Just throwing some things out here considering the French garden theme: -Could you retrofit the arch to fit over the porch arch and grow your roses off of it? -possibly reconfiguring the horizontal railing to have a small two-door gate, matching it to the metal arch (that's now attached to the house arch and matching the color. -in the area in front of arch and from left side of entry walk, work in some type of stone/pavers interlaced with plants possibly containing a wrought iron bench or little French cafe bistro set. Really getting serious here would be to contain this "bistro" area with a wrap-around railing (that matches all of the other railing or using large rectangular planters to define this "bistro" space. -Not sure of the name of this water feature but using the "lion" head spitting into the trough water feature, sitting it up against your right hand side entry wall IPO the other water fountain. -all of this would extend out approximately equal to the walk off of the drive. Really pushing it here, have your bistro area "step down" into the front section of the yard. The "step down" directly in front of the porch arch with matching stones to the curb, planting your various perrenials to the right and left of that step down. I'd at least match your fence on the left side of your house to your house. Right now it looks like an extension of your neighbor's fence. Either by painting it to complement your house, by adding fence railing that matches the existing railing or by extending some type of stucco wall that matches your house design.

Looking again at your diagram, I'm hoping that on the right side, the triangle by the little sidewalk is meant to be paved. If that is your car, I would do quite a lot of paving area, a landing pad if you will, perhaps with a bench or table to help with unloading the car - really expanding on as you've shown, or fully replacing, your little sidewalk. Focus on the shape of the paved area, it should be nicer than you've drawn. Your plants can be around that, but which plants they are is irrelevant at the moment, all that can be certain is that they will die from being stepped on if the area is not big enough! Plants will come and go over the years anyway; just get the paving right. Even if that is not your car, I would be surprised if neighbours did not step there. The left side can be your gardening extravaganza side since it doesn't have to be passage to anywhere. Just make paths of some sort through the planting areas. I would not worry about symmetry. The house is so symmetrical that nothing can "throw that off." And since the yard is already not symmetrical, I would simply ignore the issue. In a yard this size, the task is really what I call "microlandscaping" - meeting your needs at this spot, and that spot, with the outcome being the sum of the parts. My observation in my area of historic houses with tiny yards is that the overall effect is usually good. The house so overwhelms the space that the gardening can't alter the impact the house makes. So, in a bid to win the award for "worst sketch ever posted on the LD forum" I hereby submit a diagram of my postage-stamp front yard abutting a house very similar to yours, with a full-width elevated porch and central door. Please be clear that I am not recommending this, but just showing it as a model (if you can't be an inspiring example, be a horrible warning...). My space is really reflective of ME, and as we slowly approach the idea of selling it someday, I know I will be changing it a lot in order to sell it. When we bought the house, there was basically nothing, well, except for a flowering quince off to one side that was poised to consume most of my gardening time for the ensuing 5 years with first pruning and then removal. The "design" process has been incremental, marked by what were sometimes good ideas that did not work for the existing constraints, for example, a diamond-shaped patio on the right that we removed because it quickly got buried in debris from the neighbour's giant-and-growing conifer (now removed). This layout evolved partly in response to existing constraints and opportunities (one bed, for example, is where it is to incorporate a large shrub that I was not ready to remove), and partly as an actual design as we gained experience living in this space and learned what our needs were. To explain the diagram below, I've put in grey the lines of sidewalk as they originally were, and shaded in overtop in red what we did as paving instead. The green areas are the planting beds, and the white open space is simply mulched. The big circles denote the canopies of major trees and shrubs. There is a fence that I haven't shown. Also, out front is a public sidewalk, and a hellstrip before the street. To say it's crowded would be an understatement. With most of the plantings being shrubby or tall, the white areas are quite enclosed - and I think the drawing makes them a bit too big; other than the red patio it is not quite to scale. The small patio to the left makes an amazing difference for such a small adjustment. It gives me a space to "be" and to keep stuff in the front yard that is comparatively private, shielded by what I call the "isthmus" of plantings extending from the left property line. Converting that sidewalk to a patio also allowed me to enlarge the foundation bed on that side (yes, I do have foundation beds!) which I wanted to do because that seemed to be a place that my favourite plants thrived. The patio is just dry-laid 2'x2' slabs, some cut on the diagonal. All the beds are actually raised beds enclosed by boulders; My porch foundation is fortunately masonry so I can pile dirt against it, and I am on a bit of a side slope so the beds are built up to even that out. In real life, the whole composition is just a mass of canopy, but that is how I like it. My primary gardening interest is in foliage; the overlay of different leaves and the contrast among them, as well as in the up-close changes that plants go through, so being really immersed in the plants rather than seeing their shapes from a distance works for me. The driveway is not ours, by the way. Regarding your arch over the entryway, it might be relevant to mention that I have an arch "in effect" due to overhanging foliage that is actually an irritant. If I am standing on the porch, I can't make eye contact with someone standing on the sidewalk unless I bend down to look through the "arch." So when you have an elevated door, I would not recommend the arch, especially not with plants growing riotously over it. From the outside, the arch frames a view of the bottom half of the door or of your feet if you are there. We actually had to put our address on the top step (riser) because no one could see it above the door. I hope that helps for starters. You will develop your own garden personality and way of "being in the space" that will drive later decisions and amendments to whatever you do now. And in that process of discovery, for me, is the fun of home landscaping. And this is very different from owning a larger lot, although perhaps your back yard is bigger. On a small lot, you do tend to spend time in or use every corner, so nothing is really just for looking at - it is all about how you experience it. Karin L

