It may seem tedious, hard, and unnecessary to move these plants, although most gardeners enjoy re-arranging to improve their garden's function and appearance. Most hate trying to move or rip out the mistake of previous owners, mistakes which sometimes then reveal damage. Because these plants are still manageable, this situation can be set right. Once done, you will be again at the point of considering next steps toward the goal of eventually having very little upkeep to handle. You will have lost nothing and gained several benefits: Protection of your home. Healthier plants. Better looking in terms of appropriate rather than crowded spacing. You will still have: Same plants. Screening of windows. And there are psychological and physical benefits: Lowered anxiety about whether the paint job and wood will deteriorate due to those pieris. Spring exercise planting your beautiful shrubs. Self-esteem up because you've gained knowledge and improved something wisely. Yes, you calculated the spacing, but forgot to calculate appropriate distance from building. Also, a shrub doesn't reach a certain number and then say to itself, "I'm 5 feet tall and wide now. I better stop or the shrub police will come and get me." Shrubs are living and, unlike humans, continue to gain height and width throughout their lives. I think the size ranges are estimated for 5 to 10 years?, but the shrubs don't know that and they will keep growing. What's to lose here? Re-planting 3 shrubs? Ah, c'mon! If I lived closer, I'd come by and help! Wellspring

KarinL, you've given me tons to think about. Here are some thoughts in response to parts of it: Your questions about how I want to move through and be in the space are well taken. I'd add another consideration, though, which is how the house speaks to the street. I'd like it to say: "this bit is my yard, but please do come in! Because of the walk, the porch steps, and the deep front porch, the way in for visitors - and the way I'll walk in and where I'll put down groceries - are very well defined. Here are a couple of pics that show more of the front yard: Because of the way the holly tree (which I love) sits on the west side of the front yard, there's a real imbalance between very strong and rectilinear visuals on the west side and open and scraggly boundaries on the east, the more so with with fence coming down on the east side. I'm cool with the openness on the east and the more closed, divided feeling on the west, because I love my east-side neighbors and not so much the west-side one! That said, I do feel like there's a need for some visual interest and definition at the property line on the east side - something just a little sheltering to reach out from the side of the house towards the sidewalk and embrace visitors without overwhelming them. Which leads to your next point about... Planting along boundaries: The caveat against the beginner's mistake makes sense to me, because of course in interiors the comparable mistake is to line up everything absolutely straight against the walls. In this case, though, having lived in the house only a short time, I can clearly see the need for some definition along the property line but don't yet fully know how I'll want to move in the space. Since whatever goes along the side and back of the yard will be visible over whatever eventually goes in the middle, is there any harm in planting shrubs near the outside edges of the space and making decisions about the middle in a future season? On the hedgy stuff in front of the porch, I do have some useful info, and I think you're right that most of it has to go. There are several different things going on there. The low thing out in front that's trimmed like a hedge is a group of azaleas! Now, I like azaleas, but these flower in the worst possible shade of magenta for all the other color that's going on here. The largest thing is a red-tip photinia and most unfortunately it's falling victim to that leaf spot disease. Poking up between the azaleas and the photinia are a couple of very happy rhododendrons, which could stay and become part of a new grouping. I'd love to look out over something pretty when I sit on the front porch, but I don't need something that screens the porch as much as the current ailing photinia does.

Those are wonderful. Made me appreciate plant repetition, instead of having one of everything like plant collectors such as me tend to do.

Somebody with a big enough lawn could easily pay $200 per month during the mowing season just to have that kept mowed and edged, with blowing of associated debris off of adjacent paved surfaces afterward and subsequent hauling and disposal of clippings off site. For instance when I was paying a lawn service to do this on my previous 0.6 acre property that was somewhat less than about half lawn at that point the charge per visit got up to $65 before I went back to mowing it myself several years ago. The mowing service provider was on site maybe as much as 15 minutes each time. With of course disposal of my share of the accumulated load adding a little more time off site. Otherwise a couple longtime friends providing expert gardening (in the one case) and landscape (in the second) services primarily to the Seattle area market I think are currently figuring their time charges at about $45 per hour. The first party does not even drive, typically shows up on a bicycle and does maintenance gardening with hand tools (except when a project really does require a truck, in which case a second party is brought in to help with the work). Their continually growing roster of repeat customers keeps them very busy during the spring in particular.