There are plenty of ways to handle this sort of boring and uniform neighborhood generic landscape without destroying the overall caharacter or openness of the landscape. Scaling down the lawn area via adding more planting area can be accomplished sensitively if done with an eye to working with the long predominantly horizontal lines of the house, using plantings in mass and in varied height layers, using plantings as architectural masses with contrasting forms/textures/colors, etc. Unfortunately you'll tend to find that most homeowners in such tracts aren't going to want to spend the kind of money it may take to make an attractive change. Simple things like adding saw cut patterns and concrete stains to break up huge driveways, or removing bands of concrete and replacing with planted turf-block or decorative brick/stone/tile pavers is one way to play down expansive driveways. Front yards can be made more interesting by creating semi-enclosed entry courtyards at the entry with enlarged paving/walkways that provide additional usable space for people and reinforced with some plantings at the perimeter that can provide views of garden plantings from both the street and from inside the house, while leaving the majority of the front lawn intact and visually aligned with the neighbors. I've often used several of these devices to update the standard tract home landscape here in SF Bay Area gardens, in some cases losing the lawns entirely. Another approach might be to eliminate the typical foundation shrub plantings, and instead push the planting areas out to the street, thereby enclosing a large sweep of lawn at the house and putting the garden on view from inside the house, at the same time as giving a bit of privacy or at least visual separation from the street.

What about shantung maple? It's pretty fast grower. I've seen a 25' over 8 years in sandy soil over here in Texas where it rains a lot or it doesn't rain at all some years so you can see it's pretty hardy tree. Grows to be 35x35' size. Voted one of the best ice and wind resistant tree in Kansas which I agree. I couldn't break 3/4" branch in half. Yellow fall color is the typical color but orange or red might happen. I have 'Fire Dragon' SM that produces red fall color consistently and it grew over 3 foot last year in terrible rocky soil (can grow 4-6 feet a year in a good soil when cared for properly). If you're willing to wait till next winter, You can order a 4 ft dormant Fire Dragon from Metro Maples from Ft Worth, Texas. Very interesting leaves. The new leave growth in the summer would be reddish purple and it is quite noticeable. When it is large enough, it will produce bright yellow flowers that apparently do not produce many viable seeds (according to Metro Maples owner who has them all over the property). How about 'Shawnee Brave' bald cypress? You could plant a couple of these in the far back against the tall wall. It's narrow but tall with dark green and dense foliage that is not typically seen in bald cypress.

B2alicia- Beautiful photos! You've really improved on what you started with and made it so inviting :) Gardenweed- Wonderful path! It's amazing how old/antique it looks...did you mortar the blocks? I would love to get a path like that for my mom's house. Your fence is so rustic and charming. Was it difficult to install? The fence, path and plants are just a beautiful combination. Tk- Focus on one area at a time and really do something you love. Sometimes, it's hard to ignore other areas, but mowed grass always looks nice and it gives you more time to focus on a few beds and really make them what you want. I think the hardest thing sometimes is realizing how much we can really take on AND maintain. Look at all my weeds this summer! LOL I have to realize there's only so much I can do and focus on those areas. Remember, you have almost 1 1/2 acres! It's going to take a little time to make it everything you'd like it to be...but I know you're going to get there...eventually :) Lois- Cute picture! It took me a minute to find your little visitor LOL. Pots can be hard to keep watered. I've had better luck with a few big pots of cosmos than smaller ones. I had a few large containers of petunias and star jasmine, with a really big cosmos container, by the front porch. They could easily go two even three days, before I had to water them again...and that was with 90 degree weather. Melissa- Have you ever thought of creating a potager? It doesn't have to be a big garden, but it's perfect for mixing roses and vegetables with other edibles. A rose in the middle, or several along the edge of the garden, or even on a couple of sides, will look beautiful with maybe blueberries and a few beds of veggies and herbs. Edible flowers are nice, too and bring in lots of "good" bugs :) There are a lot of beautiful pictures over on the potager forum, or just google potager.

I have used containers much bigger than this, and, with care about moisture levels, have not had problems. Since I wanted to be able to use the containers for other things later, I did not put any drainage holes in the big containers. Instead, I would dig down every few weeks and make sure that I did not have a wet mess at the bottom. If it was too wet at the bottom, I got a pitch fork and brought the bottom material up to the top to dry a bit. I like the bigger containers because it was easier to keep a fairly uniform moisture level, even with the chore of checking the bottom. The worms really liked the large containers as well, and thrived. Renais