I live where land is cheap so it's not often I deal with small spaces. I always thought that scale was even more important for small gardens, with particular attention to the space allotted to plants versus that for people. Features such as a bench should have enough room not to be cramped, but take up no more than they need. Then there is the concept of depth or distance. There are some tricks. On cars, a clear top coat of paint makes the underlying color coat look very deep when in fact it's not. In a small garden one might review how a landscape artist develops a sense of depth to the painting. Distance things are painted with less color saturation, less contrast, and a more muted form and texture. Near objects are painted with the style reversed. Use this trick around the perimeter to make the lack of a generous bed depth to look greater. Thus any walls or fences should have a bland neutral look, and the plants against it should not stand out. Put the color and interesting textures to the front of the beds.

Why take the chance? Two options: spray the area with Roundup, let everything die back, cut it to the ground with a weed whacker and add your soil. Alternately, if you're ooked out about using a chemical control, cut everything to the ground first, then lay clear plastic over the ground for a few weeks to a couple months (depending on where you live) to cook off all the weeds and seeds. Either way, you'll want to add some compost to the added soil unless you're getting expensive, killer topsoil.

If the area was just a depression that landfill could level out and affect its drainage, then you could try it but given what you say, about having once had a pool in the area, my thoughts are that the land there is too compacted to allow it to absorb water without pooling. Sometimes, pooling can be just put up with, until, over time, it either evaporates with the sun, or percolates slowly down into the soil or you drain it by other means....such as the french drain. Aeration will often fix a problem of why grass wont grow on compacted soil. A swale, near the boundary, is so to take away that drainage that comes onto your land from a neighbor. Its just a small conduit -- not meant to act as a drainpipe. It can be just an inch or so deep....3 or 4 inches wide. It is designed to let water drain off land where you can affect its movement --over an extended line---even up to 100' -- to a place where it drains away---usually a street. But, you cant fight nature....and you cant make water run up hill. The swale has to allow water to drain downhill..even if that level is only an inch or two. If the move is uphill....then forget a swale. Unless you change the level, a swale wont work. You have to find a way to make it move away from your land toward a place it can move on itself. If that is toward a neighbor's yard, then maybe, working with that neighbor you can figure out a more practical method of getting rid of the water. If the area in question is due to a pooling in an area and its always the case...that is, it happens every year...then maybe think a "cistern". A cistern is a large hole---its dug, gravel is put into the bottom and built up toward the surface where grass is allowed to grow. Water coming into the area percolates down, through the gravel, and out through the surrounding soil. You might get in touch with a "well-man"....he can better advise whether a cistern could be used. Where water collects, and its not feasible to try to remove it to another area---such as a drain, then a cistern might solve the problem.

Thanks for the suggestions, Emmarene. Those landscape are beautiful. I think you're right about the topiaries being Eugenia. I had a chance to take another quick look at the house/plants this weekend. I might let the topiaries flanking the garage be, or maybe make them more rounded instead of the current flat top look. I want to remove the ones in front of the porch. In my opinion, there are too many shrubs in the front border. The crape myrtles in the front yard have been pruned in a way I don't like, especially since they lose their leaves in the winter and the branches are bare. I'm not fond of the rock mulch, but it will be so much work to remove it! I know there are bougainvillea pruned into round shapes in the front border, and there is a large orange bird of paradise that I hadn't noticed before. I saw some smaller Ixora pruned into squares--also, not a fan of that pruning job. Other IDs will have to wait until we are the owners. Marcia