I saw a photo of a church in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, where they planted phormiums in rows that all lead to the front door. Try to immagine the door as being a focal point and the rows all came out from the focal point in an array that resembled sun rays. If you want really sculptural plants, you could try agave desmettiana varegata, or agave attenuata, both of which are user-friendly agaves and provide sculptural impact. Agave Desmettiana variegata stays to about three feet in diameter and thee feet tall. Agave Americana Medio-Picta Alba is another agave that comes to mind, although that one does have sharp spines. Strelitzia Juncea, like you already mentioned is a good plant for your purpose. I would stay away from grasses that grow tall and untidy. They can completely defeat your purpose of contemporary. The dwarf fescue grass, like someone suggested is good because it is rigid, not tall and wavy. Although most tropical plants evoke a jungle look, some can actually be very sculptural. If you have the space, a Phoenix Canariensis, or Dactylifera could serve your purpose. It could be a focal point and also serve as a vertical component to your yard, since a traditional tree would also take away from the formal, contemporary look. Others that come to mind are draceana draco, Yucca Guatemalensis, Cordyline Australis "red star", Dypsis Decipiens, Bismarckia Nobilis. These last three provide color throught their foliage, and the bismarckia, especially, gives great contrast to green foliage. Dypsis Decipiens has reds, yellows and oranges in the emerging fronds and the upper portion of the trunk. The phoenix species provide color when they drape themselves with bright yellow-orange inflorescents, then followed by large clusters of fruit (if the palm is female). If you could find a phoenix rupicola, they have red fruit instead of yellow, and they really stand out.

For the area between the garage and the porch steps, consider the shrub Kalmia latifolia, mountain laurel. Check height of the particular cultivar you choose, but it will grow, bloom in spring, and provide an evergreen presence as a backdrop, even in a good amount of shade. Be sure to site far enough out from the house to allow growth. In front of or around them plant shade tolerant groundcovers such as some of the spreading Epimediums or Hosta (if you don’t have deer) or a shade tolerant sedge like Carex Ice Dance or Veronica Georgia Blue or Japanese forest grass, Hakonechloa macra. There is also one low growing evergreen shrub for shade, Microbiota descussata aka Russian cypress although it isn’t a cypress at all. http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?taxonid=284961 Across the front of the porch consider one of the smaller Hydrangea arborescens such as Wee White or MiniMauvette, underplanted with the same evergreen groundcover as you used for the mountain laurel by the garage. You don’t want plants that grow much taller than the porch floor, and they need to be able to withstand possible snow dum off the porch roof. Then off the left corner of the porch, swing the bed outward and plant one of the larger growing mountain laurels, also underplanted with evergreen groundcover. If you plant for the ultimate growth size of your plants which I strongly recommend, the garden will look sparse for the first few years. Plan to add either in pots or in the ground some shade loving annuals to add interest while your shrubs and perennials gain size. You could also add three good-sized hanging pots of flowers in the center of each of the porch sections, two front and one at the side.