Just three weeks ago I found myself at a nursery and tried to use my cell phone to access HMF. I was able to get to the site, and could enter the name of the rose I was looking for, but hitting search didn't do anything but take me back to the same homepage where I started. I did end up purchasing Therese Bugnet, couldn't resist her pretty leaves and canes! That, and the fact that she was 35% off and reasonably priced even before the discount. I don't have much to spend on roses so any purchase must be well pretty well thought out as well as inexpensive. It would have been great to be able to check her out on HMF first, as the employee there couldn't answer my question regarding it's bloom cycle. Either way, I'm glad I bought her. Reading a bit about her first would have made the choice a bit easier. It would be great if HMF were optimized for mobile use.

I usually agree with gardengal, but...I'm going to come down on the glyphosate/triclopyr debate by saying it's FAR safer to recommend glyphosate to amateurs. Just, as a simple, blanket, "keep it simple stupid", "assume the worst" "murphy's law" kind of choice. More things can go wrong with the growth regulator type products. For example, someone mistakenly buys the ester formulation. They don't get to their project until mid May. When nights are still and warm, the vapors from the ester could kill or injure a broad swath of nearby vegetation.*** There's no ester formulations of glyphosate even manufactured - so need to worry about that ;-). Also someone recommended Tordon which as GG correctly noted, is a product _family_ that sometimes contains the very powerful and dangerous picloram. Plain old 41% glyphosate with a bit of dish detergent to help act as a penetrant is PERFECTLY capable of killing brush and weed trees...and has now been my go to choice for most situations, for over 5 years. (yes, at first I used growth regulator types like 3 way or triclopyr because they seem satisfyingly _faster_...but it's a false economy! At least on the level of commercial grade products, you get more killing bang for your buck with generic roundup/glyphosate formulations!) I just used it last spring to kill some privets, and believe me, they stayed dead. *** and btw from what I see using it to control violets, I'm not sure the AMINE formulation of triclopyr can't quickly hydrolyze to the free acid and also spread unexpectedly, even though that's not officially supposed to happen

Most foundation planting beds are far too shallow. A neighbor who is a great gardener and whose aunt was a local landscape architect, once told me that the foundation bed should be half the height from the ground to the top gutter of the house. That seemed impossibly wide to me, but every 2 years, I have extended my front beds and she was absolutely right. It makes such a difference. For me, seeing things from the INSIDE of the house is important, too. I have some huge hosta in my front beds (the deer don't seem to like the big-leaved hostas the way they do the finer ones), but between them and the house, there is ground cover and hardy ferns. One used to see the ferns behind the hosta - no longer as the hosta are so large - but from my LR windows, I look out to a little "secret garden" of ferns nearer the windows. I love it! I put in lower windows in my LR and my library on the front of my house just to bring the outside inside - same with a huge low window in my breakfast room and the french doors in the DR - the better to see my garden and bring it into the house. It breaks my heart that I can no longer work in my garden due to age and various infirmities, but I still take a keep interest and have trained my totally untrained yard man to do many things, something he is SO proud of now and he feels an ownership of what we have created after my husband died. He and I adored working in the garden together. We never had children together - he was a 37 yr old bachelor when we married and I had two children from a previous marriage - so the garden was OUR baby. I just wish he could see the improvements I've continued to make in the nearly 12 years he's been gone. I think he would approve.

@Yardvaark firstly, I can't thank you enough for taking the time to shop that out so I could see it and thoroughly explain your feedback, I really appreciate it. Second, I do have some follow up questions to your post, but if you don't have the time/desire to reply, I do completely understand. I am just grateful for the initial feedback and I don't want to capitalize on anyone's time. Regarding our existing elm tree...I'm totally seeing the need to limb this up but I admit it's also very scary as I don't want to damage the tree. We inherited it this way as the previous owners did minimal maintenance. I am frustrated because I asked the certified arborist we hired what approach we should take with this tree and she told me that trees like this should only be minimally pruned with the smallest cuts possible and you never want to take large limbs out. But looking over these pictures my eyes are opened to how ridiculously large it looks covering our deck! I am afraid that the limb to the right you mentioned, however, is integral the tree at this point and don't want to totally stress it. I wonder if we could keep these limbs but really thin them up? Is that even a thing? I can have someone else out to take a look. Harder right now as we are in lock down. We were also told never to prune our elm after March 31st to avoid attracting the beetle that can spread dutch elm disease, so I'm afraid we have to wait until next year to fix this either way! Here is a picture of the elm closer up: And from the backside of the tree, note the left limb that is the right side from the street view is pretty connected to the main trunk: And regarding the street tree and redbud on left, from the placement in your mock up that's pretty spot on to where I was imagining them, so I'm happy I'm on the right track there. I am, however having second thoughts about the redbud only because upon seeing it I wonder if a tree there would block too much of the house creating something similar to what I'm currently dealing with on the right (albeit smaller scale with the size of the Redbud vs Elm). I'm really intrigued by your suggestion to curve the walkway, as this section has been totally stumping me. My husband strongly objects to curves because of our houses squared edges, but I am trying to show him the value of juxtaposition and contrasting lines. I agree with not wanting to close in the sides of the walkway, although I'll admit I was considering adding a front border at the street and planting there, so I'll definitely reconsider this. The one thing I'm not sure of though is continuing the pavers in the planting area in front of the courtyard. I've had my mind set on creating a little separation and privacy in this area as right now we are super exposed to our street. I want to sit out here and see my neighborhood but not be totally open to it, if that makes sense. I envisioned plantings in front of the courtyard that would create this soft separation, my husband has even suggested a low fence. So I don't know if I love the whole area being hardscaped. I tried a photoshop app on my phone so please forgive my shoddy attempt at this, but this is what I had in mind for that dirt area in front of the courtyard (not these specific plantings, but something mixed like a low grass, perennial shrub, and maybe dwarf evergreen shrub. Keeping things 3-4' max height and natural looking). I would wrap it around the whole courtyard towards the house and in front of the left brick wall. The dirt area here separating the courtyard from the walkway is 5' deep: But this is where I'm not sure if the Redbud would block off that left side too much. I think I would love the view from inside, but street view does it cover this side of the house? And then I thought well what if I didn't do the Redbud there, but maybe a cedar screen with some plantings so it's less of an obstruction but still living: I had really wanted to put a Redbud somewhere, just love them. Maybe in the center with the screen in the courtyard? But from straight on, I'm afraid it would block the front door too much. I cheated it left and forward a little here, but maybe that doesn't matter.. And finally (yes!) do you have any other alternatives to grass in that middle section? I was hoping to remove the grass for something less water heavy since we are keeping the other lawn areas. I was also wanting to alleviate the water hitting the hardscape so much when watering as we have hard water and calcium deposits abound. But if the lawn would really be best to tie in the two sides of our property, so be it. It's already irrigated anyway! I know this is so much info. I am trying to be thorough but also without expectation as I understand this is a lot. We have already spent money on a consult and design advice with the arborist/designer so I was just hoping to have a better picture before paying for more. Thank you again!