You’ve got 2 garages? I don’t see a carport. If you are thinking about construction happening then yes, you should probably wait on landscaping. This looks like infill housing/a subdivision, the ground is completely flat and the area as you mentioned is pretty devoid of vegetation. Your grass also looks thin and patchy, which suggests the possibility that the soil is poor? In subdivisions it isn’t uncommon I think, for the soil to be destroyed/removed. Where are you located?

Much of your planting decisions will be influenced by your Zone Location.

You'll need some shade and ornamental trees and then some curved layered plant beds to soften all those hard straight lines on your property.

Instead of a line of straight trees, you could consider a plant bed with layered plantings to form the 'fence' between you and your neighbor.

Shade plants under a large tree always make a great impression.

@J Williams: I don't really want to redo the driveways (I called them carports, haha) unless there is a significant payoff as far as appeal. We have garage and then a shop that we use regularly, but yeah, it's just a secondary converted garage to be honest.

I've not done a soil test, but we had gophers for a bit. It's still recovering, sadly. Our soil is mostly clay though, and rocky under about 8inch or so.

@BeverlyFLADeziner: We are smack in the middle of Zone 7; I've updated the post to reflect that. Thank you so much for your ideas. I actually like them quite a bit. I hadn't thought about making the garden so big on each plot, that makes sense to tie them in, and I've wanted a way to define our yard from the neighbors and I like the layering!

I've spoken to a few realtor friends and apparently low maintenance and evergreens are very high sellers for this area, so I'll factor that is as well. I like crepe myrtles, but they get that disease real easy around here. I had 3 small ones when we purchased, and they've all blackened and I don't know if they can be saved.

My #1 advice to anyone starting a new garden is to either improve the soil or strictly limit yourself to what grows in it. You can’t change or improve the soil so much with trees, but flower beds, you really should. My gut is saying you’ve got a pretty thin layer of topsoil, the minimum you should have to grow anything, the rocky layer may be subsoil? So if your budget is tight, start with the big stuff first, trees and shrubs, then add over time, but you may have to truck in loads of soil/compost for flower beds. If you have any farms near you, maybe they could be a source for organic stuff. If trees and shrubs are part of larger beds, plan out the bed sizes now, get the soil in, and mulch the whole kit and caboodle until you are ready to plant more. If the organic stuff is uncompsted you will have to wait to plant. Gardens happen in layers, the large stuff are usually the focal points, the mid stuff usually provides colour or texture, the smaller stuff usually covers the ground, so in the end you have a low maintenance garden with a lot of interest. The denser/the more layered the garden, the less weeds can grow. It;s also more effective to stick to repetitive colours and shapes for a more cohesive look than a scatter shot of one here and one there with the smaller stuff. So again, if budget is constricting you, buy only one type of small shrub, but get three, buy only one perennial but get 5 or 8 and so on.

We also live in a clay-heavy area. Do you have a tractor or access to one? We have had good luck using an auger and digging large holes even for modest plants, then I refill/plant with a compost/clay/sand mix. It would be exhausting to do it by hand, so machinery helps.

Another thing we do that takes time, but looks like you have the space for is get tree chipping when the crews are out clearing the power lines. they dump them for free and in a year or so we have great composted mulch/dirt! but, wouldn't do that without a tractor to move it around.

In addition to revamping the foundation planting, you need trees @ the house, street trees (which can't be shown in the view offered), and tall shrubs that could lessen the view of the 2nd garage.

@J Williams: I'll get the soil tested and definitely go from there. Thank you so much for the ideas of hitting up local places for resources, I'll remember that. Thank you for the cohesive comment. I was wanting blooms for all seasons I can, but I'll do that with smaller plants, and not have various trees scattered everything, I think.

@Cyndy: The auger and mixing before planting is genius. We planted a couple of peach trees in the back and it was the worst digging of my life. Thank you!

@Yardvaark: I don't mind the shop being shown, and I'd like ti to be viewed as a part of our house. I like the taller trees lining either side of the property line though. May I ask what program you used? Thank you!

