Congratulations on your new home! The views look spectacular.

12x36 sounds like a wonderful area for a cutting garden and herb garden. What zone are you in? Some herbs are perennial in warmer zones. I’m outside of Boston and get parsley, chives, tarragon and thyme to return each year. Cilantro comes back from the plants I let go to seed but I have to buy rosemary every year.

I’d recommend driving around to see what blooms well in other yards for ideas. Then stick with native perennials to help the pollinators (your output will be better too). Install a rain barrel right at a nearby downspout if allowed to make watering easy.

Think of all the seasons for flowers and if you want a couple of colors or a riot of colors. I do recommend a few evergreens for winter interest and maybe to provide structure to the area.

I also recommend amending the soil with compost as often construction leaves poor growing conditions. Good luck!

Beautiful spot for a potager. I'd like the semi-formal type with tidy brick walks for your home--or whatever walkway material you use in the front (looks like you've already got some brickwork in). You'll want a fence if you have wildlife that can (and needs to) be stopped by a fence.

You should get an idea of the rest of the yard before you get started on this part though. It should look cohesive. But that is the perfect location!

@Sarah, It is a wonderful view--especially from the screened-in porch on the back of the house! We are located in the mountains of TN, which is zone 6B. I assumed most of the herbs would be annuals around here, but if they are perennials in Boston maybe they'll be perennials here.

I like the idea of adding evergreens and the rain barrel. I'll keep these ideas in mind as my project progresses.

@Fori, I have to be honest, I had no idea what a potager was. Had to look that one up! LOL. (Always learning something new on these boards!) I considered installing a brick walk to the front door, but hadn't thought of using brick walks for this area. That could be very charming!

You should get an idea of the rest of the yard before you get started on this part though. It should look cohesive. But that is the perfect location!

I agree it should look cohesive. I thought the local greenhouse would offer design services, but they don't. The folks they recommended want to do the installation too. Like a lot of folks, my work hours have been greatly decreased as a result of the pandemic. I'm fortunate that my husband is still working, so we aren't hurting, but I can't justify paying for landscape installation when I'm sitting around twiddling my thumbs. However, this does leave me trying to "plan" my own landscaping. We've always done our own, but we were never starting from scratch. It got overwhelming trying to do an overall plan. I was hoping if I focused on this area and came up with a great plan, I'd have an "a-ha moment" where everything else would fall into place.

Beautiful house and setting. I would plan a garden that wraps around the front corner of the house and continues across the front edged by a future sidewalk to your front door.

If you think of the front of your home as Public Space, the idea of having your grill (usually in a private space) in front is a little odd. If there is no alternative (sounds like you want it to be accessible through the double doors to your dining room) then I would plan to break this up into two gardens - one that delineates the private grill area and the other public path that people would walk through from the driveway to your front door. Will you need seating and a table when you're grilling? That will determine how big to make that private area. Since the grill is not a beautiful focal point against the backdrop of your beautiful home, I would try to down play it. Maybe move it to the side of the house so it's not so prominent. Plant shrubs to hide this area from the street.

So I would have two gardens: a walkway from the driveway to the dining room that is for family use and a walkway from the driveway to the front door that is for public use. And plan the two garden areas to create this division and optimize them. Perhaps the grill area needs a paved or deck area underfoot?

For the public walkway and garden, I would have garden surrounding the hardscape of a wide sidewalk (5+ ft adds more beauty and designates this as the main path to your front door.) If you can afford hardscape such as a stone wall to outline this garden, that would add beauty. A 12x36 area is not large for a garden - it will fill up fast and is a good size to accommodate some beautiful plants such as oakleaf hydrangeas that can add grace and beauty to the approach to the house. I hope you'll keep posting and show us the end result.

Maybe try the FIND PROFFESIONALS tab at the top of the page and see if you can find a designer, before deciding there is nobody serving your area that is not also a contractor. (Also the contractors I know where I live don't insist on getting an installation job out of every design they prepare or consultation they provide. With clients being able to just pay for the design or consultation by themselves, if that is what they want).

@Yardvaark, yes, the grill will stay. I know it is unusual to do the cooking/dining in the front yard. If we were at any of our old houses, we wouldn't even entertain the idea of doing this in the front yard, but we are in the country on 10+ acres. The road shown on the site plan is a 12 ft wide road with 2-way traffic. The only person that lives below me is my uncle. The area between the porch & driveway is right off the kitchen/dining room, so it is convenient. What is shown on the site plan in the rear yard is a screened-in porch. We do have a patio under the porch, but is at the basement level. To grill back there, would require hauling food down the interior steps and through the unfinished basement. We did this when we lived in the suburbs and it was less than ideal even after we finished that basement.

I agree having a master plan would be ideal. I tried doing a master plan and got overwhelmed. (See my response to Fori) I do have a plan in terms of "use" just not landscaping. I thought if I focused on this front area, it would inspire the rest of the design. As for the proposed uses:

Back yard: we ultimately want to build a fireplace near the patio for roasting marshmallows and family time.

North Side yard: This will be future (5-6 years out) parking for when the kids start driving. We are grading that area now, so we can drive to the back yard if needed. We plan to reseed with grass for now, but will have raised planting beds along the house to protect the house if someone doesn't stop in time. :)

South Side yard: Not much to do here. We have 3 heat pumps that we thought about enclosing with a fench/lattice, but the only one who sees it is the propane man. We do need to build our outdoor shower at the end.

Front yard: Other than wanting a flower & herb garden between the drive & porch, I don't know what to do. I'm open to ideas if you have any.

To extend the thinking a little more, right now, you don't have a solid vision of what you're trying to create. It's a fact that "gardens," at times, can become a bit (or a lot!) messy. While landscaping on the other hand, tries to be always tidy.

