Cool house! RE coneflowers: they'd be great in a mixed border, as they're nice and upright and won't flop over a sidewalk. You'd just have to make sure you put them in the sunniest location possible among your bed options. Sounds like shade might be an issue.

A fresh coating of mulch is magic for tired landscaping. I'd rec mulching regardless of the weed issue.

I'll wait for the updated pics before commenting further.

Dig Doug. I do plan to make a bed on the right to include that tree that is there. That far section gets more sun through the day. I hadn’t thought about putting decorative lights in the front walkway. There are corner motion lights.

On the east side of my garage I have an "Endless Summer" hydrangea, a couple of roses (Queen Elizabeth and Flower Carpet pink), Clematis and liriope. They do well in that light condition (AM sun, afternoon shade) but the poor soil drainage is a BIG question. Don't think roses would like it at all. You need to look for plants known to tolerate wetter soils.

this was a mock up I did a year or so ago. We were thinking about adding a second driveway entrance, so people would be able to park by the front door, and make the door area more visible. Also, so they can exit the driveway more safely. We have an extensive driveway already though, so it would most likely be gravel. Project is on hold for a couple years though probably.

raee_gw zone 5b-6a Ohio Yes. It occurred to me this morning I have 3 endless summer hydrangea on the right side of the house in the photo. I'm not sure if they would do well up front though. They seem to get pretty wilty here if it's really hot. Not sure on how they would do with the soil. I'd have to look that up better. I have about 3 acres of yard, so the last year or so I've been thinking about what things I can plant that won't require a bunch of maintenance because I do most of it myself, unless I don't have the muscle.

There use to be a huge lilac in the area between the garage and front door. It leaned out too much for sun, so we removed it.

What have you done? Can you update this post with a picture or two? Did you add some color for pop and sparkle?

I haven't done much. It won't stop raining long enough. I finally got out a second giant hosta to balance the one already there in the front. I had to move some hostas by the front door stoop to make way for refilling underneath. Animals dug down to the foundation under the stoop and caused water to get into the lower bath last heavy rain. Lastly a skunk, and he came back two nights ago. About ready to get some coyote urine.

I added two more small hostas by the hydrangeas there. Had my son weed the corner.

I did get a hanging basket for the corner, of white petunias.

I'm sure some people already think I'm too picky about pictures, but I lost interest in working with incomplete scenes, as a good way to weed out some of the heavy demand for advice that comes to the forum. If you could retake the pictures, while standing with the camera on the green +, showing the flanking space, in slightly overlapping pictures, then we could see the whole scene and be in a better position to offer advice.

[I have lost whole posts before, but it is rare and could be because Houzz is actually working on the site at the very moment the "Submit" button is pushed. It's not likely to happen again. On the plus side, they have recently fixed a couple of things that I found annoying. Now, we can SEE if we've made a new paragraph instead of having to guess. For a long time it became impossible to use "copy image" from a right click, which forced me to go through the extra steps of using the Snipping Tool, to copy photos. Now it's back to a right-click which is much faster.]

I understand what you’re saying. I don’t mind at all taking better pics. The hydrangeas are blooming now, so everything is not all green. It’s just an embarrassing mess of weeds. I have 3-4 acres of yard, so I do what I have energy for.

I am not sure what you mean by the green +, but I will try and get better pics tomorrow morning if it’s not raining too bad. I have photo software, so I can just put them together like a panorama. I honestly think here may have been an app glitch. I may post next from the computer and see. I still cannot edit the main post of this thread, it told me yesterday it was not found.

My Neighbor took some landscape classes with the women’s club/urban extension years ago. She suggested I make myself a gridded paper of our property and where I want to plant stuff. So I hope to work on that this year. Our previous house, I had two decent size garden areas, and with a lot of shade plants. I don’t have as much shade here, so it’s been Different thinking of what I can do, and keep things tidy band cause I’m usually the one that mows as well. Anyways, I probably don’t need a full landscape plan, but I appreciate all the effort given to help me make this scene not be such an eyesore. It makes me sad that I’ve been here 6 years and this Area isn’t done.

It might have helped if I uploaded the photo! And I should rightfullycall where to stand with the camera, a chartreuse +.

What I want actually is a panorama. But I don't want you to make it! If you make it, the three, four or five pictures will be shrunk down to the size of one picture, making it hard to see detail. It's better if you upload the overlapping pictures and I can make my own panorama of them.

Haha ... I don't care about weeds! The photos I hate to see are where there is so much shrubbery that you can't see the house. That makes it kind of hard.

"She [neighbor] suggested I make myself a gridded paper of our property ... So I hope to work on that this year." Most people understand their landscapes the same way they see them ... walking through them, viewing them from 5' above the ground. But even after you get a vision, in that perspective, of changes. you'd need to convert those changes into a PLAN, which is a view like a map, in order for the vision to become useful to whoever is going to actually install the changes. One makes a base map (of the major elements that will remain (house, drive, walk, walls, etc.) The base map doesn't include any visions or new ideas. It is simple, clean, and takes about 10 or 15 minutes to create. It is not a work of art, but just a tool. So don't put off making it to later this year or next. Do it soon because you'll need it for exploring landscape ideas and eventually, for turning them into a doable project. The plan is also probably the best way to communicate ideas to the forum. It doesn't need to be more complicated than this. And just the front yard if that's all you're working on.

