Thanks for the additional photos, Michael. I am assuming that you haven't a huge amount of gardening experience, so I'll apologize in advance if I am telling you things that you already know. My personal preference overall would be to plant the entire area out to the concrete walkway and widen the bed around the corner wider as well, for at least part of the distance down the side. That might a good place for the hydrangeas. I would also use shrubs along with perennials (and a few annuals if you want extra color or to fill in until the perennials and shrubs get bigger) to get some variety similar to what you have now. About your current beds: I notice black plastic(?) or landscape fabric in your bed under the mulch unless you have pulled it out since the photos were taken. As someone who made that mistake earlier in my gardening years and also inherited it from the previous resident of my current house, I don't think that you want to continue that as it will interfere with how the soil "lives." It will restrict water and oxygen exchange and cause all kinds of problems down the road when it starts to decompose and when the plants start growing roots into it. If you want more info or opinions, go to the one of the following forums and put "landscape fabric" into the search at the bottom of the thread listings: landscape design, perennials, and perhaps shrubs. Your bark or wood chip mulch is great, since it will help keep moisture levels even and suppress weeds. If you want something under it to further help prevent weed growth, corrugated cardboard or multiple layers of newspaper work well to suppress weeds without the problems caused by landscape fabric. I generally put down cardboard or newspaper and then at least 3 inches of mulch on top of that in all my shrub and perennial beds. What you can plant will depend on how much organic matter you are able and willing to put into your sandy soil. Gardenweed has given you a fine list of plants that in general do well in drier situations, though a few (lLobelia cardinalis/cardinal flower, Delphinium, peonies, Campanula/bellflower and Siberian iris) will do better in somewhat richer, less dry soil. If you have access to lots of organic matter through a town composting program, a nearby farm with composted manure, lots of old leaves, or some similar source, or if you have the money to buy a large quantity of compost, then dig in more than you think is needed into the first several inches up to a foot of the bed and you will have a wider range of plants to choose from. Tree oracle suggested conifers (good for winter interest so there aren't just dead sticks there) and roses, specifically Knockouts, which are long-blooming, disease resistant, and not fussy at all from everything I've read (no personal experience.) I grow the following roses: John Davis (large bush or short climber), Lady Elsie Banks, a white double rugosa, Rosa mundi, and a no ID that is common at old farmhouses here. I don't fuss with any of them other than to knock Japanese beetles into a can of soapy water while I wander through the garden early morning before work, though many are once-bloomers that are finished before the beetles emerge. No disease problems on any of them. Some other plants that will like or tolerate a relatively dry bed beyond Gardenweed's list include Nepeta/catmint, creeping thyme, alchillea/yarrow, calluna/heather (though not right next to the concrete foundation since it likes acidity) which is actually a short fine-textured shrub that can have colorful foliage, lavender, penstemon, Thermopsis caroliniana/carolina lupine (though not a lupine - similar to Baptisia), many of the veronica, hemerocallis/daylily. Most of these won't mind a bed with better soil also. Some plants that need somewhat better soil include perennial geraniums, dianthus/pinks (which aren't all pink in color), crocosmia, Iberis sempervirens/candytuft, tall phlox (get a mildew resistant type), Thalictrum rochebrunianum/lavender mist meadow rue. I can see a clematis on an obelisk looking great here, maybe behind the shrub on the corner where it will get some of the extra moisture from the downspout, but not be in its path. I also really value spring bulbs for early color and have found that if I plant them at the deepest end of the recommendation they seem to need dividing less often. I have daffodils that are probably 10 years old and haven't needed dividing yet - they still bloom prolifically. Just plant them where perennial foliage will hide the withering daff foliage. I also have reticulated iris (bought from Brent and Becky's bulbs on the web since they aren't common locally) which are budded up at the base of my foundation now and will be done blooming by mid-April before the daffs even start. I love seeing flowers in March! Both these don't mid dry summer soil at all. A couple of non-evergreen shrubs that will be fine in average soil include weigela (several shorter varieties with colored or variegated leaves) and spirea. Your neighbor's rhododendrons seem to be doing okay, and there are some shorter varieties such as PJM 'Checkmate' that hasn't cleared 3 feet in my garden. Conifers such as junipers ( get a short variety), birdsnest spruce, or one of the short varieties of Chamaecyparis would probably do well here or even one of the miniature Colorado blue spruce/Picea pungens. To get specific suggestions of types, try the conifer forum, the rhododendron forum, or the shrub forum. I often go to nearby nurseries to see what they have, read labels, take copious notes, go home and do internet research, and then go buy based on what is available that fits my needs. Some general things to consider in planning your bed. -Think about a way to have your hose holder be a bit less visible; either paint it to match the siding or move it out of sight behind a shrub or around the corner. Right now its contrasting color makes it grab attention. -Do your soil prep before you bring home plants. In general, the better your soil, the better the garden will be and the easier to care for. That extra organic matter will help hold moisture and nutrients rather than letting them trickle on through the soil. Add enough and the hydrangeas might even be happy here. -Plant things near the downspout that won't mind a bit of extra moisture, and maybe put several rocks right in front of the concrete catcher to break the water's force before it gets to the garden. -Think about leaf shape, size, color, and texture. There won't always be lots of perennials blooming, so foliage that offers variety and interest will keep things looking nice even when there aren't lots of flowers. -Plant lower things below the windows unless you want them blocked. I have used annual vines (scarlet runner beans) on strings over western windows to help keep the house cooler, but generally don't like to spend time trying to keep the plants away from the windows, so plant things with lower height there. -Most gardens look better with not just one of this and one of that - have some repetition, whether it is of foliage color, specific plant, flower color, though I have seen gardens that are an absolute riot of variety that still look lovely. Your current garden with the two hydrangeas and the several lobelia (?) have variety of height and foliage texture, but related flower color and more than one of each specific plant. - Look for gardens you like in your neighborhood or as you walk and drive around. Look now as well as during gardening season so that you can decide about what you want your garden to look like in winter. Often gardeners will be more than happy to ID plants for you if they are outside and you can get a sense of what you like. Your local library may have books that talk about garden design or have lots of eye candy (my favorite!) to look at now. One good one (but not huge amounts of eye candy) is The Well-Designed Mixed Garden by Tracy DiSabato-Aust. Have fun and let us know how it goes.

