I'm pleased to hear people enjoy seeing this garden, it was one of several I designed as gardens to help sell homes being remodeled on speculation, and the fully landscaped gardens did help them sell more quickly, up until the bottom dropped out of the market in 2008. I'd agree with Kim that painterly is the description I'd give to my style of planting design, superimposed over strong architectural bones, but also allowing the plants to be sculptural elements arranged to best feature their individual qualities. There are many more photos of this and other gardens on my Flickr site if you wanted to see more vistas of this same garden over the past 6 years. Melle in Sacramento, I think there are particular ideas you could apply to your own garden in this front garden; seeing how grouping and repeating plants of similar forms but different heights/foliage colors and tying them together with herbaceous perennials or ground covers can give unity to a garden and give it a sense of flow. Not all of these plants would work in your zone, but could be substituted with similar hardier species. I happen to use a lot of drought tolerant succulents in my designs because they are often so sculptural, or have interesting year round foliage color and dramatic blooms. You can also see here that it doesn't necessarily mean it has to look dry and deserty or sparse. All of this garden except for the back lawn uses very little water applied by drip soaker lines hidden below mulch. This garden remains colorful year round mostly on account of different foliage colors rather than massive amounts of flowers; but the flowering plants that are used are boldly colorful and/or extra long blooming as my preference in using color. As an aside for Kim, since the clients who bought the property have gotten more comfortable with making it their own garden and asking for changes, I've been adding many palms to the garden front and back. There are now some young Chamaedorea tepelijote and C. microspadix and a Rhopalostylis chathamica in the back, along with the stripped trunk Trachycarpus fortunei in the front. I also think one of the reasons a painterly planting design is easy for me to visualize is because my mom is a painter, and also me being so nearsighted without glasses on, I see the plantings as shapes and colors with indistinct edges. This is similar to squinting to avoid getting hung up on details to early when blocking out a painting._

Hi Melle, Sorry I didn't see this post. I've been offline for a while. I have a cottage area in front of my farmer's porch. I used to have the middle beds filled with daylilies and other perennials but decided since this was the area in my yard with full sun and a fence that the deer don't jump it was the best place for vegetables. We happened to take a picture from the farmer's porch roof a few years ago, so you can see what the bed layout is. We transformed 2 of the middle beds to veggies last year and then readied the 3rd bed for planting this spring, so all beds in the middle will be veggies (although I'm also leaning on using a portion of one of them to start some seeds). This is the one longer bed (to the right with the daylilies in the first picture: And this is the middle bed. I planted a pinwheel of different color lettuce in this bed and also planted nasturtium seeds around the edge. Once the lettuce was done the nasturtium took over and kept some nice color going. (I had another area where I was able to plant more lettuce to continue that little crop). Here's another pic I just found from a different angle when it was less grown in. You can really see all the beds in that area from this angle to see how the perennials, shrubs and then veggies all work together. Overall I was really happy with how it all worked out and am looking forward to adding the 3rd bed over by the arbor this spring.

One of the things in the list of things-that-look-bad, is 'fake retaining walls'. If that's what you mean by an "... 8 - 10" paver stone wall," I would say don't do it. Since changes to the walkway and mowing strip was brought up, I think that's what whitewatervol was referring to by "hardscape." (... any work that's not planting) Now that I see how the porch and walk interface, I'd definitely make some improvements. The simplest, most effective thing you could do is to substantially widen the walk as it approaches the porch, so that it is really inviting. Now, especially with the raised edging, which makes the walk look sunken, it looks a bit like a section of obstacle course. Another thing that is disagreeable about the walk is how there is a 3" riser and 6" riser at the porch. This should be constructed so there is a single step ... or no step at all, if the grade of yard would permit it. I would definitely rebuild the last several feet of walk in order to fix this. (To eliminate the step all together, it would require rebuilding more feet of the walk.) I live in the hot South, too, and do not worry much about planting during the summer. We have irrigation and many of the plants that grow here like heat to grow. With a little extra water during the first month or so, most things do pretty well. Plus, once the rainy season starts, we usually get out of having to water for a few weeks. It's a visual idea ... not a plan and not immune to altering according to conditions and needs.

My brother lives at something like 8000 feet in the hills above Denver. He is in an area that doesn’t allow gardens due to water issues. His yard is native wildflowers and grasses and has looked essentially the same for more than 30 years. It takes little maintenance which is good since gardening isn’t an interest for him. I agree with Laceyvail about removing the cobble type of rocks. They won’t be entirely stable, they will make clearing snow a hassle, and they will get weeds mixed in with them which will be difficult to maintain. In planning whatever you will be doing with your yard, read up on planting for fire safety. With conditions in the mountain west, wildfires have become increasingly common, and having an area of nonflammable material close to the house is important. For instance, having a typical foundation planting and nearby evergreens may not be wise. If having a garden is of interest, there are a number of alpine garden resources in various parts of the state.