It is difficult for me to envision how the beds relate to each other and the house. Can you go out 30' or so from the front door and take a series of photos standing in one spot and rotating left to right to create a series of slightly overlapping photos from one property bound to the other?. Without being able to see the whole picture it is difficult to make suggestions.

NHBabs

Here's a pic I had been working on, sorry it's so shadow-y it's the only one on hand. I can try to do the overlapping pics tomorrow.

(note: obviously photo is photoshopped; crown of guava was damaged so it's assymetrical right now, i'm planting 3 more firebushes once more cuttings root so the center bed is symmetrical, and that's closer to the final look of the redbud)

I think there is a distinct difference between landscaping and gardening. I am not claiming this to be a perfect, formal definition of either. It's just a quick attempt to get a point across (so don't start overanalyzing it!) Landscaping is using plants to "decorate" a house and its land; gardening is using a yard to enjoy plants. Depending on the viewpoint one most subscribes to, the differences of outcome would likely be profound. Here, I get the impression that the yard is used for gardening purposes and that's the intended direction. Am I wrong?

@Yardvaark(9A)
Oh
okay sorry if this is the wrong board then. My question was less so
about plants and more so about.. silhouettes and shapes so I thought
this was a better spot to ask the question. But I guess that explains
the overall different attitude. Thanks for mentioning that difference.If there's a way for a mod (if Houzz even has that system) to change this to the proper forum they can feel free to do so.

Also I realize this might not be the most "trendy" or "commercial" look but we favor lush and 'overplanted' spaces so I appreciate the feedback and I'm sure it's sound advice for people with a different set of needs (and perhaps a more "normal" set of sensibilities lol) but this is kind of the look we're going for. I mostly just wanted composition-input with regard to the positioning of the yaupons. Right now I'm still torn on either keeping them as a border (but
shifting them back a bit so they actually have room to develop into a
proper bowl shape) or putting them in the back of the bed.

(['m not concerned about the coontie since I measured and it seemed to be okay but I will keep an eye on them and will move them if necessary.

Before I pulled up and gave away the sagos my mom hated the bed looked like this:

Everything we got is basically a replacement for the general look, minus the spines that hit you when you try to walk through the path. I made a few changes (I decided it'd make more sense for the triangular bed to have a shorter "tall plant" than the bed near the house, since the triangular bed is in front of the other.) but otherwise we wanted to keep the general vibe.

I will be moving the viburnum, though, I would've never planted them there.]

Oh and thanks for sharing the image. I have considered a groundcover (evolus/dwarf morning glory since we already have some growing somewhere) but I'm worried it'll be overtaken by weeds since this yard gets very Darwinian when I'm not visiting. Guess I'll just have to try and see.

And you're right, heat+transplanting is a bad mix (and I imagine Southern California is even worse because less rain). However, yaupon are one of the few plants I definitely think can handle it, very hard to kill them.

^

And all that is why I only wanted to focus on that bed only or else I ramble wayyy too much lol sorry

No, if the question was less about specific plants and more about shapes and overall form, this is the right spot. I think because you focussed so much in your question on specific plants and how to shuffle them around rather than what would look best for the house, it seemed like that was your main interest. Generally here the focus is on using a garden to enhance a building and what gets discussed is more frequently form, shape, color, bed lines, etc.

If form, etc is the goal, what are you envisioning in this space? Right now, there are many plants, some of which from others' comments are perhaps inappropriately large for the space, crowding a relatively narrow walkway, so to my eye, this makes it feel a bit less than friendly to a visitor. The shrubs look to have been fairly severely pruned to keep them off the walkway, but this really isn't the healthiest treatment of them and they will decline over time unless the pruning is changed. Also, because there are taller plants on the street side of the walkway, it is difficult to see the walk until you are right on it. I do like that there is nothing tall blocking the view to the door. I might extend that so that the entire porch area is visible since it's a nice feature to the home and only grow low plants across that part of the house. Perhaps a vine on the wall to the right of the porch will give some taller interest without interfering with the view towards the overall entry.

