I should have mentioned, in order to avoid distortion, post the pictures individually instead of making them into computer generated panoramas. Much of the front of the house cannot be ameliorated by plantings, since more than 50% of it is covered by paving. White may not be the best color for the garage door. Maybe it should be different than trim or body color. Seems like the left side could use a tree in an island bed and the tree @ right could use a bed. Some groundcover, perennials and annuals could screen the foundation. There could be a spreading shrub off the corner of the front porch. I don't think that retaining walls and terraces are necessary or that they would resolve perceived shortcomings of the overall scene. Part of the solution will come when the existing young trees grow to larger size.

I grew up in a somewhat rural/somewhat suburban town in SE Michigan, with a lake down the street (and 7 others just in my town) and woods behind the house. I was a sort of mermaid-wood nymph. It was awesome. We are very urban now, just 1 mile from the border of Chicago, with an expressway and an elevated train half a block away. The kids do their best with our yards, treating 4 front yards as one long playing strip (we are all friends in those 4 houses) and going a few blocks to the school if they need a field. It works well enough. So yeah, we do have to be mindful of that when planting. The house I grew up in had several trees in the front yard, but the yard was so big it didn't matter. Our current house had bushes along *both* property lines when we moved in, but we removed the ones separating our yard from the other yard with kids (the opposite house, that is in danger of being eaten by its tree, has no kids). kitasei: when you say "yours may be an Olmsted," do you mean the sapling? I would be very impressed if anyone could identify that tiny tree at this point. I have no idea what it is. When they took out our ash, we put ourselves on the "new tree list" and 6 months later came home to a sapling. I think they are being careful about what they plant now, having found out in hindsight that planting a row of just one kind of tree is a very bad decision. I still miss the tree canopy. It was beautiful. I also had another look at the parkway and don't think there is enough space for an additional tree, because of the placement of our neighbor's tree (you can't see the tree in the pic but you can see the shadow) and the tiny sidewalk to the street. I will make do. At least the sapling is kind of in front of our house. Down the block, where 2 neighbors' mature but dying trees were taken down, the parkway sapling got planted in front of the 2 houses' side yards. Those 2 houses are essentially sharing a tree, which won't provide much shade for either house as it grows. That's unfortunate, but it was the only place on the parkway they could plant a new tree because of where the other 2 had been.

South facing is a fantastic opportunity for some amazing shrubs. Some other low maintenance shrubs which survive cold temps and stay compact include: potentilla 'Pink Beauty', weeping carragana, gold spirea, and golden barberry. I also agree above with hardy hydrangeas combined with evergreens as mentioned. Smaller hardy hydrangeas are 'Little Lime', 'Little Quickfire', and 'Bo Bo'. 'Annabelle' also does well for me. There are also many compact hardy roses. 'Never Alone' is one example. As for placement, I suggest having any taller shrubs behind the rock on the left. This could be a good focal point.

thank you for the ideas guys! I'm not very good at visualizing things so this really helps. Yardvaark, i never considered how bushy a Japanese maple would look there. thanks for pointing that out. dig doug it's funny that you put an evergreen next to the house. that was my husband's initial suggestion and i remembered telling him i thought it would look horrible lol but it looks great in the picture. what are good trees to plant in the front area?