Karin, it's interesting and enlightening to read what others think of our house and landscape, even if we may not agree or take up some suggestions. We live in an area where we don't have a large number of options for landscape/garden design, unfortunately! So no worries about me being offended by criticism/suggestions, etc. We appreciate the help and we will work to think about each decision in terms of its purpose. We originally had purposes in mind for each bed in our backyard, though it may not look like it now - with the exception of the hydrangeas along the back fence. They were originally planted behind our garage (where the pool equipment enclosure is now). When we put in the pool, we moved them to the side bed (which didn't exist before the pool) along the fence, but the neighbor's black walnut tree hampered their growth. So rather than throw them away, we made a new bed along the back, sort of a temporary spot until we figure out what to do with the rest of the beds. I won't bore you or anyone else by enumerating the purposes of the other beds in the back, but just want to add that we also did have more visual interest and contrast in flower, foliage, and form - but many of those plants didn't survive. We've been in a sort of holding pattern back there for a couple years - and I'm looking forward to improving that landscape. But back to the front yard/landscape. One of our goals for changes remains to revise the long bed along the drive for the dual purposes of easier maintenance and including more variety in its plants to provide more interest in months other than July. Another goal is to revise the small bed near the side steps to make it better looking (instead of a hodgepodge of plants, as it is now) and as a memorial garden for our daughter, with beautiful plantings. We also still want to improve the visual impact/visibility of the front door. To me, that is a separate goal from emphasizing the front entrance, if by entrance one means the wide front steps (which aren't truly the entrance to the house, but visually they do give that impression). We understand the goals of Laag's ideas about beds in front of the steps and a wide path from the driveway to the steps/porch. But in terms of practicality, we don't want people to stop midway up our driveway and walk up the path, because then they block the entire driveway. Also, the steps are covered with snow for the entire winter (it's too expensive to pay to have them cleared each time it snows), and a walkway would also be covered in snow, so the practical function of a walkway beginning partway up the driveway wouldn't apply during those months. I've been bothered for a while by the sense of imbalance between the long driveway bed and the expanse of grass on the other side of the drive, so another purpose of making changes is to see if we can balance that. Laag's suggestion about a grassed area in the long bed was so helpful - I just don't know whether that is enough to achieve balance, or if we will need a bed under the birches. A new purpose resulted from a number of comments here, and that is to soften the impact of the veranda wall. I think we are just so used to how our house looks that we don't see it for how it really appears. You all have opened our eyes to this issue! I haven't been in the back yards of the houses above us (in the back) to see what they can see of our back yard. It "feels" private in our back yard most of the time, probably due to the fence, but I still don't do any skinny-dipping. ;-) The front feels very public to me (it's a busy street and in the spring/summer/fall, a very busy golf course), with the exception of the veranda. On the rare occasions when we are seated there (it's usually too hot/buggy/raining/cold), we have at least the illusion of privacy behind that fortress wall - though with close neighbors, we have to watch how loudly we talk. My sister mused aloud a few years ago about the idea of putting a hedge across the front of the yard (on the lawn on the house side of the sidewalk, if you're facing away from the house) to screen the street and provide more of a sense of privacy. A neighbor a couple of houses down has a partial bridal wreath hedge in the yard and she was noting that at the time. I'll update as we get further along in this process; meanwhile, if anyone has more comments/suggestions, we're very happy to have them.

I have thought abut this space since I first saw it- it would pop into my head at weird moments. I like the idea of paths and plants, but I think it still needs a focal point. This is what I would do, since it looks like a very valuable space. First, I would get it level. A bit of terracing would help, and it doesn't have to be the whole garden that is leveled. You could dig from the left and move it to the right. Mostly the center part for what is in my mind. If you level the 2/3 to the left, you can garden on two levels, and your winding paths would work splendidly. Then I would lay a medallion walkway, split in the middle and reconnecting on the far side, to provide a space for a water feature, or a large pot planted with things like tall grasses, and vining things spilling over the edge. The center walkway can be any material you want it to be- stone, wood, mulch, whatever. Around the back of this patio/walkway, I would plant something that is in your face bright and beautiful. Here, it could be bougainvillea, all one color, but I am not sure that it would survive winters there. I think it is good to 25 degrees. A wall of esperanza would be beautiful, or you could do it in more than one level- esperanza and plumbago, for instance. I would just make sure that it is tall and thick, so that it makes a boundry with your woods in the back. And you can still have the winding paths and intense plantings. You will have added a centerpiece, is all. Not an overnight project, but you are young and have time and energy. And with your house, I think it would be fantastic. The link shows an example of what I am talking about, but I would suggest a slimmer walkway, not as wide as they have it. Imagine plant materials where the front door is. Janie Here is a link that might be useful: just a thought....