My other comment is that there doesn't seem to be a coherent theme to the beds. I see palms and other tropical plants, some classic 'southern' plants, a woodland Rising Sun(?) redbud and some echinacea, a prairie plant. That's a lot of range for a couple of beds. Perhaps some of them ultimately could be transplanted to another part of the yard once you have decided what to do with this area. If you are good with photo manipulation, I would probably start by seeing if you could "erase" what is there currently so that there is a blank slate to work from, and then do some research on the ultimate size of the plants that are there so that you have some idea if any of them will be appropriate there in the long run. How flexible is your mom as far as the front garden?

Edited to add:

We were cross posting. You can have lush without crowding the walkway. Here I think height is more of an issue than the number of plants, and a groundcover with good mulch will work to add a full look without the clautrophobia around the front door that won't get overtaken by weeds between visits (how often are you there?)

Hi Jay, I'm curious-- from what perspective will your mother enjoy viewing the garden most often? Does she sit in the chair by the pot on the porch? Or will she enjoy it most often coming and going on the walkway? That would influence my suggestions.

@NHBabsMy mom really likes the idea of opening up the porch! And thanks for your insight in general, I appreciate it. I'll see how redbud is doing in fall and play around with how the bed looks without it in photoshop. I think I still prefer the bed with height (we have a mature red maple and a mature laurel oak on either side of the house and having nothing treeform in the middle looks kind of stark to me for some reason).

As for the mulch+groundcover, that is true, I'm still just worried since I'm only really here summers but it's worth a shot.

As far as theme goes: Since I've always disliked how narrowly people thought of the "tropical" (imagine if we claimed every style using deciduous plants was "temperate"), always thought of as the exotic rather than the default, I kind of wanted to combine this "tropical" with something our very English colonist-inspired society thinks of as more nostalgic. I really love cottage garden styles and so does my mom so ideally we'd have "Florida cottage garden" be the look but that isn't really achievable in this neighborhood (would make yard stick out way too much + is more work to maintain than parents have rn). So basically what we're pursuing is a watered down version of that. Hopefully that makes more sense now.

But mostly, I just plant stuff that works +
has some utility (either for wildlife or is edible). If there's a plant in the yard without these qualities, it was here before I was.

I would say I orient more around color than style (oranges & blues repeat a lot, reds are avoided) and I think I should make that more apparent in my choices of annuals and perennials to better tie things together.

Mom's somewhat flexible but we're unwilling to make any big "structural" changes (e.g. removing anything large or dramatically altering the shape of a bed). We're looking for the biggest bang here without too much effort.. if that makes sense.

--

I'm now thinking that perhaps the yaupons are enough if we want to keep the porch "open". Then underneath I can have a mix of Evolvulus 'Blew My Mind' (groundcover I have on hand/can propagate), existing gaura, and then add in some of the purple coneflowers I got going + 'black and bloom' salvias to make it go with the other beds more?

Now it's just a matter of do I want them towards the back of that bed or towards the front (but not too close to path)?

@kiminpl My mom doesn't use the porch much but my dad likes to a lot. Once this is done though I do plan on buying a gardenia or an abelia in a large pot and putting it in the porch area so that might give her more incentive to use it c: so I think orienting it around "looking good from porch" might be a good idea.

My question had to do with where to keep plants and where to remove plants. The hollies make a decent background to your flowering choices, but I would remove them from the front of what you deem the main point of view to allow flowering choices to spill more fully into view. Any plants requiring constant shearing should be reconsidered. A trim once or twice a year, fine; but monthly? No.

Admittedly I am more of a plant geek than a provider of "curb appeal."

Any thought of repeating the coneflower in the bed nearest the house? A scented gardenia will be nice in a pot.

The pineapple guava, as it grows, may be improved by removing the lowest limbs. Allow the canopy to spread above the bed while keeping clear of the walk and porch, thus a higher crown may be better as it matures. It would allow better viewing of the garden from the house and porch too.

I was not saying that you were in the wrong forum, but that it looked like you were headed in a direction such that the house seems almost immaterial to where the yard & beds are going. Though, I'm sure there are many here who would love to help you with that.