It's just the photo. Patio slopes a few inches, just enough for water runoff. The door was existing and we replaced the french door with a solid one bc this is the door to the tool room/utility room. There is another door to the den that isn' showing in the photo. The top few steps were existing, but I agree that they look a bit odd bc they aren't the same height. Our plan - ultimately - is to screen the porch. Next stop is the retaining wall. I'm starting a new thread for it.

Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it. And you have a great point about the path. Our stairs down from the porch will be 7' wide & I figured on a 5' wide path. I know that might seem TOO wide, but ... The steps are that wide because if we want a gate that matches the porch railing then we're limited to 3.5' or 7' in width. 3.5' seemed too narrow, so we're going with 7' wide stairs. I want a gate on the porch so that I can have our dog on the front porch while I'm out there (or while I'm weeding in the front yard, once we have plants). In theory I could tie him, but then he'd just get the leash wrapped around porch furniture every 5 minutes. Also - good point on the tree in the inspiration photo. I want to add some smallish ornamental tree (maybe a redbud) but will place it in between the large trees we have & the corner of the house. I'm thinking roughly where the pile of concrete rubble is in front of the dumpster (in the pic below look above the hood of the blue car). This is a bird's eye view of what I think we'll do. The planting beds are as deep as the steps, so about 6'. That should give me room to put in some plants without encroaching onto the pathway. The back corner of the house is where the backyard fence ties in, so the planting bed can end abruptly there without looking weird. And eventually we'll have to rebuild the steps to the breezeway (3-5 years from now): Either way we end up with an area that will probably be a dead zone between the house & breezeway but maybe something will survive. Heck, previous owners put a daylily there and the poor thing actually blooms (barely). It looks miserable, but it blooms.

Are there truly straight lines built into landscapes? Yes, the horizon is curved and a hanging spider may not be hanging from a truly perfect line, or a grove of poplars do not have perfect lines to them, but they are just about as straight as any straight walkways or vertical posts or horizontal rails that you'll find in a built landscape. There is a perspective by many which seems to start with a perceived notion that landscapes are supposed to be or at least strive to match nature. More often than not, a built landscape is designed to follow up the design and/or construction of very unnatural things. Sometimes it is within a natural context such as a cottage in the woods. Other times it is in totally built environments such as a parking lot on a city block. Most of the time, the composition is moving somewhat away from completely artificial form and material even if it is simply because plants are more natural than steel and their forms are never perfect. Why is there an assumption that when one is moving toward the natural he has certain thresholds that he must cross? This is really arbitrary. None will acheive 100% natural since the project's base is the man made situation that prompted the landscape design. It is inherently a transition from the artificial elements to a piece of the earth. That transition may be anywhere from extremely subtle to extremely abrubt. Usually, the idea is to achieve a logical balance where nature is not compromised more than it needs to be for the function of the building or whatever the man made situation is and that the function of the project is not compromised more than it needs to be for the sake of being "natural". Where is there a perfect edge of a planting bed in nature whether it is curved or straight? Where are planting compositions occurring in nature where everything has its own space without encroaching other plants or being succeeded in return? No matter where you put these thresholds, it is arbitrary. Certainly, any of us can decide where we most like these thresholds and design toward them and that is fine. But, wherever you stake your claim there will always be someone more natural to one side of you and someone who is supporting the built work more to the other side of you. Defining our own likes and dislikes as being factually right and wrong is rediculous. Making observations of how these affect the landscape can certainly be factually correct. But it can be equally factually correct that an artificial (straight line) layout can affect the landscape in a positive manor as well. Not everything is going to float everyone else's boat. That does not mean that they are wrong or not good. Style and personal taste are one thing. Whether something is effective or not can be a totally other matter.

Thanks for the replies and compliments. I'll try to answer your questions. It's hard to tell from the picture, but there is a flower bed on the other side adjacent to my house. You can barely see it on the 1st after picture. The grass pathway runs right between the two flower beds. Here is a picture of the flower bed by the side of the house. The crepe myrtle has been there for a number of years. The pathway needed to be a certain width (to please DH and his riding lawnmower), so I just took a string that width and sprayed where I wanted the flower beds to be (it's not a straight shot from gate to back porch as it 'curves'). The hardest part was removing the grass, and DS talked me into renting a sod cutter, which I am so glad he did. It made the job sooo much easier. It removed about 2" of the top of the soil, and got most of the grass out. I placed edging down (it's a little squiggly but the plants hang over and hide it), then planted the plants, and added about 2" of mulch, which brought the soil level back up to the level of the grass pathway. This project was done last August, so it is now 1 year old. For plants, I used pretty much what was available, but I predominately wanted yellow and red flowers. I have small (about 2' tall) cannas, coreopsis, lambs ear, bulbine, hot lips sage, sedum, salvia, coneflowers, iris, yellow barberries, and some 'special' plants (one each) of brugmasia (sp?) and tea tree. I also added some evergreen shrubs to fill out this large space and to have something to look at in the winter. They include a dwarf buford holly at the end, heleri hollies, a couple of yews (not doing good in our heat), and dwarf indian hawthornes. The rock rose I planted has been the biggest 'filler' plant, and I have also recently purchased some lily bulbs for other places that need some filling in. The flower bed on the house side has a portion that is mostly shade and in that area I filled in with more hollies, hydrangeas, hostas and ferns. We have a sprinkler system, but we also use a watering tractor that pulls along a hose and is easy to put right down the middle of the path. I would definitely recommend the sod cutter. Hauling the mulch was the worst part, but it has not been bad to keep maintained, and the bees and butterflies are really loving it.