"It makes me sad that I’ve been here 6 years and this Area isn’t done." Something I wish was better understood by everyone is how much difference landscaping can make when it is started early. Plant growth is exponential so starting early can produce incredible results for very low cost. Wait, and it gets much more expensive to produce the same results. Or, it takes all that much longer.

Okay, I see what you mean now. I can do that. I plan to make a house plan, and then make separate doodles on copies. So we’re good there. I have to take some measurements probably. I have an original plat, and a separate house blueprint.
The majority of the work will be done by us. We generally diy just about everything.
When we moved here I brought as many plants as I reasonably could. I spent a lot of money at the old place over a dozen years.
I do have plants here I can divide but most are not for shade. I do have a sun garden elsewhere.
there are two ladies not far from me who are retired plant people, and sell nice perennials but I am not sure what they have left at this point.
My goal for the next two years is to get the front of the house on the ball, and plant trees in a few spots. I was considering a white birch for the front north corner, but I don’t want to block the house. I’ll try and add that tomorrow as well.
Thanks again!!!!

Does this work better? I have nothing in front of the right side of the house.cant decide what to do. Was hoping to pull the three windows and rplac with a big one, but doing the brick is not something we can do. So it’s on hold for a few years probably. I don’t any to plant too much and have it trampled. My husband had considered putting a low deck along that section. Undecided.

I'd begin by widening the walk as a narrow one, especially a long, narrow one, doesn't look so inviting. It could be done by adding on a contrasting strip of paving at each side. If the walk were to be completely redone, I'd also consider giving it a new layout, as it's very close -- too close -- to the structure (too close for nice landscaping.)

Then, I'd give it a simpler, bolder plant layout, incorporating the tree into the bed and adding a tree in an island near the parking.

Widening the path would be nice. It is too close at least on the very far left. Doesn’t leave much room for things to stay behind the line.
I’m not sure what you mean about a tree in an island on the left. Maybe I should have backed up more in the pic. I need to work up the layout grid. There is a big maple at the beginning of the drive. I was considering running Daylilies down this side of the drive. There was an overgrown widespread shrub at the left side beginning of sidewalk. Probably too many roots in the ground to put anything there for a while.
Thanks for following up.

It totally didn’t load your pic the first time, I am looking now.

That looks really nice. You curved the bed on the right different than how I was thinking. I like your way better.
My neighbor and I both have a thing about planting things symmetrically. LOL
Having something low growing opposite the sidewalk at the beginning is a nice idea. I’m assuming that’s where you meant for the tree.
I dislike the front door being so far from the drive, but I didn’t build it.

"Maybe I should have backed up more in the pic. [to capture the area next to drive.] No ... not backed up more .... pivoted the camera farther left and captured a wider view. As it was, all the pictures were a little to far away, but just good enough to barely pass. I could not show but a piece of the tree and island because the picture did not cover that area. Hopefully, it's enough for you to get the idea and incorporate it on to you plan.

I would not line the drive edge with any plantings. It's OK to have an island border the drive edge for a spell, but "lining" the drive gives the feeling that it is hemmed in, for no good reason. It is contradictory to making it feel welcoming.

"Having something low growing opposite the sidewalk at the beginning is a nice idea." And it would be especially good if the walk were wider there.

Here’s a rough layout of our yard. Now that I have this marked up, I’ll work on a copy to mark existing landscaping, and then another for ideas. The very back edge of our property is forested, probably almost halfway into the long section.

It looks like you're making progress. It's OK to put all manner of notes on the scratch drawing that you will use to create the base plan. But on the actual base plan, keep it as clean and uncluttered as possible, along these lines...

Measurements would not show on the base plan, because the plan itself IS measured. And then, of course, you will need it to be accurate because that's what makes it useful in determining that things fit, or that the layout shapes work well. Your house is L-shaped in the pictures, so the plan will need to reflect that.

For landscaping around the main portion of the yard, you probably won't want to work at a scale smaller than 1"=10', and that would require 16" length of paper in order to show just the width of your front yard. If you have affinity for the computer, you might consider drawing it on MS Paint, or any drawing program. (I like Paint because it's easy, available and works well.)

Still a giant work in progress. I think my crabapple may not last too much longer. It didn’t flower much at all this year. My neighbor said it is about 40-45 years old.
I added a weigela at the corner of the sidewalk. It should get about as tall as the hydrangea behind it. And hopefully at some point when we redo sidewalk it will still be in a good place.
Working on weeding so I can move the mulch in.
The side closest to the front door is filling in a bit more.

What kind of weigela did you get?

The last picture ... that looks reasonably well balanced.