Just a couple of comments. If your soil is predominately clay, then any amending should be done over a very large area, never restricted to individual planting holes. That just risks creating pockets of moisture retentive, rich soils surrounded by more slowly draining clay - essentially forming a soil bucket - and a strong potential for root rots. Ideally, the recommendation is to plant directly into your indigenous native soil and use any amendments as a topdressing or mulch. And you never want to dig a planting hole any deeper than the existing rootball of whatever you are planting. If you dig or loosen the soil any deeper than that, settling will occur and the rootball can sink. When in doubt, always plant high rather than too deeply! So using the auger and amended planting holes are really rather poor advice - easy on the gardener but hard on the garden/plants!!

And zone 7 covers a lot of real estate and only refers to the minimum winter temperatures you may endure in that area......it has very little input on what may grow well in various z7 locations. Zone 7 Texas is very different from z7 VA or z7 OR!! So we need a specific location to offer any plant suggestions.....like the nearest larger city.

You did mention trees and wildlife habitat, and for such a large scale project, I think you will find at least one small tree/large shrub will be needed. Here (I’m Canadian zone 5/6), I would reccomend service berry, redbud, silver bells, hop tree etc. Not sure what grows there. To expand your plant knowledge, go to a large nursery or botanic garden/arboretum/well designed public park.

"I don't mind the shop being shown, and I'd like it to be viewed as a part of our house."

There is a difference between being seen and being nakedly exposed. You'll need trees that are limbed up and allow view, but not much, or any, in the way of large shrub forms between the two drives ... though tree forms could work there. Still need street trees to counter the overall too-exposed feel of the property.

I draw with MS Paint. You'd need a touchscreen and stylus or be limited to the most basic tools.

Do you need to keep the straight driveway to the workshop?

@ gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9): I wonder if that's not what's already happened to be honest. Our yard pools in some places, most notably that third plot, and the the middle. It's a nightmare. Thanks for the tips, I definitely don't need more settling. We've lost several plants to too much water in the back.

And we really are on the border of AR/OK, right in the middle of zone 7. We're pretty much middle of the middle.

@Flo Mangan: Because nothing can be easy for me. Ha! No, the second garage was purchased from the neighboring plot supposedly, and reno'd with OSB board in the interior to create a shop and office. I don't know but it's an eyesore all around. I've thought about filling in the middle plot with more driveway, but with no solid ideas, I don't want to make a rash decision.

This whole house is a long term project with the front, back and shop to be honest. I'm willing to budget for whatever winds up looking best at this time, but fund are limited, so it's going to be again, a long-term project.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. I like the center tree with the large beds on the sides and the arbor for the dead space. There's no green between the shop and house at the moment, the Bermuda isn't even getting enough sun. It'd have to have shade loving plants there for sure. Do you have an arbor type in mind so I can visualize it better?

@J Williams : Definately, I'll keep that in mind. We had a border of 7 red-tipped photinas in the back when we purchased, but within a year the OK winds snapped 4 of them at the base, and 2 get stunted during rain season due to the ground holding water so long. They die back and take time to recover. So I'm not a huge fan of those in particular, but I'll check with my local nursery!

This is extra reason to do mounded beds with added soil and tons of organic materials. There is nothing wrong with clay, it is a rich soil that holds water, without a lot of added organic materials, your soil has no oxygen. If the top soil was removed, you basically have something like the bottom of a pond. Plants in dense, inorganic no air soil suffocate and starve, and fail to make a solid root connection into the ground. I had a super crap soil in one of my gardens (it had had road gravel 1-2’ thick and was either a driveway or a work area), every year I would go to the mental health centre that had an enormous park like property and rake up bags and bags of leaves and dump them on the beds in the fall. plus I started a composter. Back then in that neighbourhood lots of crazy things were going on so noone cared if anyone is wondering lol.

OK, that additional information is helpful. I am doing some sketches for you, but need a bit more time to lay this out with some clear information. You are very brave tackling this big job with a new (new to you) home, so I give you credit for coming here for some assistance. I will be back later. If you could post a photo standing from the middle of the road (no panoramic shot) toward the property to try to get the whole span in a view, then I can work with that to propose possibilities.

@Yardvaark: Ahhh, I see what you mean now. I'd thought you meant to hide it from view, haha.

@J Williams: Thank again, I really appreciate the tips. Once, years ago in our apartment, my neighbor waxed poetic about oak leaves and their durability in the garden. I didn't have a garden, and also failed to understand, but now I think I'm seeing what she was talking about.

