I did lots of thinking on this and came up with this non-constructive thought. If you were to want to sell you home, you would probably ask some real estate agents for proposals (price, their way of marketing, commission, etc.). Once you determined which one you want to represent you and home, the agent will take some pictures as part of the marketing (mostly online anymore). The agent is looking out for you, but also seeking the sale. If the agent believes that something is not right with the photo taken, then you would have a tendency to listen. A real estate agent is not an artist, nor a landscape person, but a good one will have seen lots of homes and knows what works and what doesn't. Stand at the curb. Take a picture, walk to the left and right several paces and take more pictures. Walk up the drive a bit and take pictures, not just of the house, but the view from the house. What would you want to do if you were thinking about buying your home? Now for some other comments: You have many horizontal lines on the actual house. The windows and doors are rectangle. All of that is very typical. Your yard counters that look a bit, but it also moves the eye in an awkward manner. You need to negate that. In your first photo, it appears that the house is leaning because of all that. I concur on getting rid of all that grows between the current walkway and the house. I concur that you ought to not have a straight line walk to replace it. My suggestion to balance the overall look would be to create a small berm on the left side, about 20' out from the house. Nothing large, but something that would break up that falling away appearance. In the first photo, there is lots of shade coming from the left side, I'll assume that there are some tall trees there. I'm a big promoter of color in the front yard; something that complements the colors of the house. Some might think it trite, but a burning bush on the berm would look good as the leaves are changing color this time of year. Those can be pruned to shape or let it go. I would also include blooming perennials that show different colors throughout the year. Poppies might work, as might some Veronica. There are many, many options for that kind of thing. Jim

FlowerLady here, and a bit freaked as several have said I would know what to do here. YIKES! I've been gardening on a shoe string for years. I grow natives, shrubs, annuals,perennials, roses, herbs. I live in the s.e. part of the state though. I have not been able to grow lavender here, except as an annual. It does not like the humidity. I love my roses, jasmine, cat's whiskers, moses in the bullrushes, basket plants, snake plants, ferns, plumeria, bougainvillea, crotons,plumbago, hibiscus, palms, succulents, Mexican heather, Mexican bush sage, Mexican petunias, chicory, elephant ears, aloe, flame vines, other flowering vines, orchids and many others. I grow from seeds and cuttings. I just mingle everything together for my own kind of tropical cottage garden. Visit the Florida Gardening forum here at GW. I'll leave a link at the bottom and you will get lots of great ideas for your part of the state. Check out what people are growing in your area also and look in garden centers. I love your house and think you will have lovely gardens once you are moved in and playing in the dirt. What are the little shrubs in your circular garden surrounding the palm tree? Whatever you do, don't stress, just have fun as your garden comes together. It's an ongoing process, something to enjoy every day. FlowerLady Here is a link that might be useful: Florida Gardening

I think this house (already is really cute, and) would look great in a stark white/black combo or even off-black/black combo. I love shrubs but this one is big enough that the scale looks odd to me. You CAN rejuvenation prune it and see what happens. Or remove it go with the some spiky grasses, cast iron plants, a blue-green hosta, or if your climate allows, even snake plants. I think all of those would look great. I don't see colorful flowers in front of this one. And just for good measure, that house is so cute!

As for the lawn, knowing your zone is meaningless. Zone 5 runs from Maine to the Aleutians. We need the name of the town where you live. That tells us more about your soil and climate than the USDA zone does. I'm going to assume you're going to trim that tree up so people can walk under it and stand upright. It will still cast so much shade that only fescue will grow under it. You could have Kentucky bluegrass in the sunlight, but only fescue will work under that much shade. Now is not a good time to seed, but the alternative is weeds. I would encourage you to understand that seeding now is a waste of time, effort, money, and hope. If you spent the effort, you're going to be disappointed in July when it is all weeds, anyway. Suck it up for now. You can fix it right in August. Seeding in the fall gives the new grass time to mature before the summer heat. Fill any holes you have, but don't use too much soil. Don't topdress 1/4-inch just because the yard is doing poorly. Soil is easy to fix. Spot spray Weed-b-Gon NOW to take care of the dandelions and other broadleaf weeds. Two weeks ago would have been better, but now is the next best time. That gives you time to evaluate the effectiveness before the summer heat hits when it's too warm to spray. Set your mower to the highest setting for the rest of the season. Tall grass is much healthier than short grass. It also helps prevent weed invasions. I would fertilize now with an organic fertilizer. If you want to use a synthetic fertilizer like Scott's, then wait until Memorial Day - no earlier. Summer watering is most important. The deep and infrequent is the mantra for watering. Deep means 1 inch all at one time. With a lawn on a slope like yours, it will have to be done slowly to prevent runoff. You can measure 1 inch by putting cat food or tuna cans around the yard. Then turn on the sprinklers and time how long it takes to fill all the cans. That will be your watering time from now on. As for frequency, with temps lower than 70, deep water once per month. Mother Nature usually takes care of that for you. With temps between 70 and 80, water once every 3 weeks. With temps between 80 and 90, water once every 2 weeks. With temps in the 90s, water once per week. Use this schedule as a guide, not gospel. The important thing is DEEP watering and never water every day (or 2 or 3). Deep watering makes this all possible. My watering time with my oscillator sprinkler on full sweep is 8 hours. That is pretty slow, but runoff can still happen. The time depends on your water pressure, hoses, sprinklers, etc. If you get the watering and mowing right, it's going to look much better for the rest of the season. Come August, write back to the lawn forum for advice on reseeding.