How does it realte to the house . Pictures are what we need

Here's house from above. This area to landscape is backyard, just to the right of the deck, see second picture.... The second picture shows patio in orange (departure from plan) AND the area of interest in yellow. We are already partially finished with what is visible in 1st pic.

Is this the same house with the blue spruce forest on drip out front along the drive?

Very nice stone work. I like. That is what I will plant, the stone work over to the patio, inside the stone line and the planter box.

If it was me, I would fill it with native Colorado grasses and wildflowers.

Christoper...Yes, same house with blue spruce ground cover in the front. The spruces are doing well, thank you!

Hmmm, I see what you're saying: that's a good idea.

Do you need a second row of large stones next to the steps? So many stones in one area seems excessive , and they could be placed in a more natural manner. Also I would remove the stones at the left edge of the driveway as they will damage cars. Put a large landscape timber there instead to serve as a bumper.

The pictures aren't working. If it's a foundation planting area you're asking about, you need to stand out from it with the house in the background, far enough away to see the area and some surroundings, but not farther, and take a series of slightly overlapping pictures that pan the area, from a SINGLE camera position while the camera pivots.

Yes to the idea of flowy grasses. If you have red-twigged dogwood, I like them and how they look against the snow.

S Rodriquez...yes the stones are a bit unnatural in back. Unfortunately we need them there to support steps and more importantly - to deflect water away from house. Maybe planting will help make them look more naturally placed? As far as the big stones in front near parking area, that was intended - those boulders are imbedded in the concrete. I'll take a photo and post it.

Yardvaark - you want pictures....here goes, ha ha. These pics show from rear of house plus a couple different perspectives. Any brown dirt areas are open season for plantings, although most dirt will just be prairie grass.

Here's more pics...

Lovely home. Yardvaark has great ideas - lucky you - he saw your posting.

Wow - celerygirl...I love it! Did you identify specific plants (like phlox is pink)? Or just put in textures and colors as representative?

I don't have any ideas as I'm trying to landscape our new build. Just wanted to see if you wanted to trade homes. :)

lindacottonwood...thanks, it's been a bit of work but we're near finish line! I might trade...will keep it in mind - what part of the world?

We finished in July. Building is never easy. We just have the landscaping to complete when Spring comes. We are in the higher elevation of Arizona.

Seriously, we love our home but if our budget would have allowed your home would be it. Just beautiful.

As your name suggests are you in Colorado.?

Love all the big boulders. Plants around them will soften and make them look more natural.

Sweet! This definitely calls for the theme of a 'Pocket Prairie' to keep things low, the view open and the landscape site adapted. You can absolutely do it with massed drifts of contrasting single plant species like Piet Ouldolf or celerygirl for a sculptural effect. In a way it would be distinctions between lawn mowed and the annual chop down of perennial beds.

I don't mind the unnatural line of stones. Nothing wrong with lining them up with intention. But when you say...…...to deflect water away from house. Is that the Platte River I see off in the distance, past the pond below you?

Oooo I wish our yard was that big to landscape-how fun! What kind of things do you like? What will you use your yard for?

Yes, Christoper, keeping things low would be good.; you got the idea! Going off of the patio and all the way towards open space, trees, etc. everything should be low and not block view. Although I like celerygirl's approach - it looks marvelous, it's possibly a little too water intensive. For some reason water is very high here, so we want to have a natural sort of look, to some extent, maybe with sedums, some salvia. It's isn't the Platte River, but Boulder city off in the distance. Had to look up Piet Ouldolf...now I get it - beautiful approach and mostly informal...looks great.

Missi - what do we like?? We like evergreens because then one gets some interest and greenery in the winter. At one home we had dwarf mugo pines, which I believe might go well in some places. I was thinking some blue or green juniper groundcover (low) might work here and there.
Dogwood with red stems would be nice off to the sides as everdebz suggested. All areas will be irrigated, even if they aren't watered often, so we can grow some thirstier plants in planters or even annuals. We already flattened an area for several largish raised beds, only for herbs and veggies. Maybe some catmint, penstemon, Here's a couple ideas of what is appealing, and low water, too?

