Thank you, Kiminpl. The canopy tree does indeed shade the front of the planting bed until about noon. Then the house and tall palm trees shade the bed in the mid/late afternoon.

It would be helpful if you'd return to the yard with the camera and take additional pictures. I suggest you stand where I show a red + and take a panning set of photos that include the areas that are the blue rectangles. The panned photos must overlap slightly so we can see a continuous swath of scenery. All must be from same camera position.

It would look much better if you'd trim the shrubs to below the garage windows.

rksippel, in the shade, a Saribus rotundifolia (formerly in the Livistona genus) will do well when small, and give you some contrast to the feather palms. As it grows taller into the sun, it will continue to thrive. This applies if your low temps don't drop below, say 35F. I would place the palm where the small croton is and move the cardboard cycad to be placed about where the large agave is, or nearer to the lawn if possible. The Saribus is slower growing than your queen palms; start with a 5-gal size or larger if possible.

Thank you, Yardvaark - Here are the additional pics you requested. Yes, i do agree I need to do some shrub trimming under those garage windows!

Oh wow. That tree canopy. :D Forget what I said about the Saribus rotundifolia. How about some Alpinia zerumbet? The variegated leaves will brighten up the shade, and you could repeat the plant where the hibiscus will be removed.

Those pics will only work for front planting as still pretty far away. On that subject ...

It is not a good idea to allow large trees, which must become civilized, to grow too much without controlling their structure. When this tree has a spread of 80', you're not going to want it hanging over the driveway or punching into the house. It must be limbed up to get to a height compatible with the surroundings. But its tendency is to branch very low so limbing it up long after it should have been done means you'll have to have suffer the rest of its life with an unattractive trunk structure. The trunk should be doing its final branching fairly close to the final canopy .... not at 7' or 8' off of the ground. We see these gangly oak trunk configurations all over Florida. It is better if you start limbing it up when young so you're not stuck with the ugly form.

The tiny bed under the oak is way out of proportion to the tree itself. My yellow circle is about as small as it could stand to be at its present size. Eventually, the yard will be so shaded that the grass below will not grow and you'll need to reconfigure for groundcover. Too, crotons are not the plant to put under this tree. You might consider a solid bed of flaming torch bromeliads. They like the shade and they're spectacular when they bloom.

The farthest corner of bed at left of garage could stand to be enlarged a little, too and the dip removed from in front of the garage windows.

As I mentioned, the shrubs below those garage windows should be trimmed to the bottom of the windows. That's true at the house too, except those windows are so low that the plants need to be changed to groundcover that doesn't grow taller than the windows. If you need a little more interest at the house you could put in something just a little taller flanking the columns only.

I'm going to skip addressing the bed that surrounds the drive even though it is the subject of this thread. Maybe you could take a panning scene of that bed while standing at the center of the parking court, looking outward.

Don't we wish there was some hedge or some kind of screen that blocked out most of the view of the side of neighbor's house and garage? I know I wouldn't want to see that every time I drove in the driveway.

Thank you for your tips, Yardvaark. I do agree that a screen shielding the view of the neighbor's house would be great. Unfortunately, our property line is just about where the edge of your yellow circle around the oak tree sits.

As you suggested, I did take some closer shots of the narrow planting bed. This bed is about 7 feet wide and the property line is about 10 feet further out from the edge.

Thank you for your help with this difficult area!

I would

• simplify. Don't have all those individual different kinds of plants loosely gathered around the edge. Create large groups of like plants. Fewer species total.
• Don't completely hem in the courtyard area by surrounding it 100% with bed. Let it be surrounded by "Islands but where lawn path connects.
• Get rid of the mulch look by planting the exposed mulch areas with groundcover. Underplant the leggy plants with groundcover. (Some groundcovers that might be useful for you are: 'Aztec' Liriope where you need medium height and light color, dwarf mondo where you need really short & dark, Caladiums where you need color.

Thank you, Yardvaark. I do like the island idea and agree that large groupings will make a better appearance. Now to go do it!