"Any idea on how to make the front garden more presentable?" Just because an object is pretty, in and of itself, it's not necessarily the case that a collection of pretty objects set randomly about will create a pretty scene. In landscaping, one's goal is to bring a complete scene together. Here, I think your yard looks like it it filled with junk ... in spite of the fact that Hosta are pretty plants. The sharply pointed wedge bed (flanking the walk) that points at the viewer is patently unfriendly and hostile looking. I'd get rid of the bed (completely) and place the good plants in better places and in better arrangements. It's not easy now to say where as the photo is very unclear about the spaces at the far right and left side. If you could rake the leaf camouflage away and take a sharp, clear picture in better light, it would help. There need to be some indicators in the photo as to where the lot lines are located. Your yard would look MUCH better if you just had decent grass instead of the bad bed and bad grass. It's likely that there is not enough light to grow good grass (maybe at all) so, first,analyze the light conditions to determine where it's possible to grow decent grass. Where it's not possible, your only other choices are mulch, paving or groundcover. It looks like English Ivy growing at the left of the drive. This could end up being your "friend." Keep it sharply edged (mechanically) at the drive. Keep it edged (mechanically or chemically) at the ground along the base of the house. Don't "edge" it on the house itself. You can let it grow on the base of the tree, but don't let it escape up into the tree. Trim it around the trunk at a uniform height a couple times a year.

Thanks everyone. Okay, the pictures showing the house are what is there, except for the roses (Red Blaze & pink and white Fairy roses) on the fence (not shown), with tall Bridleswreath spirea bushes and a Forsythia with old-fashioned Day lilies. It is so dry along there. This year I added a small white Rose of Sharon. The other FLOWER pics on the entry page are just plants I have that I was considering using to add some color to the front yard in Summer and then in Fall. I would like to plant roses on either side of the front steps to grow up the pillars to mingle with that dark green ivy, but worry about the thorns. There is a huge buttery-yellow flowering Lady Banks Rose on the south side (right side of the porch). I would love to add roses out front...shrub roses which are hardier and bloom from Spring thru' Fall. I am going to remove the purple garden phlox on the left (north) side of the porch. It got crowded out by the Nandinas and has become scraggly looking the last few years. Time for a change. I would like to add a Winterberry shrub out there somewhere, and some pillar-type evergreens, and three Colorado Blue Spruces...maybe some meadow flowers around the spruces and some big rocks. I can get big rocks anytime if I catch the county road grader guy when he goes by. He will push them to my driveway. I just have to get someone to help me move them into the front yard. Whatever goes out there has to be tough, I can tell you that. Cameron, There are many types of prairies. The type most people thik of when they hear the word "prairie" is like the one you see on the old TV series, "Little House on the Prairie". That is the Shortgrass Prairie, which is in the American Savannah. This area where I live in Central Oklahoma is where the Tall Grass Prairie changes to Hardwood Timberland. This Eco-Region is called, "Cross-Timbers and Southern Tallgrass Prairie" The Native trees are: Black Willow (aka Creek Willow or Pond Willow) Blackjack Oak Post Oak Chinquepin Oak Red Oak White Oak Shumard Oak Boxwood Elm Slippery Elm Bur Oak (introduced) Hackberry Cottonwood (I also have 2 large Aspens) Oklahoma Red Cedar (State Tree) Oklahoma Redbud Texas Redbud Texas Buckeye Wild plum Chickasaw Sand Plum (a shrub-like tree) Mulberry (introduced) Catalpa (introduced) Mulberry (introduced) Paper Mulberry (invasive tree introduced from China) Persimmon Osage Orange Possum