@ Flo Mangan:

I really cannot thank you enough for you being willing to sketch some ideas out. It's a much larger project than I'd thought when I decided I wanted to do something about it. So I don't know if it's bravery so much as stepping into a puddle that was deeper than I thought. Oops. But yes, any and all assistance is appreciated!

And apologies, I missed that previous comment. The shop was actually a big selling point for us, as we frequently have 10+ people over for gamenights on weekends. The double driveway, while ugly and disjointed looking, does get frequent usage. Does it need to stay as is, not really, so long as we could maximize parking space. Our street is fairly small, and we're right after a poorly designed turn, and no one wants to be on the street.

I've attached three current photos, apologies, it's been wet and gross the last 2 days. Let me know if I can do or answer anything else!

I suggest that you contact local experts on what plants are native to your area. In general such plants have evolved to survive in your conditions. If there is a botanic garden or a botany department in a nearby university, they can send you in a good direction. With native plants you will attract native wildlife.

Go to a good local nursery and pick their brains. They will know what will work and not work for your zone and for your soil etc. Some of the better nurseries will come and have a look at your property and will draw up a landscaping plan. There is a cost for this, of course, but good nurseries will refund the cost of the plan if you purchase the plantings from them. Your lot is big and blank and if you are not a gardener and want successful plants and trees, you need help.

@Brown Dog: Very much so. I'm planning to head there today after work thank to this thread. I've more than a few questions now!

In researching and looking at your photos and trying to come up with a cost effective method to help diminish the "driveways", here is one suggestion that could be of a big help. Line the main driveway with a brick edge. Brick that goes with your home. This would distinguish the main drive from the "service" drive. The in the center area plant with various height plant materials, so it "creates" a ever decreasing look starting with highest at the garage area and getting progressively lower as you come forward. Zig zag the plant material so you change up the "straight" lines of the driveways. Place a few large boulders in this bed with plant material that can withstand winds and drought. Vitex, purple fountain grass and variegated grasses, with annuals for color such as Lantanas. Lantanas are hearty and colorful and require very little maintenance. A fruitless Olive tree could be interesting. Japanese Blueberry are fast growers and create evergreen foliage and can be shaped as desired. I would check out what type wildlife you want to attract. Some wildlife can be very detrimental to foliage of any kind. Deer eat any flowers and soft leafs, so Lantana with its somewhat prickly leaves is not a favorite. So depends. Also, if you want to "view" the wildlife, this habitant might be best created in your backyard. Birds and butterflies need a source of water, flowering plants, tubular flowers for hummingbirds, shrubs that have berries. You have pretty much a blank slate so have fun with it. Get help with a "master plan" and with prepping beds and planting main large specimens.

Here is driveway lined with brick edge matching house brick

Driveways · More Info

Long Island Driveway · More Info

Notice beds start at the bottom with low plants, blue rug juniper, low grasses, then interesting rocks/boulders, the taller materials on up to tallest at the spots closest to this home. Same principles apply to your home, and you could even create some slight ground height variations too for more interest.

"Some of the better nurseries will come and have a look at your property and will draw up a landscaping plan. There is a cost for this, of course, but good nurseries will refund the cost of the plan if you purchase the plantings from them. "

This is a very broad generalization that does not necessarily hold true. A great many retail plant nurseries have no landscape designers on staff. You are just working with sales people for the most part and they may or may not have any design skills. And none that I know of will refund the design fees or credit them towards plant purchases. The few that do tend to be pushing specific plants they stock that may or may not be the best for your garden or fit in with your design plans. In essence, you get what you pay for :-)

OTOH, independent landscape/garden designers focus on the design itself rather than pushing the sale of plants. And in the greater scheme of all things landscaping, their fee is a very modest investment. Your local nursery may be a good source of referrals to these sorts of professionals. Or you can check out Houzz for local pros as well.

A master plan could include trees that get you going (pine trees, such as Loblolly) to get some height and evergreens in the landscaping along with major tree such as a Pistachio and while the central tree is growing more mature the pines give greens and then once the "main tree" is larger, then the fast growing trees can be removed. Pines would probably do well up where you are given winds and harsh environmental conditions of soil, sun, moisture, etc.

Local college extension programs are also good sources of information.

