Thanks, all. I agree that the curves are a bit odd at places - I get the feeling the previous owners created the beds AFTER the bushes had grown considerably, as the shape of the beds mirrors the shape of the bushes almost exactly. The island actually looks considerably nicer than the photo reflects - I just took a bad picture at a bad angle. It breaks up the monotony of the front yard and the two trees provide some much-appreciated shade. That said, they both have grown quite a bit and are starting to actually block the view of the front of the house -- that's why I don't have a better photo of the entire front of the house. As for killing plants, I think my biggest problem is, to your point, knowing how much water is the right amount. We have very clay-y soil here (with topsoil and mulch in top) and I'm never sure if the roots are drowning or still dry when I water. I think I make the same mistake with my potted plants. My husband still jokes about the time I tried to grow a tomato plant at an old apartment of ours, and I gave it food and (what I though was the right amount of) water, I made sure it got lots of sun, I spoke to it and told it what a good little tomato plant it was... and it died. Or so we thought. We threw the lifeless remnants out in the dumpster and what did we find a week later? New growth, green stems, and little tomatoes forming! The garbage bin had a greener thumb than I did. My biggest concern with the house right now is the bed in front of the house, along the front face. How do I lay out the plants in a way that occupies the full space, provides some layering, and doesn't block the window? It there a layout that works well? Thanks for all your help so far!

One must love the vagaries of landscape terminology, where often words don't have very exact meanings. In general, a groundcover is any number of plants that are capable of solidly covering the ground surface but where their growth height has a finite, usually low, limit. Often they are plants that spread sideways. Sometimes they are vines grown on the ground like Vinca, and sometimes they are clumping plants, like Liriope. In terms of residential yards, a groundcover might get as high as 3' (my own guidelines). But one chooses its height based on all the factors that apply in a given situation: window height, overall size of space, particular purpose, necessity for pedestrian traffic, etc. Grass turf is usually not considered to be a groundcover per se, even though it is low and covers the ground solid, because it is highly specialized, needing to be pruned weekly by machines. Most groundcovers are not meant to be walked on but can tolerate varying degrees of it. It seems to me that your alcove could accept a height of 6" to 18" (the taller so long as one needed only rarely to walk into the area.) But that depends on your relocating the hose spigot to somewhere more convenient. (If it's the pipe coming out of the ground, it shouldn't be too difficult. If it's running through the wall it will be more involved.) If 'Big Blue' Liriope grows where you live, it could be nice there. If you have to leave the hose spigot, you'd need stepping stones or a walk, and a way to guide the hose. And a wall mounted reel. Still, seems very inconvenient in that location. At the strip along the garage, the same Liriope would work well there, too, IF it grows well there. But it would be nice to see annuals below the windows that come up higher, to the bottom of the window. In the picture above, it looks like Liriope spicata between wall and walk, which isn't going to be as pretty or interesting as L. muscari 'Big Blue'.

No planting along the drive which is impractical for snow removal and exiting cars parked in the drive as well as adding something to avoid when lawn mowing. And that is a gorgeous lawn, particularly when considering that it is under a tree. Make the front bed 5’-8’ deep so you have room for more than a single row of perennials or remove it entirely. If you keep it, add at least some evergreen shrubs for winter appeal, low in front of the stoop and lower than the windows on the right. Use bright flowers along the walkway in front of the railing. The biggest issue is the pinched entrance which gives the impression of wanting to keep folks out. Shorten the left post to match the one at the base of the steps, and remove the railing for the first three or four feet, moving the shortened left post over to the right. At the driveway, add a generous landing that is at least as wide as the new opening and at least 5’ front to back to welcome visitors so that the narrow entry path doesn’t feel like such a barrier. if there is significant money, I would redesign the whole entry to be more welcoming and open, but that would probably not be worth it when just opening the entry will make a huge difference with a more reasonable budget.

Just coming back to say that widening the deck/step area isn't necessarily a terribly expensive project. For instance, in my area, where the originals were all concrete and now are often crumbling, you see this a lot: So basically just an oversized, reinforced wooden box that goes over what is there and a separate assembly for the steps. I wouldn't want to do that for a full deck, but if you just want to widen what you have enough for safety…. I would also add a stair railing. Narrow wrought iron would have been the original choice if they'd put in railings when the house was new.