Those are the best looking garage doors that anyone has brought to the forum in quite some time. The house is nice looking, too. The forum is a place where you can get help with landscape design and related issues, but you must keep in mind that is has limitations. For one, if the conversation is too wide spread -- about all areas of a large yard, for example -- it can quickly become confusing. It's best to focus on one area for a given thread ... a front yard, for example. It's best to work through that and then move on to other areas with new threads. And giving "help" means giving you assistance. You will still have work to do in converting any advice you get, whether it be verbal or graphic, into a workable PLAN. Either you must do it, or you must hire a landscape designer or architect to do it. But you really can't do landscape work, at least in any well organized, logical manner, without a plan on paper. On a larger than average property, a plan would be especially necessary if you mean to avoid waste and mistakes. Given that your are probably going to reside at the property for many years and will surely want to create a property as nice as the home, I highly recommend that you hire a landscape designer to work out all of the issues that you'll face while planning a quality landscape ... especially if you're not able to visualize things easily. Meanwhile, you can work on sorting through your thoughts on the project and on a direction to take the design. I'd suggest you start with the front yard. In order to do that you'll need to supply better pictures. In taking them what's important is not just what's directly in front of the house, but in an area the surrounds the house about 20' - 30' out, including the ends. Also, when taking pictures for those who can't personally visit the site, it's best if the camera is lined up with the center of the scene. For a given scene the camera must stay in one location and only pivot for each picture. Snap from left to right while taking slightly overlapping pictures and post them all, not a panorama made from them. That's a starting point. Another picture that is usually important to show is one of the front of the house as one sees it from a distance, showing how it fits in with the neighborhood. since you probably have a very large front yard, you might show it from where you see the house upon entering the property. If that's too far away, maybe as you're seeing it from a hundred or more feet away. Hard to be too exact without knowing what you're working with. You might also include a view from Google Satellite if that will help explain the overall layout.

Hey artemis; a great site you are fortunate to have! Thought I might share something on deer and landscaping in our neck of the woods. First your neighbors are a source of a wealth of information. If you're shy or don't care to go face to face with them just observe what is planted and doing well in their landscapes and gardens. It will tell you a great deal. If you're the gregarious type seek them out and talk to them, the local garden club even, or county ag, extension. Here in Tioga County NY z4 to z5; deer population is I think out of control. Plants that may have been possible to grow years past are not so easy now. You see plants and wonder, how did this fellow manage to grow this, it would never survive at my place. But they are mature plants that were started back in a time when the deer were less. Now they are mature specimens and mostly tall enough to be out of the reach of deer. It is very hard to tell what the deer will eat and seems to very site specific, to the point that things I can't keep the deer from eating, I see doing fine a half mile down the road! Yews are serious deer food on my place, anything lower than 5' is browsed, yet other homes in the woods here have them and they seem untouched. After 20 years trial and error the standbys, as far as the evergreens go, for relative deer resistance are juniper, spruce and pine and box. I often here junipers disparaged, I don't know why, beautiful to me if properly cared for. And tons to choose from, from ground hugging a few inches tall to our native juniper, the eastern red cedar, which is not a cedar at all but juniperus virginiana and can become a full sized and beautiful tree. Every shape and size in between. The same is true for the spruces and pines, of which there are hundreds to choose from, forms, sizes and colors. I keep experimenting and trying new things, lately inkberry; ilex glabra a supposedly deer resistant holly and larch; larix. Such a variety that a completely successful garden is possible with just these few species. Those are the species I can rely on to be deer resistant, as I said I keep experimenting, but with the mindset that I am taking a chance when planting and not to be surprised at seeing a well gnawed stump were a plant used to be. Here's a link to some of the conifers available for the landscape. http://www.iselinursery.com/

We don't know how far along in the building process you are but Emmarene and Gardengal bring up good points about hiring a designer and particularly hiring one capable of designing hardscape. Usually, the initial hardscape and planting is designed by the builder or, more commonly, a subcontractor who has very little design experience that the builder hires. It seems almost universal that new homes get a walkway that is sub-minimal, which degrades the perception of value of the house. Plantings are usually not thought out for the long term but for how they look on the day of acceptance by the owner. Even if you hire a designer though, it would be good to think through the general direction that you wish to go, which is something that you can get help with here. Many professional designers are capable of taking you down the wrong road if you don't have an idea of where you want to go. If the lot has been cleared, it would be helpful to see pictures. Usually, it is not too helpful to see individual shots of small areas, or computer-made panoramas. The best thing is to show a wide swath of scenery made of slightly overlapping photos that are taken from a single point of view while panning the camera. Only change the camera location to show a different swath of scenery. You'll be more or less developing plantings that use the house as a backdrop (foundation plantings), and plantings that don't (they are either freestanding or at the perimeter of the lot.) For the foundation plantings especially, it would be useful/necessary to see are elevation drawings of the house. If you have them please post. For the plan that you've already submitted, please clarify which is the front of the house. Is there a garage?