How large will the patio be? Is it only for some furniture? And you want shade for it? I don't see the Kousa. Not sure how "leading to the pond area" impacts...? Are the pipes you speak of visible? Do they mean you cannot have a shrub below the window?

Instead of starting another thread about this same subject, you should pursue it on this thread. Would be helpful to answer the questions. ("How large...?" needs to be answered in measurements or square feet.)

I apologize for all this confusion. I have been having a lot of trouble! For some reason the edit button hasn't been appearing as an option, so I haven't been able to clean up my act! And when it does I have not been able to post more than one picture. Sometimes I can't even comment. I have been trying every which way . . . thus the mess. So . . . I hope this will go out. I appreciate any patience you have had!

Patio -- At most it could be 14' x 16', but could be smaller also according to whatever fits well in a plan. Or the patio idea could be scrapped altogether if it doesn't fit well. We do have flagstones to work with if a patio/landing is an option. It does not need furniture on it. I played around with the idea of a pergola over the septic to disguise that, but don't know how to make it work well without it looking like it doesn't fit. I want to keep it simple but nice. I would like, if possible to have a sitting area/room for a bench over to the left where the Kousa is. Eventually the Kousa would give some shade.

The septic pipes are not visible leading out from under the window on the right, but any planting there would have to be shallow rooted. The blue domes you see at the right are the septic tank domes -- the one furthest out from the window is the far end of the tank. Hope this clarifies things a little more.

Sometimes Houzz plays around with their site and the edit button becomes unavailable. You just gotta wait.

Having a patio is a function of satisfying your desires and needs. You would decide the size & the purpose. You are only limited by physical constraints, cost, availability of materials and labor. Someone else cannot determine what you need. They can only help you decide how to fit it to your resources and purposes. How is the patio going to be used?

Am I right in that the Kousa looks about 3' tall right now? Seems a bit premature to me to be planning a bench there, when you have a porch with seating and are talking about a patio, which could have seating. Then why a bench 6' away from that?

Ok, lets forget the bench and the patio for now. I really just would like to get some guidance about how to plant the sides of the porch and a little at the front ends. Thr Kousa is really about four to five feet. Thanks.

Well again, you make it look so beautiful! And nice and simple. I hope I can make it as good as the picture looks! Is the pink off to the left, way in the background, or at the side of the house behind the tree? Would the Maiden Hair grasses still fit behind the tree? Great job! I really like the way you did the landing!

The "pink at left" along the side of the house is to help give the picture some sense of plausibility. But where exactly something like that might go along the side depends on where architectural features of the house are located. It must be figured out.

Right. Well, thank you so much for this sketch and plan! It helps me so much to have something solid to work from. I am good with plants and caring for them, but I lack in overall landscape design. So I really appreciate your help! Would you be willing to take a look at what I've got going in a few more places I have and tell me if I have good balance and structure going or show me better placement plans? -- one is the front of the house, another the beds around the pond area, and then one island bed. It would help me a lot to settle me in my mind. I don' want to ask too much, so if you if youneed to move on . . . Thank you, in any case!

I can't make any guarantees of helping. Just need to see what you have. Maybe many people will offer suggestions. Create a new separate thread for each area in question. In each, show the overall view (from the viewpoint that is most important to you.) If it won't fit in a single picture, take slightly overlapping, panning shots so the view can be reassembled into a panorama. (Don't submit a computer generated panorama.)

There is no limit on how many threads requesting help you can create. And no guaranty on what kind of help you will get. You just ask and then hope for the best.

Ok, and thanks for the helpful information! I started digging my beds today -- I'm excited about the final results!

Best of luck!