One thing that would help with giving things a cleaner, sharper more "cared about" look is if you would make a distinct division between where the woods (aka "the bed") ends and the grass begins. Trees smack on the edge of a bed look awkward. Instead, they should be clearly IN the bed (by at least 3', or more if possible.) Putting some separation between the tree trunks and the lawn helps by keeping the grass away from where the light is too low to grow it well. Another thing that helps a lot is to limb up trees that are near the lawn so that light reaches below the tree canopy. Personally, I can see no reason to have a tree in a yard whose limbs are so low that they smack one in the face... or actually, as low, or lower, than the ceiling in a house. (Others might claim that such a reason(s) exists, but they never offer up that phantom reason for vetting here!) But creating a way for more light to reach the grass will help it grow better. You might consider limbing up the tree in the picture to either of the red lines I've shown in the illustration. To look the best, the bed line that divides the two areas should be a smoothly curving line that fits the site ... not cute loops and curls. The illustration gives examples of what you might do, but you could easily alter the line to suit the needs of the site. If you merely placed a uniform mulch in the wooded area and improved the grass that has hope of being improved, the whole picture would look immensely better. (You would not need to mulch the entire woods, but just its visible edge. And even free -- "tree trimming" -- mulch would be okay.) My experience with groundcover is not so much that it attracts weeds, but that if there are weeds present, groundcover will not cure them and the combination will truly be an intractable mess to behold. It's better to deal with weeds first. The one could mulch a place for a couple of years while making sure the weeds were dispensed with, and add (tried and true) groundcover later. Also, pulling weeds is not an effective way to get rid of them. Smother with card board with mulch on top, or use herbicides, or some combination of the two.

Hi bk, I wrote because I pondered doing the same thing for a couple of years before I learned enough to know better for what I wanted. There is not enough information to really help, but some things you need to be aware of are: *Your soil type: some silts are known for "self piping". That means water will find it's way out of/around anything without an impermeable liner.(I happen to have such a soil) *Run off is always uncontrolled, so you need to understand that water will try to get under/around the start of your collection point. There is really no way to avoid this, and it will require regular maintenance just like a roadside culvert. The water eats around the perimeters and it eventually has to be rebuilt. A hard and deep footer delays the onset of the erosion which will still continue, and be more severe with greater amounts of water. *Runoff is also fraught with quality issues because it is uncontrolled. You should not try to keep any expensive fish. *If you don't line the vessel (pond), you can not effectively clean it. If you are concerned about build up of water below the liner, put a drain tile below the vessel, and weight on the liner such as stone (and water of course!). *Silt coming down the drainage may be the toughest issue as you do not know how much, when, or what it contains. Washing the liner will fix the silt in pond area, but the pond will never achieve a balance. (And might not anyway due to the other charactaristics of runoff.) *It sounds like you are tampering with a natural drainage that may be regulated. One day you may be told to remove all your work. I suggest you check into this further before you start. If I "had" to do this, would go with the liner and the drain tile below the pond, capped on the upside beyond the edge of the vessel, and before the point of capture by several feet. The tile would be set in a trench lined with geotextile, and drain rock around the pipe. I would also set a footer for the collection point to hold back the dirt and guide the water to a channel onto the pond liner, with the liner coming up from the pond and over the edge of the footer as a start point/collection point. BUT-If I wanted a pond, I would build it independently of the drainage, and route the drainage around/under it with piping if that's where it "had" to be. Otherwise, I would build it on higher ground, off the drainage route entirely, and enjoy an all around, more stable situation in my pond! Using the drainage seems like a good idea at first, but the more you look into it, the less appealing it becomes if you in fact want a pond. If you really don;t want a pond, but just a place for frogs to congregate in your drainage, it can be made to work, it will just be constant physical maintenence and never be stable. -TT

