I would suggest that this forum could maybe suggest a couple of general principles from which you could develop your own plan, but it's true that you need to be willing to get yourself up a learning curve about both gardening and landscaping to make this work. To tell the truth though, if you don't do the learning curve pretty much all the plants you buy and even professional advice will be a bit if a waste of money, because plants need to be maintained to be of any aesthetic use. The safest thing to do if you don't want to get too involved is just to have all grass!! I think, first, I would put nothing that the dog walkers can destroy by the street. A lot of novices are inclined to cling to the perimeter of the lawn when planting, and that is usually a mistake - by the driveway, plants interfere with getting in and out, and by the street, plants are subject to dog abuse and road salt. Grass is the best plant for those areas. You don't have to have beds anywhere, not even at the house, but if you want some, then I would suggest nice deep beds at the house and maybe another bed within the lawn somewhere. If you outline the bed with a row of flat bricks, it will be easy to mow around, although the edge will always require some maintenance. A key question is always "what do you want to accomplish?" If it is just to fill those beds, ask yourself whether you really want those beds. It is no crime to just seed them over with grass. Some sample objectives might be to block or enhance sightlines, to make the house look connected to the lot, to have flowers to watch and nurture, or just to fit in with the neighbours. Let us know how some of our comments strike you, and we may have more advice. I'd definitely start with a visit to the library for some general gardening and basic landscaping books. Just to clarify, in my mind gardening is the process of caring for the living things that plants are, while landscaping is the whole process of creating the external environment in which the plants will grow - but which may or may not actually include plants! Some landscapes are just gravel and boulders, for instance, or fishponds... KarinL

Thanks all for the sites. Lin, I did travel to Glenmar and have been there in the past. Very nice nursery and I picked up a lot of perenials. I also stopped by the Foliage Farm near Kutztown, which also has a large selection of shade trees and perenials. I still am have trouble finding a good selection of trees( Deodora Cedar's, Blue Atlas, Robusta Juniper etc.) I traveled to Buck's County last weekend and found four great gardencenters within 10 min. of each other. Most had a great selection, but no delivery to my area. Guess I need to get a truck. One of the nicest down there was Farm & Garden Station off of route 611. Any others with nice locations please let me know. Dean

Good idea except the hardy clumping ones tend to be comparatively short-growing, the tall ones running in habit. Perhaps GA location is mild enough for hardiest tropical clumping species but I suspect there would be problems with periodic freezing back. Or even freezing out entirely. Anything chosen will need time to develop, it's not going to be a matter of the house next door disappearing anytime soon - if a tall hedge right in front of the fence is relied upon solely to screen the entire space. And with a comparatively refined and attractive type like holly we might actually be talking about 20 or more years before the currently desired level of screening is achieved. Unless huge specimens are located somewhere, trucked to the site and planted by a contractor. Yet with a more explosively growing, quickly quite tall species there is the problem of them appearing rank, becoming too much. It having been used by the ancient Greeks Laurus is a literally classic plant for all kinds of garden and landscape uses but does this Mediterranean climate tree grow in Atlanta? Evergreen Prunus species often reseed to a nuisance degree wherever they like the climate well enough to produce a feature like a tall hedge.

When I look at the pic in the OP I assume the area we are talking about includes the wooded lot. if that is so, it is a beautiful piece of property and really should be looked after. I can only say that I would resist filling the area with plants suited only for a supermarket/filling station parking lot. Deer issues are by far the number one grievance that I hear about. I would find a way to exclude them. Does anyone here know about Garlic Mustard? This link gives the range in the US. Here it is, its blooming now in eastern US. It is a noxious weed and rapidly colonizes in areas of high deer populations. Garlic mustard is a winter annual, be sure to get all of the root when you remove it. As the native understory is vacuumed clean by the deer, a blanket of GM and Japanese Stiltgrass will move in. Looks like the OP has kids? If your place is a deer run, learn to check everyone for ticks. Lyme disease is found in areas with high deer populations.