It entirely depends on the store, and stores can only sell what they stock. The good thing with becoming a visitor to garden centres throughout the year is that you get to see actual labelled plant examples, online or even paper catalogues can be very decieving. I don’t know why you’d assume sales staff would not choose to work in a field they like, obviously the lowest person on the staff seniority ie. the watering person hired for minimum wage as a student job may not be the most knowledgeable, but there;s usually people who are involved in the plant ordering and are chosing plants they like and consider reliable or attractive etc. For similar reasons, this is why botanic gardens were set up, the plants are typically labelled, displayed in ways to best put them to use, or grouped with other similar plants. They are educational, and they are there to serve their communities.

J. Williams, nursery sales staff are not garden designers. If they were, they would have their own business or be working for a design/build firm. Not selling plants in a retail nursery! Knowing how to design a successful landscape is a skilled profession, often requiring extensive training. It is far more of an acquired knowledge base than just suggesting a few plants! And FWIW, most nursery sales staff is seasonal and works for not much more than minimum wage. I have worked in both the retail and wholesale nursery industry for several decades and I am pretty familiar with how they operate.

There are two major factors that should determine your tree selections and siting: sun and wind. You want trees that will cool your house in the summer and protect it in winter (without preventing light from entering the rooms where you want it then). And you want trees as a windbreak. So on your aerial plan map the prevailing wind and orientation of sun. I would make a visit to your cooperative extension office to get the most valuable and free information. What natural hazards should you plan for (cyclones? Floods? Droughts?) What species work best in your region for windbreaks? Get a soil test from them (or just take s bag ofbit with you to show them for starters). cooperative extension offices are in every county of the country, I believe, and invaluable resources. You live in extreme conditions there so they are your best friend. They can also suggest how to cheaply improve your soil and acquire plant material. Don’t be daunted by the suggestions of coastal wimps like me and most of us on this forum. You will find your way with the help of rugged and frugal gardeners. Not that we aren’t here for you! Just know that we’re not from Kansas.

If you truly want to help out wildlife, plant an oak. Maybe Quercus macrocarpa, Quercus muehlenbergii, Quercus shumardii, or Quercas stellata. A crepe myrtle is pretty but essentially supports very little wildlife.

gardengal: that has been your personal experience, I was running my own landscaping business parallel to both garden centre and landscaping jobs (was I working too much? yes but it’s seasonal here), I was often the one ordering plants in the garden centres I was working for, and yes, I know of a few garden centres that also will design gardens for you, and yes in the garden centres I worked for I was paid more than minimum wage, if you go to some big box hardware/building depot than no, you may not find people invested in the profession, I actually had one wanting to hire me to train staff to bring professionalism up, that is not to say that if you are knowledgeable you can’t find plants in these places, and some of the people are in garden centres because they are just starting out or they are nearly retired, doesn’t mean they have nothing to offer you

JWilliams, I was not disparaging nursery workers - I was one for many years :-) But unless you are a year round, fulltime employee, wages are dismally low. I was a buyer/manager so in a different position than most nursery personnel, the vast majority of which are seasonal, part time employees that may or may not know a lot about plants. The point I was trying to make is that most nursery personnel have NO landscape design training so design services you may receive from most nurseries may be seriously lacking in quality. Not all by any means but here where large independent retail plant nurseries abound, the vast majority are in the business of selling plants and associated plant products. Not quality landscape design services.

Just leave it the way it is!

I have developed a little sketch to give you inspiration for some ideas on how to "connect" the house with the "she/he shed!" along with beds, layouts, materials and how to create a dry river bed in the area between the two driveways. It looks like this is a swale for water to run from back areas to the street? Using proper materials and some interesting stones and boulders along with a nice little faux bridge to connect the walkway from driveway to she/he shed all unites the property. Of course, you need a proper contractor who could take the sketch and design a proper arbor that would work with your home and she/he shed or some sort of arbor.