You've got that right! I don't have a solid vision! LOL! As for the garden, I was thinking more flowers with either herbs integrated into the flower beds, or a separate area with herbs. I wasn't thinking "garden" as in corn, potatoes, beans. I thought herbs were on the "neater" side of gardening and could be incorporated into landscaping easily, no? My previous neighbors had herbs growing in the foundation beds out in the suburbs and it looked lovely. Maybe they spent a lot more time than I thought tending to them??

I can't see that a fence here would be necessary or desirable. Visually, it would represent somewhat of a barrier in an area that is supposed to look welcoming. Being a MINOR barrier wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. I want this area to be welcoming from the porch/dining room. I don't want guest automatically walking through it. I have 2 sets of doors off my porch. The first set are the teal double doors on the front of the house. The second set are the white, double doors leading to the dining room. I'm hoping the landscaping will help eliminate any confusion on which door to use. Currently, 99% of our guests go to the dining room doors. (One reason is that our temp sidewalk leads to this door.) I want to encourage guests to go to the front door. Building my main sidewalk should help, but my husband wants to keep a walkway from the side porch to the driveway, too.

I hope my comments aren't misconstrued as if I'm saying a garden here won't work. In addition to functional appropriateness, gardens typically require more maintenance than landscapes. I'm bringing up these points as something to think about prior to committing to development. This is why I posted. I like to hear pros and cons that I may not think of myself. I appreciate the feedback!

@Sally Unger, I agree the grill location is odd, but the back yard isn't convenient since it is at basement level. I could put a mini kitchen back there in the future, but I'd much rather spend money on the front landscaping, than have a 2nd kitchen that I'd have to clean....no matter how mini. :) We were storing the grill in the garage and pulling it out to use, but it is a smoker and it stinks up the garage too much! Plus even with the nice wheels pulling it across gravel is a pain. We plan to pave the driveway sometime next year. Once that is done, we might move the grill to the north side of the house and pull it across the driveway when we use it. For now, I'm just going to try to hide it with landscaping. I like your idea of breaking it up into two gardens to hide the grill. And, yes, we do need some type of paved area under the grill, but I refuse to commit to that at this point--you know, just in case a front yard grill is a bad idea! For now, we are using the square pavers that can easily be relocated.

For now we will use the dining room table and just leave the double doors open to bring the outside in. In the future, I hope to build a long narrow table to put on the porch. I want it to have a "country" feel to it, so it want be the traditional table/chairs that you buy at big box stores. My big box store tables will go on the back patio.

I love your idea of a stone wall. I don't know if that is in the budget for this year, but I don't mind planning for it now and installing it over the next couple of years if need be. How tall would you suggest making the wall?

BTW, funny you mentioned oakleaf hydrangeas. Those are one of my favorites. I bought a few last weekend to use in this area. (I rarely see them for sale around here, so I grabbed them even though I'm not quite ready!) If I don't come up with a plan for the landscaping beds in this area soon, my husband will be planting them elsewhere!

I should also say "garden" might have been a poor choice of words when I started this post. I'm not looking for a full garden, but rather a few herbs mixed-in or to the side of some beautiful flowers.

Thanks again for your suggestions! I'll definitely try to post updates of the end results.

@Becky It's nice to have a wall you can sit on so 18-24 inches is a nice height. I would think about framing your home with some shade trees - one on either side. I use maples because they have brilliant fall color. I've used 'November Sunset' and 'October Glory' at my home. Then I would put a small flowering tree at the front corner of your porch at least 12 ft from the porch. Redbuds, dogwoods, and crape myrtles are all beautiful and grow to 20-30 ft. I am in zone 7a; these all do well near me so I assume would near you too. This would help in screening the grill area. For me, I'd use a curving sidewalk to the front door rather than the straight one shown in your plan. I'd also warn about the bed between the sidewalk and the porch at the front - too small a garden can make it very tricky to find the right plants. I would ensure that you have at least 7 ft between a walkway and the porch. Otherwise any small thing you plant will look dwarfed by your home. Also consider how much maintenance you are willing to do in your garden or with herbs and flowers. There are some you can use that will be beautiful, long lasting and less work and others that will create a lot of work for you to maintain. So it will help to know ahead which kind of gardener you intend to be. Also you should consider whether you want a formal and tailored look or a loose, flowing, and informal look. Here are some photos of each kind with stone walls to get you starting in considering what you like: https://www.houzz.com/plans/stonewall-farmhouse-pp~199688?stepId=saved

Makes sense about having the grill up top. (Just making sure you're not going in some bad wrong direction.) But it needs a real home.

Hardscape comes before planting so unless all the "garden" efforts of this thread are temporary, you need to plan the walks/paving of the area before planning any planting. That is just the natural order of things ... the horse coming before the cart. Plantings are subordinate to hardscape and able to adapt to it no matter what it is ... like hair will adapt to a head no matter its shape.

It doesn't sound now like you're trying to have a full blown flower/herb garden type of operation at the expense of landscaping. I'd be rephrasing the program along the lines of: to complete the landscaping with a strong flower/herb garden orientation. It's sounding to me almost like you wish to have this space be a little more private, as a family space, slightly divided from the more public front yard/guest entry space ... almost as if it were a courtyard, though not be separated that much. The only way guests will stop coming to the side door is when you make going to the front door just as convenient and even more inviting.

"I tried doing a master plan and got overwhelmed." I don't remember you coming here and asking for help on it, but it would be the free-est, easiest way to get help. It requires tolerating generally modest (and occasionally snarky :-) constructive criticism and being able to sort through the advice, dividing good from bad. But that's not much of a downside.