its hard to make any suggestion without a pic ... ken

I'll ask my husband to take one tomorrow. He has to go back, it was pouring down rain and the workers replacing the pipe couldn't finish.

Find something that will grow to the size you want. If the bottom of the window is about 30" off the ground, shoot for something that grows 2-3'. If your soace is 3'wide, select something appropriate.

Usually, people hear the words fast growing and think, i can keep it trimmed. Years later, they wind up with what you described above.

Now i could suggest bixwood under the window, and i can provide plenty of pics that show such a choice looks nice. I can also provide plenty pics that show such a choice is a poor on, with overgrown monstrosities grown nearly to the eaves. There is no choice you can make that someone else can't negate. If you must crowdsource, check out what is grown in neighborhoods of a similar age.

At my present house (before we re-did the landscaping) we
started out with a couple of dwarf spruces (Bird”s nest spruce), potentilla,
and weigelia. We also didn’t want to cover the windows. They were in place for
~ 20 – 25 years, and none of them grew very high. But I wondered if that was a
fluke due to them being under the eves.

OK......it will be hard to tell, I know, as it looks like such a mess. 2 trees they did not remove, as it was not part of what the sewer company bargained for. There was so much digging; hopefully they will die and we will cut them off.

There is no foundation to hide, I'd do a deep from front to house bed of a groundcover. Perhaps Liriope if it's hardy in your area. Or vinca.

I agree that the foundation doesn't need to be hidden. If the tenant isn't a gardener, mowing is easier than having an unweeded bed of groundcover filling the front yard. I would remove the two trees currently there regardless of whether they die on their own as they are too close to the building. Then I would consider a couple of options, both of which have largely grass in the front yard simply because a mow and blow crew can care for it.

Either plant a row of small shrubs that take little care across the front in a well mulched and edged bed and then grass for the rest or think about a small ornamental tree of some type in the middle of the lawn area. For the shrubs, I am specifically thinking Hydrangea paniculata Bobo which will need little care based on my experience with H. paniculata cultivars. It doesn't grow taller than 4' IME, so shouldn't outgrow the space and doesn't need pruning. It's fine in full sun, unlike other hydrangeas, and blooms reliably for 3-4 months. For the small tree, perhaps a small Japanese maple if they do well in your area or one of the miniature, disease resistant crab apples such as Malus sargentii Firebird (8'hx10'w) or Malus 'Parrsi' AKA Pink Princess (8'x12') both of which have excellent resistance to the 4 major crab diseases.

so back to what you said about the plants at your place...potentilla is a 3' tall plant, maybe four, but that's assuming the stars align and everything happens just right. depending on variety, weigela could be 2' at maturity or 6'+, or a range of heights in between. the spruce is something that could get larger, maybe not...there's some depends in that one, but basically, this is a long way of saying, you chose plants that only get so tall...it's not a fluke, it's not because of the eaves.

It's going to be hard to make anything look good keeping what is there. it's going to be hard to make anything good by trying to make it too complicated...there's just not the space.

Choices and how people respond to them are what make this interesting. One person says this, another person that. No one is necessarily wrong, they just made different choices. You can ask three different people to give you a design, and provide the same list of plants to each person, and you'll get at least three different options. How many options do you think you could get if you ask more people and don't limit the plant list? there are those people for whom the right answer is always the most difficult to locate plant imaginable, or their particular favorite.

It looks like you have approx. 4' of height? maybe a touch more? that gives you lots of choices. What kind of light? Honestly, I'd keep it simple, probably evergreen. And depending on light conditions, it could be things as disparate as some of the dwarf threadleaf falsecypress or rhododendron/azalea.

tree on right corner.. cut to ground.. and apply stump killer per instructions ...

heck.. do the same with the other ...

looking down the street.. it doesnt appear landscaping is a big deal ...

i might just put in a small bed of rock ... and be done with it...that can be sprayed with weedkiller once a year ...

try to avoid putting in shrubs that require annual shearing.. etc ...

i guess i would go utilitarian.. rather than green thumb heaven ...

ken

Yes, it’s about 4 feet. The exposure is south. There are parkway
trees in neighboring yards, but not in front of ours. I have not seen it in
summer in a long time, so I don’t know how shaded it gets. I think during midday it will get a lot of sun.

The remnants of those trees will certainly need to be pulled
out. Or just cut down flush to the ground and hidden by the new planting; which
is the likely choice. I had to pull out a few shrub stumps in my own yard last
year, and it was very difficult.

Given what happened to the pipes we don’t want a tree or
anything with a deep root system. Though it was more than a root infestation,
the clay pipes had actually collapsed, no idea why. A standpipe was put in so
in the future it can be rodded out that way.

Simple and basic is I think what we need. But I want to make
sure that the readily available options in local home improvement stores that I
might choose will not grow up to be monsters. (no yews: gosh, how I hate yews: what everyone planted in the 50's; no junipers like the ones in the yard of the rental house next to my own house at present : things meant to be clipped into a fancy shape and left to their own devices and looking like a mess now.)

I am guessing we will sell in about
5 years. Something planted small this season (likely by me, so it's got to be small) would hopefully
look pretty good by then.

Ken, Stump killer will do it? I have never tried that. Sounds like a plan.

Bed of rocks? Yuck. How about pachysandra or vinca with whatever shrubs or small tree you want. Zero maintenance for your tenant and nice year round in your zone. And ask the city to put a tree in your end of the parkway.

Pachysandra or vinca in sun is *not* low maintenance. There isn't a lot that can out-compete grass in sun.

Does the tenant have any ideas? Not specific plants, but maybe a look?

Anything I can come up with is going to sooner or later need some pruning. Low growing junipers will probably work as well as anything.

Sorry for being off topic, but how did you start a new thread?

Big green button that is labeled 'Ask a Question' at the top of the main page. Go back one screen, to the 'Shrubs' main page and you should see it.

mdbrighton_1986, At the top of this linked page, there are 2 boxes, one for the title, and the other for the text and photos if any for your questions. Then hit the Post that's in a green box.

I believe that the parkway trees in front of the houses on either side will provide some morning shade and some late afternoon. But midday should be full sun. I am still really surprised that the city is not replacing the tree. I think it's a bad precedent.

Because the parkway is an easement, our planting a tree in it may cause legal issues. I know in the town where we ourselves live, we cannot plant trees or shrubs in the parkway, and if any damage is done to our other plantings, it's on us. But even if we chose to plant something it would not be large enough quickly enough to provide shade when we need it for a new shrub planting.

We WILL take the tenant's preferences into account. We want her to adjust to how it looks now and have time to think. Plus, since we have to pay for it, we will say no to something that will be a maintenance issue.

That's why I wanted to know what to avoid besides the dreaded 1950's yews and junipers. If she calls and say, "how about ...", I want to be able to say yea or nay.