I would put a "signature" tree on the left in a large bed with boulders similar to the ones in the dry river bed. Some pretty colored, freeze proof pots with ornamental grasses, or evergreen plant material that would work in the winter would brighten up the front yard. I didn't attempt to go further down the front yard. I could go crazy in that front yard. It looks like there is a pretty good drop in the ground level so some very interesting terracing would look great, but that isn't necessary at this point. Hope this helps you envision what could be and helps you develop a Master Plan.

sketches · More Info

The garage doors could look better with windows or even just paint them to look like they have windows. You could paint a "faux" door on the she/he shed door to make it look like a regular door rather than a "garage" door. Crushed granite, with weed control under it then a "faux stream" with Japanese flat black stones, in the "swale" and large boulders along the "river bank" coupled with some water like grasses (drought resistant) Maybe pampass grass or variegated grasses. A little wood bridge to connect the two spaces visually with purpose would look really interesting. A small settee in front area with flag stones would create a nice inviting spot to sit and have a tea or some other beverage! Or just for a welcoming feeling. Along the border between the other property to the left could be a staggered line of fast growing pines and perhaps a few Leyland Cypress would create a wind breaker for the house and a visual separation of the properties. Enjoy!

I cannot thank everyone enough for their advice, suggestions, and assistance on this. I feel like I've been given plenty of ideas for resources, and now just need to make these connections and start a checklist.

@Alexander Salcido: I certainly could, but I get tired of cookie-cutter yards, particularly with the same crepe myrtles and bradford pear. Knowing I could one-day landscape was a huge dream for me in my apartment living days. This isn't an obligatory thing for me.

I don't expect it to be easy, but I expect the payoff will be more than worth it. :)

@Flo Mangan: I cannot thank you enough for taking time out of your day to sketch this. Sincerely. I can see from this that I'm not a landscaper, or at least lack visual imagination, but you've given me a huge starting point. I love the dry bed idea, and the left side, which I can sort of mirror on the right. This is already a huge task, but it's also good to know that I can expand down the yard sometime too.

The garage doors are actually on the list of to-dos for us. I'm wanting slate greys with matching shutters and to redo the roof at some-point as well. So I'll keep these suggestions in mind!

Flo, I like your sketch very much (although without knowing the basic sun/wind info I mentioned above, it may or may not be what she needs.) However, the suggestion of polished black Japanese river stones for a first time home owner in Oklahoma is probably not helpful.b You will drain her budget and she will find herself looking at dusty, not shiny, stones. If she likes your concept of creating a dry bed/ river effect (as I do), you or someone else might teach her how to do this with grasses native to her area. Ones that can be easily propagated by division, require no water or weeding, and will blow in her prairie breezes while attracting birds and wildlife. Can, I urge you to google images of landscapes by Oehme, Van Sweden. They are known for using sweeps of native plants, especially grasses. My suggestion to you is to play around with flexible hoses or ropes in dividing your wide open space to see what shapes please you. Then imagine the spaces filled with different color blocks of various heights. Which ones do you want moving, which ones static? Designing a three dimension landscape from scratch like yours can be overwhelming. Break it down into digestible parts. 1) Gather all information about your conditions. 2) Get out the hoses and ropes and draw on the ground like a canvas.

Coastal wimps?

https://xerces.org/pollinator-conservation/plant-lists/pollinator-plants-southern-plains-region/ if you would like an idea of grasses and perennials to plant to help wildlife, pollinators, bees, etc. You would still want to hear design advice for arranging the plants to look nice.

@kitasei: Don't worry, I'm factoring in what would work for the area, as well as what looks most natural. I've grown up around creeks, and I immediately substituted the polished rocks for shale with fine natural stone and sand mix underneath, topped with smaller semi-smooth stones graduating to medium-large rougher stones along the edges, with a few larger scattered in the middle.

There are a number of seasonal creeks I know of around here, so I could draw inspiration from there. The grasses do well here, but I'd want a dwarf variety, and I can ask my nursery what could handle living like this as well. I need something that can handle the heat, but also not get root rot in our rainy/flood seasons. I'm taking everything with a grain of salt. :)

Thank you for reminding me to factor in the shade component to the trees though. The wind hits hardest from that side, and one of last years peach trees bled out sap from a decent crack from the wind. I'll have to look for sturdy trees that aren't overly shady, as this is one of the only areas in the yard that's well drained, and the neighboring homes, or main home, doesn't cast shade. So I want to have some sun loving plants here.

Mountain mint from the pollinator list above, is very good for pollinators, I also love ratibida pinnata and grey headed coneflower, they are always covered in bees in the summer.

Any updates?