If you like edibles and design those are two things I love. With around 1 acre and you being in zone 7 if I am not mistaken "where are you"? I could recommend a lot. You could do rabbit eye blueberries in 2-3 varieties, even 6 bushes 2 early, 2 mid season, and 2 late coupled with 2 southern highbush would give you yeilds from late April to August in cool summers. They would go well on the back of the lot and just require periodic watering/do best in full sun. Just be sure to figure out your PH and adjust with using pine bark, pine straw mulch, and possibly adding sulphur as Blueberries like a low PH. I 2nd the grasses and yardvarks design for the entry although I tend to like circular flowing patterns wide at the front near the steps and thin at the middle forcing you to slow down. I think knock out roses would look really good in a straight bed that goes across the front where the sign is. In the fall you can get them for much cheaper at times, last year I found them for 3$ in gallon pots that looked amazing. That would add depth to the home and give you something to look at from the front, you could do a fence in front of them and run clemantis/climbing rose up it. I would frame the porch with arborvitae which would hide that silver box on the side. Normally I don't recommend a full size magnolia due to leaf shedding, but if that doesn't bother you I think two on each side of your home, about 20 feet away would look amazing. Just trim the inside branches that face your house, and leave the backside branches facing outward to touch the ground. I have seen some that are beatufiul, that way, when they drop leaves, it stays underneath and is less maintenance "also a great place to put a hammock". I think your house would look really good with some 15-20 foot shade trees as well, personally I think 2 redbuds would look great on the front and woudl put those next to my wall of knock out roses "though you could use any bush you like". Knock outs are easy because they self dead head. If you make beds use groupings of plants, not just well this is pretty and that is pretty. Like buy a large clump of monkey grass. Try and avoid the big box stores, unless its on sale and looks good and is a tree or focal point. A small herb garden in the front between the driveway to me would look good, I would fill it with rosemary, basil, and whatever culinary herbs you like "many can be grown from seed in peat moss". You have pretty neutral grey, brown brick, and white colors on the home so I think year round color would make your house look great. I would also check out some of the newer crape myrtles but personally I don't like them as focals, but tucked out of the way they can really pull in that summer color. They just look crappy in winter but don't prune them, saving maintenance. Sweet potato vine is a low maintenance annual and can be propogated inside the house in glass jars and transplanted outside, just water the 1st week. It handles summer well and comes in black, chartreuse green, bronze, and dark red. It is a very fast grower and can take over a bed, but thats great if you like me don't like to weed. I would most certainly not cover the brick up, its really pretty. Also be sure to not plant too close to your foundation. Those arborvitaes I mentioned should be about 5 feet minimum away so you don't have to cut out the bottom backside. I would splurge heavily, like 100$ a piece, on two large concrete pots that are roughly the height of your porch for each side of the entry steps. I would then use sweetpotato, supertunia, etc and group pot. Check out Better homes and gardens container pots to see what you like, or the potting on here. All that would create depth, sesonal color, year round interest, focal, mystery, and low maintenance. You could also add in a witch hazel if you like winter color. I like harry lauders walking stick as well. You probably should try and get 2 large framing trees but could probably skip on the rest as far as height, in the summer if your willing you can find trees often 1/2+ off. Sense you have so many trees nearby, I would check out the woods for good dirt and mulch. A chipper might be a good investment, or if you have pine trees then you could get free pine straw mulch every fall. Also with all of this, invest a couple hundred $ into some decent garden soil, preferably composted manure/and loam/with a little peat. It is kind of hard to go wrong with that. It will make everything look 10x better, reduce watering, and improve growth and color. You definitely need to mulch heavy if you are planning on not doing a ton of weed pulling/trying to keep grass out of the beds. I hope those economical ideas helped you out.

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I just moved one city away and unfortunately had to leave most of my herbs behind! It was like losing children! Anyway - I have enjoyed herbs for some time and have had many different varieties. I mainly use them for medicinal and metaphysical uses. In my lovely garden I had 3 varieties of lavender, hyssop, chamomile, sweet woodruff, mugwort, feverfew, yarrow, patchouli, 3 varieties of thyme, tarragon, lemon grass, citronella, catnip, jasmine, comfrey, germander, sage, rosemary, digitalis, cilantro, echinacea, parsley, bee balm, arulgula, chives, valerian, goldenseal, st. john's wort, basil, marjoram, black peppermist, spearmint, oregano. You can see why I miss it - all I have now are: lavender, comfrey, thyme, rosemary, basil, bee balm, echinacea, germander, and chives. I wish I had found this forum before I moved - I could have found some good homes for all my babies - all I can do is hope the new owner is appreciative of helpful plants...

dpinker, dry everything but the basil and chives. For the oregano, mints, dill, sage, rosemary, parsley, bee balm, thyme and chervil - harvest after the dew has dried, and then bunch them into small bundles (strip off some of the lower leaves if necessary), put a rubber band around them and hang up to dry. For basil and chives, you might want to freeze. Whir the individual herb in the blender with just a little water to help things along and freeze into ice cubes. Put the ice cubes into freezer bags and freeze. You could also make pesto with the basil - which makes a wonderful present. The chamomile should be spread on a clean screen to dry (put something underneath the screen to catch the seeds that will fall through). If your chives are blossoming right now, harvest the blossoms and make chive vinegar. Sterilize an empty mayo jar, fill with fresh picked chive blossoms and top up with white vinegar. Let steep until gift giving time, then strain the vinegar and rebottle into pretty bottles.