It's a vast improvement over the shrub-engulfed house we first saw, merely by being cleaned up. One thing that jumps out to me as not enough, is the groundcover, which are few and far apart. The goal is usually to get groundcover to grow into a solid mass for the best look and so as not to need top dressing with mulch anymore and still have weed suppression. But I imagine you'll be doing some tweaking over the next year. As far as watering, it's hard for someone, by remote, to tell you if you've watered long enough. There are a lot of variables in how you might be doing it and with what equipment. If in doubt, dig down and see. It won't take you long to discover the right timing formula.

Spazzy is right but I'm notorious for planting optimistically and planning to keep things pruned or remove them when they outgrow the space. Sometimes I even do it, though not enough years have passed yet for a full test. So I wouldn't fault you for planting the tree here as long as you understand it will need to be replaced within 20 years. What I have found in my own bed layouts is that central placement and geometric layouts do not always serve the purpose. I also don't like plant repetitions, though I think that's more personal. If I were you I would move the spruce to about the 2-3 o'clock position (as seen from this angle) and do a more varied, more casually placed planting that slopes down in height to the driveway. That would give the tree a little more room too, and of course it will spread into the lawn, which I would allow; the skirts of these trees are lovely. KarinL

I prob won't be much help because I hate your neighbors look. It's like a row of stuff that is currently small, but I can see are varieties that will become enormous (arborvitae, mugo pine, grasses) crammed inside another thin line created by the fake rock. Gack. Looks like gramma shopped at Home Depot. A couple of thoughts. First - I admire the fact that you already realize that your neighbor doesn't have the winter months working for her with her plant selections. Good for you - your instincts are correct. Darker colors make an item look smaller - they recede. Lighter colors make an item look larger. The lighter your house color, the larger it will look. It's hard to tell how far back your house sits from the road, so an opposing perspective might be that you could make your house look like its farther away by painting it a darker color. Remember the light grey roof - whatever color you decide to paint the house - the roof is part of the total look so you need to take it into account. Taking lots of pictures is a great way to see what you can't see by standing there in person. If you take digital photos, you can blow them up to 8 x 10 and print them in black and white off your computer and sketch the landscape right onto that. Don't cover up the windows and front door with improper selection of oversized shrubs and trees that won't fit the size of the house in 15 years. This is not inviting - make sure your front door can be seen. Make sure that shrubs are placed at least 3 feet from the house. This defies everything you've seen in new landscaping where small shrubs are planted 12 inches from the foundation but you will be glad in the long run that you can walk behind your shrub border to do plant maintenance,home maintenance, clean windows, make sure burglars don't have a hiding place. And the roots won't grow into the foundation causing you to have to re-waterproof your foundation in years to come. Planted out 3 ft, your shrubs will almost be touching the wall in a few years. Planted closer - you will be running the hedge trimmer back there to get them off the house. I had to go all over my house last year and remove all the branches of everything that touched the house because carpenter ants had started crawling up under the siding. Create curved beds that can have walkways to the house, or through the bed around the house to the side or back yard. You could begin an evergreen shrub border anywhere from the end of the drive to partway up the drive, and S curve it across the lawn at a diagonal around the corner of the house. Make long sweeps, not short changes - it will make the property flow more. Do you have kids to think about play areas? Is there enough room in the back yard for their play areas? Do you need to keep the front lawn for a future badmitton or volleyball net? How much time do you really want to devote to garden maintenance? If you are inexperienced - you honestly do not know the answer to that question and I would suggest that you start small and see if this is something that you would enjoy spending free time doing. If you don't have time or prefer another hobby, its not going to be fun to have a bunch of deadheading, weeding, mulching etc to cope with to keep the front of your new home really nice looking. By the way the term perennials implies that they are less work because they come back every year. This is totally untrue and I'd say my perennials take maybe twice as much time as annuals with spring and fall clean up, deadheading, fertilizing, mulching, composting, pinching, weeding and the occasional need to divide them. I don't know where in zone 5 you are, but there are gorgeous evergreen azaleas, rhododendrons, pieris, boxwood, chamaecyparis, junipers, microbiota, cotoneaster, spruces, fothergilla, itea, witchhazel(15ft) and hollies just to name a few things that remain in the 2-5 ft range which would require minimal shaping from you and give you fantastic color. There is a new dwarf 10-12 ft white birch that would give you multiseason interest set off the corner of the house. If sited so it grows to its proper size, Taxus baccata repandens will begin to weep and is a very pretty shrub. There are lots and lots of plants to choose, but most designers will tell you to first design the shape of the beds and any hardscape like sidewalks, stepping stones, water, lighting. Then you sketch the shape and size of the plants you want. The effect I want is for someone to stand back and see a seamless home and landscape, where the landscape uplights the home. Think about layers also. I think sometimes white fences look really nice in front of white homes - also native stone and dark green ground covers. The final step is picking the plants that fit the criteria you've already established. If you are going to change the color of the house you might decide on that first because you wouldn't want to put together a foliage or flower color selection that didn't complement the house. Karin mentioned doing research - and I'd take that to the library and page through landscaping books and books of great gardens to look for ideas that appeal to you. You may end up having an all white garden like the Sackville-West famous garden at Sissinghurst Castle - most photographed garden in Europe. A great catalog to get on the mailing list or website just to look at the pictures is White Flower Farms. They always have awesome annual container combinations. Good luck and keep posting photos as you go along.

Drive around and see what you like and then find out what those things are. Now that it is late spring/early summary, it will be better to wait until fall to plant any trees and shrubs as it will be too stressful on them (and a lot of watering work for you) to plant anything now. Plus there will be a lot better selection of plants at the nurseries then and it will give you time to research. You also need to spend some time determining if the area(s) get is in full sun (6+ hours of direct sun), part shade (4-6 hours) or shade. You need to know that in order to evaluate if the plants you pick are appropriate. No sense plunking down things that want full sun into a shady spot. Better to choose something that does well in shade to begin with. If you want a french country garden, spend some time determining what plants fit that style. Boxwoods generally create formal shapes (round blobs, trimmed squares) so they may not fit that design. Do you want vase-shaped shrubs, full round shrubs, evergreen, deciduous (these lose their leaves in winter), etc. I think the style of the house supports the goal of a french country garden ... are low fences included in that style? You can even get "landscape" software that allows you to scan in that photo and try different placements of trees and shrubs to see if the look is "right" for you. There is a landscape design forum on garden web, but you can usually get lots of answers from opinionated folks in the regional forums too. Being in zone 8 gives you a lot of plant choices. What state are you in? Here is a link that might be useful: Book about French Country Gardens