First, I didn't mean to hijack the OP's thread. One thing leads to another with me, I really get into some threads, don't say anything on most. I surmise some of the questions are directed at me. I don't know how that drainpipe drains, will find out. Agreed about the evergreens, hadn't been out there for some time, only about 4+ miles, and don't know how far back they are set; he lost the first ones; the soil is bad. I haven't inspected that part of the yard yet. I've suggested trying to amend the soil in places. I hope my son does not put a gazebo there, emailed him today it would ruin the look of the stone and the feeling of openness. He'd be pleased so many of you like it, has good ideas, but our tastes differ, especially about gazebos, pergolas. He wants some expensive European one with clunky feet. I like that obelisk, hadn't thought of something like that, and it would not detract from the wall, thanks for posting the pic. To sum up on that for now, I love the idea of a clem on the smaller wall if the water drains well. Had him look at some dichondra for the big one but think it might ruin the look, too, and could be troublesome to grow, says an annual at Swallowtail seeds. On to my "thing". Somebody gave me that idea over on the garden junk forum when I came home with a $2 coat rack from a yard sale, never thought of turning it upside down. Turned out easy, unlike my lovely old Victorian screen door on sawhorses in the basement that I don't quite have the expertise to make free standing and all the rest of that mess, worked my tail off on it. The coat thing is hollow and set on a 5' stake of rebar, used my level so it would be plumb. The gazing ball was $40+ at bestnest.com, and it's not copper but stainless steel. The clem does not want to cling to those curvy pieces at the top, so more cylinders of chicken wire tied on today. I fear it will not last very long because it looks like it was cheap to begin with, but I'll enjoy it while it lasts. Some rose is destined to be growing in front of it, but it only gets about 5 hours of sun a day there, had one but dug it out and gave it away. Here's what I started with, it's all on a thread on the garden junk forum but don't want to send you over there because I go off rambling just like I've done again. My house has been painted blue since, son had it done for me, neighbors were shocked at the difference some paint can make. I had it done that brown years ago from green but got tired of it. Then I didn't care about any of it for a long time, flowers have given me a new direction in my life and make me want to have it better around here. Got those pots and planter free when a neighbor moved, love them, wouldn't spend what it takes for those bigger pieces.

There are a couple of big differences between your hedge/house and the one in your picture (which I agree - it looks dynamite there). First, the house in the pic has very different proportions from your house. It's more squared off, whereas yours is much wider than it is tall (from these pics). The windows in the inspiration house are tall and narrow, whereas yours are low and wide. The inspiration house has some fairly "busy" woodwork, while yours has a simple, clean style. The structured hedge for the inspiration house is off-setting some of that elaborate woodwork, and the length of the hedge is providing some balance to the tall, narrow look of the house. The same hedge on your house is reinforcing the low, wide structure of the house. You have a pretty structured, clean look to the house, and the structured, clean look to the hedge is making an overwhelming sense of "structure". It makes it look boxy and plain, and takes a lot of the potential character away from your (very nice) house. Also, the others who commented that the hedge is cutting your lower windows in half horizontally are right, and that's just reinforcing this impression even more. There are a lot of things you could put in there that will complement your house's style and still give you privacy in those windows. If this were mine, I'd want to balance the structured look of the house with a much less structured look in the lawn. You can do that if you replace the hedge (is that boxwood?) with another evergreen hedge that has a rounder, more mounded character. You can also provide balance by making a nice, deep, curving bed in the front. I would suggest rhododendrons, or azaleas, but planted with some space in between them, not as a wall of greenery. You'd get your privacy in the windows, they'd break up the horizontal effect, they're pretty low-maintenance (as long as you get ones that are appropriately sized, and I'd suggest ones that aren't likely to get above 4 or 5 feet tall, max), and you get flowers. In front of those, I would put some nice summer-flowering perennials in. Daylilies would be nice - you don't get much lower-maintenance than a bed full of daylilies. You'd want to have several different types and plant them in drifts so that you get nice irregularly-shaped blocks of color throughout the season. Hostas would also work for you - if you want something a little "formal" looking you can front your bed with a nice edging of small-ish hostas - this can give a very finished look to a perennial bed. I also agree about putting something in that rock wall. Creeping thyme is lovely and low-maintenance. Campanulas would soften the look really nicely too.

I think Clematis vines need their feet shaded so plant some other flowers in front of it is what I have always heard. What about it you go a wrought iron tellis and still plant it where you are talking about. It would still have the lattice work for a backdrop. I think it would be nice there. What about another type of vine that will give you color and a fragrance when you walk in/out of your gate? Look in some of the gardening catalogs or gardening supply catalogs or go on their websites..Plow & Hearth, Gardener's supply, LeeValley has some nice ones. If you could get it locally, you'd save on shipping charges. I saw some at Home Depot the other week. What about looking for something at a Junque shop that you could use for a trellis? You can always spray painted it whatever color you wanted. Or you can buy a brand new one and spray paint it with Rustoleum spray paints. Just a thought. Lots of options..look in some gardening magazines for ideas too.

Gayle, We have 10 acres of woods filled with poison ivy and virginia creeper too. We cleared the poison ivy away from the 'edges' where the woodland meets the open pastures and we cleared the poison ivy away from the yard area around the house, but left the rest for the bees, butterflies, birds, etc. We manage to more or less cut pathways through the woods every year so we can walk through them and that involves removing a little poison ivy too, but otherwise we leave it alone. We leave all the wildflowers we can too. Sometimes it drives Tim crazy that he has to drive around patches of wildflowers while mowing, but he does it. After moving here, it didn't take me long to learn that every native plant we have here feeds something, so we have left most all of them in place. And, when landscaping the yard, often we just dig up a native tree sapling or ground cover or collect wildflower seed and add the native plants to our landscape. To me, it wouldn't make any sense to take out the native plants, and replace them with imported non-natives that don't feed the wild things. We don't have a bee hive like you do but we have tons of native bees around year round. When food is sparse in the winter, they seem to feed at the deer corn. I remember you mentioned a while back that you were taking a bee-keeping course. We need a bee update! Dawn