Wow...what a beautiful house! Well, esh and bullthistle both have great suggestions...I don't know if I can add much to them. I do, however, think that $150/month is kind of a lot for a mow/blow company. You didn't mention what all services were included, but I'm guessing they are just the standard mowing/edging. I agree that you would probably do well to get some more prices. Especially if they have not contacted you in two months. Dethatching is a good call and you can do that yourself, if you don't mind a little elbow grease. Aerating is another good call; however, the equipment is pretty hefty and a little awkward to use if you have never done it before. Anytime when it is not too hot is usually OK, I think. Spring or fall. (BTW, I just LOVE the pretty mailbox and gaslight and they go perfectly with the style of your home.) I think your porch just screams for some pretty hanging baskets (ferns maybe?) or pots of color or low window boxes for the bottoms of those front windows. Something that would peek up over or around the nice boxwood "frame". It's also a good way to indulge your inner gardener without having to water a whole lawn right now. (I know it's probably a little frustrating wanting to get out there and garden, with a water ban on.) Heuchera would be a nice choice for the shaded porch...and there are lots of great colors. Caladiums, begonias, etc. Those traditional shade plants would be just beautiful with your traditional house. I like the already mentioned ideas about top dressing and ocllecting rainwater. Also planning your beds. There is a LOT you can do right now, on paper, even during the drought (easy for me to say, right? I'm not there!) :) There are lots of great shrubs you could try if you are really ready to get rid of the boxwoods. Frankly, I like them with the house, but I can understand you wanting to do YOUR thing...not necessarily the thing of the previous owners! :) Just beware of anything that will grow up too high...you have those low windows and you don't want to cover them up. I know junipers seem sort of ho-hum to some folks, but you can't beat the variety and the drought-tolerant-ness (tolerant-ness?). Or, like esh...I agree...just try replacing the ends only with something a little taller. Maybe a mid-height conifer...maybe in a lime-ier (lime-ier?), brighter green...maybe...arbovitae? False cypress? Something not too, too tall. Then plan a curvy bed. (Make them the same on both sides since you have a symmetrical structure) out around those end shrubs. Maybe...add one other different shrub just to the inside of both conifers...to sort of bridge the height between the conifer and the remaining boxwood. Then some drought-tolerant flowers in front of the whole thing inside the matching curvy beds. Put the same flowers maybe out by your mailbox. How exciting to have just moved into your new home! Congratulations and welcome to Georgia! My husband and I are transplants also (he from Lousiana, me from Mississippi).

Both your house and your view are really lovely, and the two look nice together. One thing that strikes me is that it is difficult for a visitor to know quite how to approach your house. I don't have any ideas about how to make this clearer, but it might be something to consider - if as part of your planting plan you can add something to help guide folks to your door. In general I like having deeper beds - mine along buildings range from about 5 feet deep to 8 or 9. I like having the depth to have more plants rather than just one line of plants so that there is more texture and contrast and if something isn't doing well, it isn't so obvious. I don't do deliberately curvy edges unless the plants require it (such as a big shrub in a bed that isn't deep enough.) As far as I can see, your house doesn't require a deeper bed (or really any bed since the view is what catches one's eye) since it sits low and has little of the foundation showing, but it may be easier to get a pleasing garden with a wider bed. You will probably need to leave a strip of mulch of some kind where the rain drips off the roof as most perennials won't grow right under the drip line. Shrubs in general do fine there. If you want them, there are a few kinds of shrubs that are possible in the roof dump zone, as some do well cut to the ground annually. Under my roof edge where snow lands I have a couple kinds of hydrangea: Annabelle (or you could use any other kind of H. arborescens) and Endless Summer. Both bloom on new wood and have no problems with being cut to the ground in spring. They should be hardy for you. Whether they would do well for you depends on how dry it gets since they aren't tolerant of dryness. I also have a summer-blooming spirea which does fine being cut to the ground each year. It will grow well in your conditions and there are many varieties with different heights, foliage color and texture, and bloom color so you could find one that looks different from the one you have. Spirea are relatively subtle. In years when snow dump hasn't damaged the shrubs, both hydrangea and spirea do fine without the severe pruning. Mad Gallica's suggestions of rhubarb, nepeta, and Siberian iris are good suggestions that will tolerate your conditions and provide you with a range of foliage sizes and colors. Some other plants that I grow and should do well in those conditions: sedums (tall or groundcover), perennial geraniums, fall blooming asters, some of the hardier varieties of Amsonia such as tabernaemontana, Baptisia (a large shrubby perennial tolerant to a wide range of conditions and decorative in both bloom and foliage), and Liatris. A non-flowering variety of lambs ear such as 'Silver Carpet' or 'Helene von Stein' will add low silvery folliage. (I wouldn't recommend the flowering kind since it will self-seed into the lawn and everywhere else and is quite a weed.) If you want some height, consider Clematis on an obelisk. Late-blooming clematis get cut to near the ground annually since they bloom on new wood. There are also varieties of clematis that do well rambling along the ground or over a shrub, and even some that have the growth habit of a perennial (1-3 feet and non-climbing) though they would probably need to be bought mail-order. You may be able to tuck some hosta partially under or behind one of your shrubs to give it a bit of shade during the worst of the afternoon sun if you want some, but even sun-tolerant hosta would have some difficulty with full afternoon sun in a SSW exposure in my experience. Consider adding some of the spring-flowering bulbs that aren't bothered at all by critters: alliums (various kinds from early to late spring and short to tall) and daffodils. We have such a short growing season that having those early flowers is quite welcome. One other quick note: you don't need to leave all or even many of your forget-me-nots in order to get reseeding. I rip most of mine out each year as they finish blooming and find that enough seeds have dropped that I get more than I want the following spring without problems.