Brent, This is an excellent question that has many answers. One needs to look no further than directly above in this thread to the posting of the photo by Prairie Love to garner an answer. It is always a little disconcerting to me that this is a forum where we have the opportunity to explore the issues of designing landscapes. Yet, just by the realities of the inescapable human element, we spend an inordinate amount of time not discussing design per se but rather the all-too-frequent real life situation of: I inherited this mucked-up mess... Now what do I do? Quoting Thomas Church, "Landscaping is not a complex and difficult art to be practiced only by high priests. It is logical, down-to-earth and aimed at making your plot of ground produce exactly what you want and need from it." If you are familiar with my writings over the years, you will recognize that I encourage people to use their minds. I really do have an abiding faith that the average person is more than up to the task of designing a pleasantly functional landscape if a bit of time is devoted to both study and thought. Sure abilities and results will vary. Joe and Jolene Average may never have the skill set to handle complicated, high-end projects. However, it is easily within Joe and Jolene AverageÂs abilities to avoid the common design blunders that we repeated time and time again on this very forum. If they need some further inspiration, they should not be afraid to consult a pro. As a society, we have largely abdicated our vital role in the decision-making processes of residential living. We have stood by on the sidelines, refusing to get involved until after the fact. Much of the siting and design decisions have been sloughed off to some contractor whose skills lay in pounding nails. When things really get bad, government gets involved and ordains codes where Âone size fits allÂ. All that one really has to do is go on some of the model home tours and you will quickly and objectively begin sort the wheat from the chaff. I suggest not doing this when you are actually in need of a house. Remove the pressure of time constraints. This exercise is best undertaken as research, not selection. Pretty soon you will find yourself asking; ÂWhy in the world did they do that? Or; ÂIf they would have only done it this way, then You soon begin to see what works smoothly and what doesnÂt. Magically, good design will rise to the surface like cream in the old milk can. As I have already stated, Brent, there are many answers to your question. Of course, each of those answers is site specific. Quite frankly, for many of the existing homes already mucked up, there remains no cost effective solution at this time. Throw enough money at it and most any problem can be made to go away. However, the law of diminishing returns soon kicks in. Problems are often cheaply avoided but can quickly become prohibitively expensive after the fact. For example, just down the block from me, a new home is going up on a corner lot that is almost of mirror image of my lot. My wife and I settled for nothing less than a corner lot. It is the only way to get away from the ÂWelcome to my garage" look with the typically small lots available today. Here was a perfect opportunity. The spec contractor just slapped the garage on the front of the house out of habit. The cost of the house would not have been increased a single cent to implement this bit of design forethought. It is too late now! IronBelly ...Nice job, Linlee.

A look at the rose garden in my circle drive, year 2. The anise hyssop shot up and almost completely obscure my fountain, so I've begun transplanting them elsewhere. On the left is a new bare root Apricot Candy rose that's still small. Le Petit Prince on the right is fabulous, so I'm considering buying a second and relocating the Apricot. Earth Angel Margaret Merril Celestial Night These knock-outs were the only roses when I bought the place and they looked awful. I pruned down to three canes almost to the ground in March and they are doing amazingly now.

The best way to make it budget friendly is to DIY. Even though we can't see the walk in proportion to your porch/stoop, there's little doubt that the walk is undersized. It would be good to do yourself a favor and enlarge the width to at least 4'. It would also be good to extend it a few feet beyond the corner of the garage. (For specifics, you have to show the house front with the walk area.) Even poured concrete is DIY friendly for a small project like this. There are YouTube videos that could show you the basic procedures. Also, DIY possible is pavers, but that is a little more time consuming and a little more planning. If DIY construction is still too much, another option (that doesn't solve any of the layout/size problems) is a 2-part epoxy flake coating. You'd need to do some serious prep or have it done by professionals. And finally, cheapest and easiest of all is covering it with concrete driveway paint. It would need to be recoated every few years. Still, it works and is better than what you have. You'd want to include the porch slab in the repainting.

I like how the slate picks up the blue from the house and adding a border softens the angles-both are good ideas. I am leaning toward something more permanent like the slate or using cement aggregate for inside path with 12" plain white cement border. I am attaching a drone picture of the house (before we remodeled the front) but you can see how challenging it would be to straighten the driveway coming out of the garage attached to the house. I agree about that extra sliver of grass. Should I omit the border on that side or add gravel up to the walkway? My mason contractor is coming in July to do the front and add a back patio, fire pit etc (bigger challenge in my mind!). I will submit pictures for advice, stay tuned! Thanks to all - this discussion board is a great resource.