I like the low, fuzzy look of your, just above, inspiration pictures. However, it's a little too broken up and jumbled for my tastes, I'd rather see larger areas of each plant rather than one of this and one of that, which tends toward becoming a bit "Candylandish," IMO. In other words -- a slightly cleaner look. But those are the kind of plants I could see as a "groundcover" in your yard. I could also see adding some punctuation, here and there, with larger ornamental grasses, yucca and that sort of thing ... 4'+ height. And then, some large tree conifer clusters off at side lot lines, in order to give some separation from the neighboring houses. I can't envision much in the way of trimmed shrubs, hedges, or "edging" plants.

I don't know how much experience you have in the way of gardening or garden design, but if not too much, I'd consider getting a local designer to help sort through all the problems and pull it together for a more sophisticated look.

Agree with preceding post. In particular

And then, some large tree conifer clusters

(Except, of course for the existing spruces) the previously installed as well as previously discussed elements will remain too low and small to match the drama of house. Or soften its lines, anchor it - as it is now it looks like a fort or a lodge standing there by itself, without adequately sized accompanying features.

Meanwhile I am wondering where you are going to put the trout pond.

The trout pond is in the big flat area and will have a security system, razor wire fence and motion activated lights. Nobody else can fish there! Just kidding.

Yes, the house does kind of look like it's sticking out. I did an tree age progression, based on what's planted already. It comes out a little better but need to soften with more plantings, of course. See below:

Your house is meant to rise from the prairie like the Flatirons above Boulder. It does not need to be softened. It needs to be pointed out.

The way the house itself points out is exactly why it needs to be softened. Otherwise I don't think anyone who comes at all near it will have any trouble seeing where it is.

High Country Gardens would be a good nursery catalog for you to peruse to get ideas on plant choices. https://www.highcountrygardens.com/ 

If feasible, a visit to the Denver Botanic gardens would give you lots of ideas. They have been dedicated to growing and developing water-wise plantings for sites just like yours for a long time.

Yes "HU-" the Botanic Gardens is great even if a person has no agenda, just to wander around and relax. Yes, good idea. I'm also thinking that for some of these "water hardy" plants some sandier soil than the mix we've been buying (quality composted/soil) might be better. I'll check recommendations for each plant type and maybe just mix in a few shovel's worth of sand.

Obviously we are "partial" DIY's here. We personally picked all boulders, trees, and all other materials and did the design (such as it is). We also assisted in the 60,000 pounds of cobbles placed around the house and in other areas (yes, 30 tons). Going forward we'll have irrigation done by contractors, along with hydroseeding, lighting but most of the rest will DIY.

maybe just mix in a few shovel's worth of sand

Sand needs to make up more than half of a planting soil before it starts to affect aeration and drainage. So to produce such effects the existing sand content of a soil has to be augmented with enough additional sand to end up with such a final percentage of sand.

Otherwise amending of individual planting holes so that a pocket of different soil texture is created within a larger area can often have adverse effects on recently planted stock due to how movement of water into and out of the amended hole is affected by the involved textural differences. This can result in slowed growth, sometimes even failures. With this phenomenon not being generally noticed due to plants growing away normally once they have rooted beyond the amended hole, into the zone of unmodified soil around the hole that they should have been planted in direct contact with in the first place.

How about a matrix of Bouteloua gracilis or Bouteloua dactyloides with 3 or 4 types of short wildflowers sprinkled in (spring, summer, fall blooming)? There are probably hundreds of annual wildflower species native to Colorado that you could hand broadcast into a plugged or sprigged matrix.

Cool, yes, commonly known as grama grass. I like that idea, grama plus wildflowers! Thanks.