Oh I have struggled with the winter doldrums and posted on this on some of these forums. I came from zone 9b to zone 7b, it was a shock. I have done what many here have posted about. Main points: add evergreens - I have hollies, camellias, hellebores, Little Gem Magnolia, Carolina Sapphire looks like a Christmas tree. I make sure I have early bloomers - daffodils, quinces, forsythia. I make sure I have some flowers in winter - hellebores, camellias, I plant pansies and flowering cabbage/kale. Very important I have 3 double shepherd hooks and feed the birds all winter. Move the shepherd hooks closer as the birds get used to them and you will have a fairly close up view. Look at your view and make sure you have something nice out of your important viewing windows. I have beautiful camellia right outside kitchen window where I am cooking, washing, also an evergreen leucothoe, and a Coral Bark japanese maple which is red bark in winter right there too. Also a bird bath there. Outside the back window (a big window) is where I have the "Christmas tree" and magnolia, and all the bird feeders and another birdbath. This year I added yew I also have carolina jessamine and added many nandina firepower which are evergreen and very colorful in fall/winter. I plan to take extra vit D this winter, I think I am suffering a withdrawal in winter from lack of sunlight exposure! Laurie

Jane -- what a coincidence! Last winter, we had to replace our well casing and pump. The old well (ca 1959) was in what I assume is a "well vault" (underground, sunk in a cavity). That, it turns out, is now a violation of code, at least around us. In fact, the well head HAS to be a minimum of 18 inches off the ground and any contractor who does work on an older well without one is obliged by code (law?) to replace a flush or sunken head with a raised one. I was sick, since our well is about 12 feet away from the FRONT of our house, sitting right under a huge maple in the front yard. We did request a plain (not blue) cap, so ours is a fairly inconspicuous gray. Because it was relatively close to the house, we chose to expand an existing foundation bed to loop around it in a freeform sort of curve, and are planning -- when budget permits -- to plant low, shade-loving shrubs throughout the bed, mixing them with hostas but ensuring that the well head itself has shrubs, not hostas, around it. I'm leaning toward a mix of azaleas and leucanthoe (the latter being evergreen), something with a natural, open shape, mixing some of the larger-leaved hostas in with them but relying on the shrub structure right around the well head (the hostas -- which were my interim fix this summer while I tried to figure this out -- conceal the head beautifully all summer, but of course are of no use in the winter...) I've never had good luck with ground-cover junipers or I might try those. I actually think if there were enough branch structure, I wouldn't really notice the head in the winter even with deciduous shrubs. (NOTE: we will NOT be using the wonderful, sprawling euonymous we have elsewhere, which our local deer -- who have been blessedly inactive up to now -- completely defoliated last night! Mother Nature's "hard pruning"!) Our well contractor suggested the fake rock strategy, or a birdbath over it, but given its location (amazing we still HAVE a well with those maple roots!), both options seemed as if they would look absurd. (Naively, I never know what those lone "boulders" in otherwise boulder-free yards were all about! I always thought they were just oddly prominent rocks! ;) So low shrubs it will be. A neighbor with a very old Colonial with a well equally close to the house and equally IN the front yard has planted a somewhat incongruous-looking trio of boxwoods around it; that has convinced me that I want low shrubs with a naturally open, sprawling sort of look, not a group of stiff little soldier shrubs guarding the well head. On a positive note, I've gotten quite used to seeing it and it bothers me much less than it did initially ... and there is something comforting in knowing WHERE the well actually is, which we never knew before this adventure. We just knew it was "out front" somewhere and hoped we never had to dig it up ... I now find myself trying to guess where the wells are when I drive around our town... the old houses often have no visible evidence of wells, though you know they have them somewhere; the new ones uniformly have little blue stumps ;) So long story short: you might want to consider changing your "rock circle" to a more free form bed, then fill it with a variety of plants/shrubs with relatively shallow roots. I'll be watching this post to see if anyone else has creative solutions! Good luck!!