It's a vast improvement over the shrub-engulfed house we first saw, merely by being cleaned up. One thing that jumps out to me as not enough, is the groundcover, which are few and far apart. The goal is usually to get groundcover to grow into a solid mass for the best look and so as not to need top dressing with mulch anymore and still have weed suppression. But I imagine you'll be doing some tweaking over the next year. As far as watering, it's hard for someone, by remote, to tell you if you've watered long enough. There are a lot of variables in how you might be doing it and with what equipment. If in doubt, dig down and see. It won't take you long to discover the right timing formula.

Wow thanks for the great ideas. I have to be honest I haven't heard of half of the plants you suggested. I will have to do some googling LOL. I am always up for solar powered things but I have yet to find a fountain in the height and look that I want that is solar. In the Netherlands things are slim pickings compared to the US. You really take those things for granted when you are from the US and move over to Europe LOL. England being the exception. England has everything the US does usually. The program I used to create the 3D renderings was Landscape Architect. (Free Trial) The trial gives you limited plants and flowers and decorative options to work with but unlike most programs it allows you to save your work and view in 3D. I have had the program a couple weeks now and its still up and running so I guess there is no time limit on it. I would highly recommend the program for anyone providing you have a basic understanding of computers and don't mind tinkering around in a new program to learn the ins and outs. I don't know what the full price version costs but if its under 200 dollars then I would say its worth EVERY PENNY! It even has people you can add into the decoration and they are animated in the live view LOL. I made a swimming pool for fun and put the girl in the bikini in it and she swims all over the pool I LOVE IT! Also an old woman will walk down the street too. Its really fun program! Its called Realtime Landscape Architect. I will include a link to it here. I just looked at the price since I went and got the link. Its 399 to buy it. I don't know if I would pay that but if Landscaping was my business I sure would. Its a bit much to pay for planning your own garden unless your a vanderbilt or something lol. The coolest things about the program is that you can view in perspective mode which is 3d, plan mode 2d, and live walkthrough which is obviously 3D and you can select the time of day, cloud cover, season and so on so that makes it really cool! The sound effects with it are nice too!!! It took me about 2 days to really learn how to use the program. It was trial and error. I don't mind your long posts I love to hear others opinions. Finding Flower Carpet Roses in Appleblossom over here has proven to be very difficult. I am still hoping I hear back from a guy named Hans that Kim from here recommended me to. The space is so small that it makes planning the plants really difficult. If I had much more space then I do then I could just use regular perrenials and plan for each blooming period from them and adjust the planting to keep the in bloom look but since those plant areas in the buxus in the corners are 3ftx3ft (in essence) besides for where they start to form a triangle shape It makes it really difficult to choose flowers to maintain constant color there. This is why I was thinking the flower carpet. since it would be in bloom the entire period that I would actually be outside. UGH its frustrating lol. I hate that I have to save then buy then save then buy it makes finishing the garden a long process. (I'm far from wealthy lol) I will post pictures as things progress. The picture here is a picture after our first day working on the garden about 2 or so weeks ago. It was a jungle of weeds. You cant tell by the pic how bad it was lol. 30 black bags of weeds lol. I'll be sure to post more pics as we progress. Thanks again for yoru suggestions I will look into them. Here is a link that might be useful: Realtime Landscape Architect program.

I am so happy to see your pictures again! I was here back then, but mostly lurking, which I still do a lot because I am not very good about id-ing my plants since the dogs destroyed my labels and I gave up There are a few I know the names of, but not too many. You were one of my secret mentors when I started my hosta planting! I am sorry your 'When I Dream' was a disappointment, but there is so much to love about your gardens! Thank you for that!!!

Folks: I have been AWOL on this for a bit, but I’m back! (While trying to delete my duplicate postings, I accidentally deleted this one. Ugh. Thanks Houzz Tech for helping me out.) So... I’m doing bits at a time, rather than having an overall plan from the git-go. I received a large quantity of mondo grass from my brother, so this week I planted plugs of it about a foot apart under the magnolia tree on the far right side of the yard. It is the creeping, spreading type, rather than clumping, so I am expecting overall coverage eventually. The shape of that bed has morphed from a semi-circle to more of a kidney shape, extending all the way from the front sidewalk to the front foundation shrubs (large azaleas). I’m tying the mondo grass bed and the front right foundation planting together to try to reduce the number of chopped up pieces in the yard. Looking straight on, from the driveway to the walkway, there is a large rounded bed of azaleas. All across the front, on the right hand side, is another group of azaleas, just straight instead of curved. Now that the blooms have faded, I would like to reduce the size of the azaleas by half. I had already cut back the azaleas on the left side to about three feet. I bought 14 dwarf gardenias, with plans to plant them as an intermediate layer between the tall azaleas and whatever is at ground level on both sides of the walkway. Don’t know if the root competition will do them in, but I like the fact that they bloom after the azaleas are done, and their sun requirements will probably be met. We’ve been adding a topsoil / compost blend as we plant the new things, breaking up the clay and mixing in for several inches. I like the look of big swooping curves for plantings, such as Dig Doug and Yardvaark have pictured. So I’m moving s-lo-w-l-y in that direction. We will try for grass in the remaining places this fall. To plant grass here this late in spring is a total waste of resources. We bought the house in December, so it has been a pleasant discovery that we have a good bit of Hosta scattered around In odd places. I plan to relocate most of it, incorporating it as part of the layering from tall to short plants in these beds. We do have a lot of different kinds of plants which can look pretty hodge-podgy, but I have more eclectic tastes, preferring something resembling a cluttered cottage garden over anything formal or highly structured. Is is there a question hidden in here somewhere? Not especially; this just a response to some of the ideas I’ve gotten and an update on the progress being made. I’ll post some pics after this first phase is planted and mulched. Thanks for reading! Suzy