Here are the promised pictures of the things moved- Lets start by showing the two shrubs moved. Fortunately they are not large shurbs but the guys had to do some work on the hill before they got planted. Now since the shrubs were out of the planter, two roses were moved in. Showing a longer view of the area of the front yard. The roses are the lighter colored ones in the second of the half round planters. Seeing it all from another view. A big empty spot in my sidyard rose garden from those roses that moved out front. And now here is the rose moved into the rear of the garage. Poor thing was looking the worst of everything that was moved. And here is the bigger empty spot were both Carefree Delight and the Gift used to be in my sideyard. They came even further out from those landscape blocks just put there now. You can see the dirt areas were things were dug up. It looks quite different along that area of the yard as when you stood here you used to see those big roses. Closeup of the area uptsairs with the moved Carefree Delight. Landscape shot of the bed upstairs including Carefree Delight. And thats it for the big rose moving project the other day. But I plan to move more roses. The bigger projects of the needed moves are my approx 5 foot tall Bonica shrub rose that is going to go in the third of the planter boxes in the front yard. That would be directly in back of the two Charles Aznavour roses there now. The next thing planned is to move my two Flower Carpet Appleblossom Roses, one into the back yard and the other repositioned from were it is now. They are not very tall but they spread out alot. The big deal will be tying them up and then lifting the spreading canes so they they can be dug because as they are now, you could not put a shovel thru them.

I can see that those are definitely Pittosporum (Dwarf), with those good close-up images. If you are willing to do a proper rejuvenation pruning on them, they respond beautifully to that procedure. Some people don't have the 'guts, lol. Rejuvenation pruning requires cutting the entire plant back to 6 inch stubs or less. That means all the way to the ground. Do it neatly and sharply; all you will need is a decent set of loppers for the job. The plants will make a terrific recovery this very first year, only they will be fuller and more compact. Another method of getting them into shape requires pruning part of the plant back this year, part next year, and so on. I much prefer the 'all at once' technique. I'd avoid fertilizing anything that you cut all the way back to the ground for at least a year. There will be enough stored energy in those roots to support the plant through a huge burst of new growth that always follows that kind of pruning. If you fertilize, you'll force even more top growth on a plant. That could put your plants in some stress and risk for insect and disease problems. Those Holly ferns would benefit enormously by a layer of mulch. Snip off any dead fronds from around the crown. I like Holly ferns. They simply do better in a shadier, moister environment than many other types of plants. The next plant does look like a Red Tip Photinia, at least if that new growth is red. Sometimes, it is really helpful to see a close-up of the foliage. If it is Photinia, it is one more plant that does well when limbed UP to a tree form. They make far more attractive small trees than they do shrubs, I think. Limb it up, but don't make a big ball out of the top part. That gardenia is covered with black sooty mold. That means that it is infested with whitefly, or another pest such as scale insect. In the warmer parts of the country where gardenias grow, whitefly is always the primary pest. You'll have to get rid of the insect before the black sooty mold will go away. I don't see any problem with the gardenia other than that it's pruned to a box type shape. In the future, if you're going to hedge up shrubs, try to prune them so that the widest part of the plant is at the bottom, rather than the top. If the bottom branches stay shaded by the top, the plant will get thinner and thinner down there. The shape doesn't have to be so obvious that the plants look funny....just barely perceptibly wider at the bottom. Yes, you have a small assortment of azaleas. I wouldn't prune them at all....but if you MUST be sure to wait until after they bloom...which won't be too long from now. Be aware that when tsmith recommended cutting out a bunch of geometrical shapes, it was not intended to suggest that you prune your plants to those forms. Yikes. If you're thinking about trying that little exercise, you would also need to cut your shapes to the appropriate 'to scale' dimensions for the mature plant. You have some nice plants, most of which need very little work to get them into good shape and you've made a good start. I'd just sit back and live with things for a long time before you start removing or moving too many things. Of course, any plant that is crowding doorways, walks, gates, etc., needs to be moved or put on the curb! If you decide you want to plant some color at the base of an established tree, and that tree is important to your property in terms of value and shade, be sure that you don't disrupt the root system around that tree too much. No tilling, no major change of grade, etc. Actually, the single most beneficial thing you can add all around a tree (or any plant) is a 2 to 4 inch layer of mulch. Just don't pile any up against the trunks. Impatiens is a nice annual for shadier spots. If you have sunny locations for annuals, select something that will thrive without the shade. Have you seen any new growth on your cycads?

