Thanks for the replies. The house is in central Massachusetts. It faces West/SW and gets a lot of sun. I was hoping to put painted ferns under the birch. Do you think the birch will provide enough shade given how much sun hits the yard? There are some very large pine trees on the right side of the yard that I didn't show. They are on the property line of the neighbor's yard. I hadn't really thought much about larger trees out front as I don't want to hide the house. I just had a 10' tall wall of arborvitae pulled out from the street line against the wall that completely blocked the street view of the house. Do you have some suggestions as to where you think a larger tree or two might go well? Also, do you know if the Japanese holly in front of the house will be a manageable foundation plant? The tag on the nursery says they mature at 4'x4' but I've seen conflicting info online that lists them growing much larger. You are correct about the squares, they are 2'. Also, the wall is just decorative. It is plain concrete at the moment and pretty ugly. It was hidden by the bushes I just pulled out. My plan is to cover it in stone veneer instead of spending the money to have it removed. Also, the software I used is called realtime landscaping plus 5. It was pretty easy to use but cost me $80. I figured I would get more enjoyment out of the $80 buying the software and trying to design myself instead of paying someone to do the design for me. So far the software has been easy to use and I'm happy with the purchase. I was just hoping some folks with more experience could look it over and let me know if I'm doing anything crazy. This is my first gardening experience and I'm having a good time so far but want to make sure I'm on the right track.

Hi KS. I saw some photos you posted in another thread, but now I can't find them. I saw a 2 story white house with wood siding and a 2nd story deck, lot sloping toward the back. It appeared to be mostly grass and dirt in the back, and was that a driveway going down to the small shed at the property line? Then a nice green wooded area behind you, lots of tall, dense trees. I can imagine a graded patio off the back of the house bordered by a low stone retaining wall, with steps down to a grass terrace that can serve as a driveable surface for the rare instances you need to drive down to the shed. Then a third lower terrace, densely planted with medium-height mounding shrubs that will flower seasonally, maybe even a small water feature. The patio will have to be fairly wide and deep to contain a fire feature in a safe location. Consider the direction of prevailing winds, and how you will sit around the fire -- permanent bench seating? A collection of comfortable outdoor seating? Be sure the patio is large enough to allow for all that. Plan your lighting at the same time -- uplights built into the patio floor? Overhead strings of lights? Lanterns on low posts on either side of the steps? A lot will depend on your budget; terraces and stone retaining walls will be expensive, but will add value to your home and your family will enjoy them for many years to come.

"We've had a few landscape designers come out to give us ideas, but most of them want to over-plant and turn the place into a forest." There is pressure in the industry to go in this direction and it comes from everywhere: the client, the boss, the contractors. Everybody wants to squeeze more plants in if they can. Part of this is impatience. Everyone wants quick or instant results. Part of it comes from the urge to sell product. And part of it comes from peer pressure; a designer may not feel like they're "doing enough" professionally if they aren't providing the fullest look. I felt this in my early days of work and it took a long time to resist. It's a nice looking, good sized house, but the walk to the front porch is seriously undersized relative to everything else. Unfortunately, it cheapens the look of everything else. The walk and the step should be the width (or nearly) of the opening between the porch posts. Due to the grade, it would probably require installing a small retaining wall. (There really ought to be a retaining wall there now. I can picture maintenance difficulty and erosion problems on the way.) If you ever decide to fix it, I would explore the idea of eliminating one step, by tilting the walk slightly upward as it approaches the porch. (The picture doesn't indicate if this is feasible.) IMO, there is not enough shown in the pictures to give much feedback on planting. From the overall front, it looks like you could use some large trees off the corner of the house, but neither of these areas can be seen well. Nor can the complete foundation planting area be seen. (We only see the central part from a hard angle.) My picture is not a comprehensive look, but is only addressing the walk issue.

You need to work with a local Contractor who can first identify load bearing walls - if you have a design/build facility in your area I'd go there as they have both designers who can visualize and contractor's who can identify load and can do the work.