I grow Arum too, but they come up in the fall, stand all winter, bloom in the spring and then go dormant until fall when you see their seed stalks. Great plant, but not a great substitute for caladiums. I am not certain that it is winter hardy, but Calla bulbs might be a suitable substitute for caladiums in your area and would enjoy similar growing conditions. The white calla called "Crowborough" is supposed to be the most winter hardy type. I saw it offered by Arrowhead Alpines. You have only two choices: pick another plant or dig your caladium bulbs each year (#3 buy new caladium bulbs each year) :)

Hi Jason. Whatever gets talked about or recommended via a picture still needs to be worked out in plan view. So you'll either need to draw a plan or maybe you already have a plot plan of the yard that you can use in order to create a "to scale" drawing (map) of your walk and drive. It's the only way that you'll know that everything fits properly and it'll serve as the instructions when the time comes to build. Depending on where you live and what is required by your applicable building department, it may be useful for permitting. You'll need to check with them. It looks like your drive will be straightforward and without any unusual quirks. You'd want to add a backup turnaround space at the left side since you'll always be turning around and never backing down to the street. Because the grade falls off there, you'll need to bring it up for the turnaround space, accounting for drainage so that you don't end up blocking any route of escaping water. You'd want to make the space large enough to get in and out of the car and also blend the flanking space into the grade fairly gently. You don't want a sudden drop-off at the edge of the turnaround space. You may want to make it large enough for two cars if it must also do duty as a parking space while simultaneously being used as a turnaround. A chronic, ongoing problem created by builders is in making the walkway to the front entrance too narrow. If too narrow it cheapens the look of the whole house and feels unpleasant to use, especially if there is more than one person approaching the door at a time. I would call 4' the absolute minimum in all cases. 5' or 6' may be fine. Once one arrives at the front door/porch vicinity the walk should expand into a landing that fits the set-up of the porch and the steps. Steps also need to be fairly wide. How wide depends on porch. Another chronic, ongoing problem with the walk created by builders is placing it too close to the house, consequently killing the possibilities for nice landscape plantings and pinching what plants can exist so they look like they are desperately and distortedly trying to escape. For the health of the plants and the house, plants should not be jammed onto the foundation wall. Shrub centers should be set at least 30" away. Larger shrubs or small tree forms would be set even farther away. In my world a bed should be minimum 6' depth from front to back. If push comes to shove, I would concede to 5' but not like it as much. 6' of bed plus 4' of walk is 10' away from the house as a minimum. It looks like you could do that without running into trouble with the hill. In the real world there are constraints that sometimes force one into making concessions so we do them when we have to and avoid them when we can. Fortunately, the porch projects outward from the house (since the front door is hidden from the drive) helping to make the destination obvious to a guest. You'll want the entrance to the walk to be obvious as well. The house looks a little exposed. A couple of small or medium trees at the right side would help it look integrated into the surroundings. The hill looks like a b to mow. I'd consider converting it at some point to some type of farm friendly, rough and tumble groundcover. Some flowering or fall color trees on the hill (not blocking the view of house from below) could be a great seasonal thrill show.

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

Please give us your location (nearest big city & state). Zone doesn't address soil type or rainfall patterns. You should consider removing the river birch before it damages your sidewalk. I don't understand your desire to remove the current shrubs then replace with boxwood. You're exchanging one green blob for another. If that's a burning bush in the third photo, it should be removed: it will become much too large for that location. Do you expect the crape myrtle to be a tree form or die back shrub?