Haw Fringe Tree Sweet Gum China Berry (introduced) Texas Ash Black Walnut - all I can think of off hand. Winged Elm (introduced) Black Haw Black Hawthorn Elderberry (a shrub that can get as tall as a small tree) Red Osier Dogwood Carolina Buckthorn Prairie Grasses: Big Blue stem Little Blue stem Inland Sea Oats Switch grass Indian Grass (State Grass) June Grass Love Grass (introduced) Muhly Grass Buffalo Grass Frost Grass Eastern Gramma Grass Side Oats Gramma Blue Gramma Woodward Sand Blue Stem Prairie Sand Reed Canadian Rye Panic Grass (introduced) Tall Fescue (introduced) Blue-eyed Grass Foxtail Barley (There are others, but I cannot recall them now) Prairie Flowers: Purple Poppy (aka: Wine Cups)- love these! Snow-on-the-Mountain Orange Butterfly weed Silver-leaf Nightshade (blue flowering) Clasping-leave Coneflower (yellow w/brown cone - waxy leaves) Purple Coneflower Pale Coneflower (Echinacea pallida) Narrowleaf Coneflower Gray Coneflower Purple Prairie Clover Prairie Dogbane - waxy leaves and purple stems Stenosiphon (tall growing w/small fuzzy white cone flowers) Wax Goldenweed Compass Plant (sunflower-like flowers w/ fern-like leaves) Ashy Sunflower (very stiff ashy looking leaves) Wild Quinine (purplish stems w/ tiny white flowers Joe Pye Weed Iron Weed (purple flowers) Yellow Iron weed Tall Boneset (tiny white flowers) Daisy Fleabane - tiny white daisies Carolina Larkspur (tiny plants) Lanced-Leaf Coreopsis (aka Tickseed) - golden yellow Plains Coreopsis - golden yellow w/reddish brown centers Rocky Mountain Bee Balm Spiderwort Lemon Mint (Horse Mint) - purple flowers Wild Four O'Clocks Blue False Indigo (blue flowers) Wild Indigo (cream flowers) Mist Flower - minute purple flowers looks like purple mist Yellow Gaillardia Yarrow (white to pale lilac) Maximillion Sunflower Pink Primrose Arrow-leaf Violet Passion flower (flowering vine) Yellow Primrose Gayfeather (purple Liatris) Dotted Gayfeather (Liatris) Rough Blazing Star (purple Liatris) - aka: Snake root Yellow Coneflower aka: Camphor weed Blue Speedwell Bitterweed Flannel leaf Mullein (grow your own toilet paper!) Mexican Hats Prairie Rose Gentian Indian Blanketflower (State Wildflower) Red Honeysuckle Yellow Japanese Honeysuckle (introduced) Blue Mealy Sage Blue Sage Cardinal Flower (Red Sage) Golden Rod (short variety) Golden Rod (tall and stoleniferous) Obedient plant Black-eyed Susans Brown-eyed Susans Scarlet Indian Paintbrush Prickly Poppy (Cowboy Fried Egg Flower) Wild rose (white rosettes - very fragrant) Prairie rose - tiny leafed, low-growing 8" plants False Garlic Nodding Onions White Prairie Aster Purple Rose Verbena Slim Prairie Aster - blue-violet flowers Heath Aster Wild Violet (has triangular shaped leaves) Leavenworth Eryngo (thistle-like deep purple flowers) Bull Thistle Globe Thistle (introduced - I think) Blue Indigo Ox-eyed Daisy (one of my favorites) Buffalo Burr (such a mean ting!) Partridge Pea (yellow pea-like flowers) Catclaw - Sensitive Brier (fuzzy pink flowers like a Mimosa) Shepherd's Purse Purselane Gerardia - low growing w/pink buttercup-like flowers Sow Thistle - similar to a dandelion Musk Thistle Spider Milkweed (cool looking green flowers) Illinois Rattlebox plant Poppy Mallow (light pink) Yellow and pink Wood Sorrel Prairie Ragwort These wildflowers WERE all growing up in my meadow until the new land owner next door sprayed with Herbicide to kill off "weeds" and native prairie grasses. The wind blew some of that over into my side and then the rains carried the herbicide down the hillside thru' my property. Bye-bye wildflowers. Some how the grasses survived, except for the Love grass which was growing next to the fenceline. (grrrrr) So I am now reseeding the meadow. Except for the large native trees and one very old and very large Lilac bush, I planted all the trees, bushes, plants, groundcovers, and flowers in the one-acre yard around the house. The other acre is the meadow up on the ridge. There are two natural wooded areas that border the meadow. A small one on the west side (downhill) and a big one further up the hill on the south site.

