Don't listen to the guy above about ditching the arches, use them to make a new orleans style courtyard out of them, google "new orleans style courtyard". Put a small water feature on the patio. I would then drill in some eye ancor bolts directly into the brick and use some wire to train 5 bouganvilla "20$ each large", Purple, Red, Purple, Red, Purple going up the brick and espalier them off to the brick. "est 150-200$" Take that windmill palm to the left, remove the ciruclar pavers, take the bed about two feet wider, replace with a tan rock to match your house and use fabric underneath "est 50$". I will also say something, so many people put shrubs and trees right up against the house and its a huge no no more often than not. You can use stratigic stuff like cannas, dwarf promgranite, ginger, etc to get the same look of whatever your going for without blocking your view from the house. In saying that, I think you need to have something that gives your house some mystery. That large tree is a huge focal point. I also don't like the hedge in the front which kind of looks like legustrum. I agree with the bottle brush row between the neighbors house out the right side as I think it would be nice to have the privacy. I would go from the large tree to the black driveway and take the grass out from there to the street. Then would add in daylillies, coleous, sweet potatoe vine, birds of paradise, amongst other things. I would also put a couple of orchids on the iniside wall of the arches so you could see them from your house.

I wasn't clear in my original post - I may need to start again. We have a variety of fruit trees and bushes, berries and a large vegetable garden in the back. I'm not anti garden maintenance - I just tend to neglect the front yard because it never seems to look good no matter what I do (and I tend to prioritize puttering in the back with all the food producing stuff. We have run out of back yard space for fruit trees and at the same time I would like to add some taller trees/bushes at the front of our yard to create a bit of privacy as we are replacing some mirrored windows at the front and everyone walking by will have a full view into our front room. I was thinking if we had a nice looking garden along the road that we could then squeeze in a few more fruit trees in the front yard - but I would also like the yard to look nice. I am horrible with design and I'm hoping to get some ideas for a garden area with some height along the front of the yard, as well as some opinions on if I can get away with adding fruit trees along the driveway, walkway and front of the house (right side), or if this would just look strange. I'm not married to the look of the photo I posted above, I just want something that would look nice and create a bit of privacy.

How much of the other side of the driveway does your property extend? In my first house I had a similar driveway/walkway. I had the bed go all the way to the driveway and across to the other side. An imaginary line across the driveway is my best description. I always wanted more beds and loved that zone on the garage side that most people seem to forget and not utilize. This also made it easier for me to landscape over time. I cleared the grass out of the new beds and covered in mulch. Then I could choose small sections to fill in over time, not all in one season. The plain mulched areas still looked nice and I would put potted plants in to get an idea of what would work where.

Those circles are not "planters". They are probably full of roots. I'd recommend he put in some annuals this year and see what the soil is like. He might put in some very small coneflowers, veronicastrum, babtisia, etc, for them to grow, but that's starting with plugs, as I suspect a quart ot 2 quart pot will be imposdible to dig.