But you listed the most important thing. Declutter. I've been wanting to answer this thread since I saw it. I have a lot to say about this... Last July I moved from CA to MO with 2 1/2 weeks notice. 8 years in a home, two kids and the only thing that was 'weeded' was my front yard. No joke, I had just finished redoing the flowerbeds, et al the day before this decision came down. DH got a new job offer that we could not turn down. This was completely unplanned for. I had 2 1/2 weeks to declutter, get my house ready to sell, pack and put stuff into storage so that we could refinish the floors and save on moving costs, throw a birthday party for my three year old, and go to Disneyland for three days (prepaid). Then we could haul a small trailer across country over four days with the stuff we needed for temporary housing until we found a home to buy. The moving men would move the big stuff and the boxes that we put into storage. Even had to ship DH's car. I also happened to have a bad case of bronchitis at the time. I still have PTSD from that experience. As I went through my junk (Dh's junk, the kid's junk, the garage junk) that had not been touched, my Catholic upbringing reared it's head. I swear I was doing penance for every box I had not weeded. Every bag of toys that I had shoved in a closet. Every box received from my mother that I put straight into the attic and didn't 'deal' with. The whole thing was a zoo. The worst part to deal with was the clutter. The rest, although insane, was actually doable. The clutter is what slowed everything down. START NOW. Do not wait. You have far more junk and stuff than you realize. You are also going to find yourself having to negotiate with your DH on what will be kept and what won't be. He's attached to his 'stuff' too. Buy a bunch of medium sized boxes, packing tape, packing paper, Sharpie pens and a tape gun. Tape guns are a necessity to me. When you put something into a box to either move or store, ask yourself 'Do I REALLY need this?" Is it necessary or truly sentimental? Then keep it. If it's usable but you will not use it in those three years, and could possibly die in storage, sell it, donate it or ditch it. It does not have to be trash to get rid of it. Start boxing. Label WELL. Detail the outside of the boxes. Don't just say "books" if you have a lot of them. Label them "college textbooks" or "reference books"or "cookbooks". That will help with unpacking. Books are heavy, put them only in book boxes. Moving men might have dollies, but once they're in your new place, you're the one that has to haul them around. Don't overpack a box. Go through every area of your home and see what you can really get rid of. That utensil drawer in the kitchen. The bakeware, do you need all of it? I found that I had seven pie baking dishes. I never make seven pies. I kept three and got rid of four. Linen closet? How many sets of sheets do you need or use? What about those old blankets? There are a million decisions to be made here. If you want to do this and not have it drive you insane, start now. Yes, the master lists are a good idea, but furniture is easy. It's the everything else that will stymie you and thus take longer. Also do not wait to donate or have a garage sale. Once you have a pile of bags, do something with it. Go to Goodwill. And we leaned that a garage sale doesn't have to be a perfectly orchestrated affair. It can be throwing a comforter down on the lawn and dragging out four or five boxes of stuff. Have a handful of change and a sign in the neighborhood. We had a few basic prices. A quarter, a dollar, five dollars, 20 bucks and "oh just take it". We did three of those spontaneously during that time. One person in the house boxing things, the other outside witha fanny pack and a handful of change! LOL It actually worked! Easy areas to attack first are the attic, basement and garage. The latter being a hotbed of garage sale items and a serious weeding place. I don't know if you're having professional movers, but you cannot move chemicals with them. Weed those that won't be used between now and the move. Give them to family, figure out how to dispose of them. Pass them on to neighbors. We put everything to 'save' or leave to the new owners (like paint) on one shelf. We boxed and stored the tools, while weeding them. And I passed massive boxes of stuff to my parents. Everything else? We opened the garage to the neighbors during the garage sale, pionted to the free area and said "have at it". Masonry cement, caulk, roofing tar you name it, they hauled it away. What little was leftover had to be taken to a hazardous waste site for disposal. And don't forget that you have a lot of chemicals in the bathroom and the kitchen too. Because we had such a short time period, we didn't have time for dump runs. So we rented a LARGE dumpster. In it wasn't just garbage and junk, we put all of our old wall to wall carpet while the guys refinished the floors. We had a professional group come in and prune our Japanese garden, all of the prunings went into there. We even threw in our old couch (and DANCED on that day! LOL). If we had any advance notice, we could have done without that. I highly recommend it though if there will be any type of construction/yardwork debris in significant amounts at any point in your process. So YES, dear Lord, please start now. The earlier than you get into the mindset of moving, the more relaxed that you can be about the process. Our move was miserable. Your's doesn't have to be that way. One last thing...Storage costs add up. Only store the most valuable and precious things. It's worth it to store Grandma's china. It's not worth it to store that old entertainment center that you never really liked anyway. I once stored an old couch and deeply regret it. It was in great shape but I hated it. After three years in storage, when I got it out, I realized that I hated it even more. And the cost of storing it meant that I could've bought a new one that I actually liked! (What a concept.) I also vowed that I would never find myself in this position ever again. Not like that. Not to that degree. So when I opened my first box here, I WEEDED AGAIN. Anything else to dump? Anything else to give away? I hope in this that you find something that you can use to your advantage. You're already taking the first step, getting into moving 'mode'. Take this opportunity to do it in a way that serves you in the long run. And this is totally JMO.

Just an update: Got the 2 spruce moved to the yard today. Funny, they somehow changed from Picea mariana to Picea glauca over the winter. Anyone else have that happen? :-o The needles were only 1/2" long so I assumed, but now that I look more closely, the new branch tips are too white to be black spruce. Too young for cones so I may have to wait to further confirm. The smaller of the two went pretty good but the larger one had a 2" dia red oak growing through the root zone. Made it hard to get the root ball out of the hole without knocking off a large percentage of the dirt. The trunk of that spruce was more like 1-1/2" dia. and all I could handle was about a 20" dia. cut around the tree. So hope I didn't cut too much of the roots for it to recover. I had to stake both trees as the wind was almost 30 mph, gusty from the south. Well, here's to hope!