres as you would not see them. You'd also want to remove fallen branches within view of the house on account of their being unsightly. The way you keep weeds at bay is to first kill them by digging or pulling their roots out of the ground, covering them from light, smothering them with mulch, or killing them with herbicide. Then, areas must be planted solid, paved, heavily mulched or have a building on it in order to keep weeds out. Lower growing plants will begin to grow where sunlight reaches the soil below the trees, but at a distance from the house and yard it will be inconsequential. in the yard itself, you'll have lawn, landscape bed and perhaps some trees other than pines. While mulch alone is sometimes used in landscape beds, it is inferior to beds that are planted solidly with shrubs and low growing plants, especially groundcovers for areas of much size. It is inferior because mulch deteriorates in appearance and must be top dressed. Neither does mulch alone hold soil well from erosion. Planted areas are also mulched at the beginning but plants end up covering the mulch, so no more is needed. It would be necessary before building starts to create a drainage plan for the yard that surrounds the house (not the outlying 5 acres) so that you don't end up with drainage problems. Soil MUST slope away from every exterior wall of the house, ideally for at least 10'. From that point it must be carried to where it can run harmlessly into the surrounding land or road. Be sure to factor in grading for any outdoor areas, such as a patio at the back of the house. A "heads up" I would give to any home builder is to pay special attention to the front walk that leads to the home entrance. As a rule, these walks are of inferior design for the vast majority (upwards of 95%) of new homes. They are usually too small and too close to the building, killing opportunities for even decent landscaping around the home. If your walk is not designed by an experienced landscape designer or architect, I'd return here with a site plan and hash it out yourself with help from the Landscape Design Forum.