In terms of color, I have a friend with a similar color house and we put in some chartreuse plantings, which really popped against that blue. She had more room than you, but there were spireas (Gold Mounds??), with hostas (Captain Kirks), hakone grass, some creeping gold-leaved euonymous, trying to think of what else. She did have a bit more sun than you, although these may do well in your situation. To offset the chartreuse we had darker greens (some hollies and boxwood) and purples - heuchera, nandina, weigelia, etc. Gold chamycyparis are beautiful too, IMO, but not sure about sun requirements and they might be too big to plant near your foundation - although any shrub probably shouldn't be as close to your foundation as that fence permits, now that I think about it. Charming house! :) Dee

Landscaping for a ranch is mostly low shrubs or perennials punctuated with taller shrubs to break the long bland sameness. However, your home's style is anything but bland. Below is a mockup of this basic landscaping style. I've placed 2 sets of tall narrow broadleaf evergreens to flank windows. These happen to be Ilex crenata 'Sky Pencil', but they may not work for you. Between them is a medium sized flowering shrub. In front of these is a perennial edging or groundcover. Yellow flowering shrubs or perennials fill in on the corners and flank the entry. I don't know how wide your flower beds are between the house and the walkway, so I don't know how much room you have to layer plants. The point of my mockup is to show how plant types and color are repeated. Consider measuring the length and depth of beds and drawing out plans where 1' equals 1" on paper. You can use this to get an idea of how many plants you need to fill the spaces. Visit your local nursery for recommendations of plants that will work in your climate and soil. Pay attention to the expected mature size of plants. If a plant will eventually be 5' wide plant it 3' from a wall or walkway. This could mean that instead of the one medium sized shrub you have to use 3 smaller shrubs that won't crowd your walkway. Remember that "dwarf" only means smaller than the species, so make sure the mature size will fit. New plants will not fill the space for several years, so fill in around them with annuals and biennials. I have not covered the water meter, but it shouldn't be noticed among the plantings. Use taller annuals or biennials in front of and around it so the eye is drawn to them. As shrubs mature the water meter will be less and less conspicuous.

big city location would help .. as z6 is about half the US and rather divergent ... with that darn sidewalk.. [i hate buliders and architects for the lack of imagination in dealing with this] .... if you want any kind of shrubs or conifers.. or small trees... work out into the useless lawn ... with that couple feet of garden bed.. you really dont have space for anything but annuals and perennials inside the walkway .. unless you want to be out there shearing twice a year .. ergo.. you would have to kill me.. before i ever planted box in there ... and if those two shrubs are still by the garage.. get rid of them also ... really.. one of them is square.. whats that all about .. lol ... and im thinking it might be an invasive burning bush ... but that is just a gut reaction... but i just had taco bell.. so take that for what its worth .. lol... maybe my gut is lying to me ...lol .. also.. while its barren .... work that soil off the lattice under the deck ... avoid future problems ... either dirty plastic.. or rooting wood ... and be honest.. is the lawn used for anything other than complaining someone has to mow the lawn every few days ... if not.. start with some nice trees out on the lawn ... make you landscape 3 dimensional.. instead of focusing on a few feet right on the foundation ... never forget..... foundation plants are to hide the foundation.. not to BE PLANTED on the foundation.. thats the root problem with your square shrub ... its a giant plant.. planted when it was a babe.. on the foundation. with no real idea of its future potential ... lets not do that again ... and as part of the 5 year plan.. i would hide the foundation on the extreme right.. and no one wants to look at the basement walls ... do you have two front doors .. reminds me of the old doctors houses in my rural town ... kinda cool ... anyway.. plan and plant your backbones.. trees ... in teh proper planting season ... plan out future shrub locations not in the foundation ... and for this year.. just plant some pretty flowers in teh beds you now have... and if it takes 3 to 5 years.. so be it ... it will be stunning ... if you want the instant gratification.. as embo noted.. just go to big box.. and buy whatever strikes your fancy ... but search out future potential.. before you plant that babe which will end up a 10 foot problem ... ken

It doesn't appear that the wanted pathway will be affected by the position of the stump. It will be close but isn't directly in the way. Not every path has to be dug deeply into the soil. You need only dig out enough soil to remove the grass. The simplest pathway would be to set stepping stones directly into the grass. Or, buy more of the scallop-top concrete border and lay it from either side of the gate to the front of the border. Cover the soil between with a weed barrier landscape fabric that allows moisture to pass through, then cover that with gravel. Continue the path to the right in front of the porch in the same manner until it intersects the main entrance walkway. I recommend a crushed stone gravel as being more stable to walk on than a rounded gravel. However, concrete tiles or paving stones can also be placed down the middle of the path for walking ease. Where the tree is planted depends on how big it will get. What does the tag say? Regardless, don't plant any tree close to underground utilities, which can eventually be damaged by roots.