Thanks for all the suggestions guys!! Keep 'em coming!! Winter interest is definitely important, but unfortunately, with the way the house and the sidewalk are, there isn't room for both shrubs and perennials in the foundation gardens. I did leave the cone shaped yews on the ends of each garden as well as some other evergreen shrubs that are next to the sidewalk leading to the breezeway. I've already pulled out the remaing boxy yews though. I considered planting a few evergreen shrubs like heather or holly or something else with the foundation plantings, but decided against it. The area is really too small for most shrubs and I felt I would prefer perennials there for spring, summer and fall. During the winter, we get so much snow that pretty much whatever is there is buried anyhow. I planted a few Rhododendrons in the bump outs. I do like the idea of adding a few more. Karinl brings up an excellent point that my house is so large as is my lot, that it dwarfs most of what I plant. I'm hesitant to put any large or even mid sized conifers only because I am concerned it will block out the light we get in the house. I had orignially planned to make the gardens in front larger with mass plantings to help but decided that might be a bit overwhelming to do all at once. I think what I plan to do now, instead, is in later years, add some more large island beds in the front. And yes, Karinl, perennials are a MUST! I love flowers!! As you can probably tell, I also love trees so we are adding lots and lots of those as well. Saypoint, thanks for your comment about the colors running together! I didn't think of that. I guess it may not be that important then that the shutters are a different color. And I am certainly doing large flower gardens in the back too! Thanks again for all your suggestions! I'd love to hear some more! Tara Here is a link that might be useful: Photo Album with additional updated photos of the current progress

A recent update from the person who received the yucca is that it is green and doing well. The transplanted cholla are doing well, of course, but it will be a while before I know if any sacaton survived. We have been making progress but not as quickly as we hoped. (No surprise there! ;-) ) We have the foundation blocks for the outside beds in place up to ground level and filled with dirt. Pavers have been placed, but not yet leveled, between the existing shed and the north edge of the foundation. We have the water and electrical stubbed in. We have the SHCS tubes in place for the outside beds of the east greenhouse and hope to start filling that section soon with the removed dirt. We have removed all planned use of poured concrete from our plans and have made this planned structure possible to remove easily while still unlikely to be blown away. (Mostly due to bolting the foundation via J-bolts to rebar under bond beam cement blocks.) DH will be checking to see what type of permits/inspections we will need for electrical, water, and structures. I suspect that it will be just water and electric. We won't fill in any more until we find out. It is getting hot already so we will be putting in the outside structure and shade cloth before the central shed and greenhouses. That way we can work in the shade. :-)

If you eliminate the closet in the garage (to the right of the garage entry to house), you can use that area in the house for cubbies. And, I'd also use half of the cabinet space in the laundry room as a coat closet.

Not trying to be difficult. You are there and can see everything easily, but it is very difficult to connect the pictures and things talked about to the plan, which is in pieces. In spite of my lack of confidence in understand what you have and what you're asking about, here's a suggestion for how you might smooth out the bed around the pool area a bit, by adding to the outside of the fence. (I think that's what you're saying you can do.) It's the yellow lines. I think you're asking about filling in the bed along the right perimeter so it connects to the far back plantings. (Blue arrow area.) If that's the case, I think you could make the perimeter a solid bed in & throughout that area. But I don't think I would bring plants into the broad grass path that surround the pool area and divides it from the perimeter. Does that address your question? BTW, in taking pictures to show what you have, it's important to stand at an area where you can see the totality of what is being discussed and asked about. Then you pan the ENTIRE scene. It looks like you started to do that with your first 3 pictures, but the camera is changing viewpoints (I tried to put the pictures together but they won't go) and it stops short of finishing the far left and far right ends of the scene (at least as far as I can tell.) The far right and left is what gives context and helps the viewer get the sense of where they are in the picture. This just FYI.