The lawn is the easy part. Post this picture in the Lawn Care forum to get a head start. It is likely too late to do a great renovation, but you could drop a mix of fescue, rye, and Kentucky bluegrass as a start. But lets start with the soil. You probably hate it. If you think you need more topsoil, you don't. If anything I might be inclined to remove some of the crown in the yard to improve drainage toward the street. With a basement the last thing you want to do is create a dam that backs up rain and melting snow into the house. If you look at the bricks on the house, there should be a bottom brick. The bottom of that brick is the sill of the house. Measure down 4 inches and that is where the top of the soil should be. If you have soil higher than 4 inches below the sill, then consider removing some. I see houses every day where the owners have brought in topsoil to "improve" the soil. That doesn't work. New soil is not better soil. Regardless of whether you remove soil or leave it all, it can be improved. This soil looks desiccated which is very hard on the microbes in the soil. It is the microbes that develop a healthy soil. Get 2 hoses, 2 turbo-type oscillator sprinklers, and a Y type splitter for your hose faucet. Also get a hose end sprayer that has a bottle for applying liquids. Put about 4-5 ounces of shampoo into the sprayer bottle and fill it with water. Spray the shampoo over the yard evenly until the bottle is empty. Then it is time to water that shampoo in. Arrange the hoses and sprinklers to cover the lawn on full sweep. Then put out tuna cans to catch the water around the yard. Time how long it takes to fill all the tuna cans. For my oscillator it takes 8 full hours, so you're in this for awhile. If you see runoff at any point, immediately stop watering and let the moisture soak into the soil for 15 to 30 minutes. Then restart the watering and the timer. Stop as often as needed to prevent runoff. When the cans are full stop the timer. The time on the timer is the time you will be watering in the future unless or until you install underground sprinklers. The shampoo followed by the deep watering is all you need to do to reawaken the soil microbes. If you want to make them really happy, apply an organic fertilizer. Organic fertilizers feed the microbes and keep your soil healthy. This will give your yard a huge boost for whatever grass or planting you do in the future. Once you have an inch of water in the soil, that might be the last time you need to water this year. You should see the existing grass respond as well as old and new weeds. That is all good. If you do not seed grass this fall, like immediately, you should know that spring is a poor time to seed new grass. Why? Because spring is when the summer annual weeds are sprouting. Crabgrass is the main culprit, but there are others. Fall is better simply to avoid those weeds. But if you do seed in the spring, just know that everything can be fixed next August when you seed again. Lawn care is as easy as watering (properly), mowing, and fertilizing. Watering is easy enough with the oscillators, so don't get excited about spending thousands on an in-ground system. You won't need to mow until you have grass. For now a string trimmer would work wonders. I've "mowed" my entire lawn with a string trimmer, so it can be done. As for fertilizing, apply any organic fertilizer at 15-20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. That helps the soil which help the plants. Read some posts on the Lawn Care forum and see if you want to get involved with that.

In terms of color, I have a friend with a similar color house and we put in some chartreuse plantings, which really popped against that blue. She had more room than you, but there were spireas (Gold Mounds??), with hostas (Captain Kirks), hakone grass, some creeping gold-leaved euonymous, trying to think of what else. She did have a bit more sun than you, although these may do well in your situation. To offset the chartreuse we had darker greens (some hollies and boxwood) and purples - heuchera, nandina, weigelia, etc. Gold chamycyparis are beautiful too, IMO, but not sure about sun requirements and they might be too big to plant near your foundation - although any shrub probably shouldn't be as close to your foundation as that fence permits, now that I think about it. Charming house! :) Dee