It would be helpful to show the extent of the walk ... the beginning to the end. I presume it begins somewhere behind where the photographer is standing to take the above shot. It would be better to move farther away from the house and take a picture where the house is square on in the background. Be far enough away that where the walk begins can be seen at the left end of the photo and the gate can be seen at the right end. Now go outside the gate and do basically the same thing: take a picture with the house in the background ... the gate will be at the left end of the photo and we can see where the walk will travel from there to its destination or as far as the photo will allow. Continue moving the camera position and taking pictures (always staying about the same distance from the house) until we see where the walk terminates at the right end of the picture. The pictures should overlap slightly so that we can put together in our minds how they fit together. In the end, it should be such that the pictures could be spliced together and the proposed walk could be seen in its entirety, if it existed.

Thanks all!! Samantha - As for the variety of azalea, we were thinking either Autumn Angel (white) or Autumn Chiffon (light pink with darker center). Both are dwarf and should only get to be 3x3. I was leaning more towards the white just for a neutral color, although I already have the dark pink from the Knock-Out roses. I *think* they may be hardier in the full sun. Yardvaark - Thanks so much for the design ideas! As for that Osmanthus (& holly), I like the idea of making it more into a tree - but I have some questions about how to go about doing so! We bought this house 2 yrs ago, and of course inherited the landscaping. The previous owners clearly didn't do much in the way of yardwork/landscaping, so both the Osmanthus and the holly on the opposite side had gotten quite large. The holly was trimmed in a cone shape and the Osmanthus was circular. I just recently trimmed several feet, again, off of each shrub, and made the holly into a (very poorly shaped) ball to match the Osmanthus. If I had to guess, there was a holly on the right side at one time too (there are some shoots that keep trying to come up), but it must have been replaced with this Osmanthus. As a native Virginian, Osmanthus isn't something I'm familiar with because I assume it's a little too chilly there for them. However we lived in coastal AL for a few years before moving here and I was quite fond of the very fragrant "tea olives," which now I know were a type of Osmanthus! But anyway, I've taking a photo of the trunk of that Osmanthus...to make it into a tree, I guess we would prune off the lower limbs - and the same for the holly? Here's the backside of the Osmanthus (which seems to me to be a large mass of trunks): This is the holly on the left side: Both of these have "holes" on the in/back side where the previous old laurel shrubs that were in front of the house had grown too large. Now, if I am successful in making the Osmanthus & holly into a tree form, plant either the azaleas or compact hollies both under the inside window, and under those two new "trees"?

Much better pictures. I would remove the AC screen and return to the smaller, neutral colored, original version. Screening it only makes an out-of-place thing grow larger. I think if you plant better in the area, it will seem less obtrusive. Then, when it craps out in some future year, you can finally have it relocated to the side of the house. The garden at the middle of yard does not work to distract from any other thing that you don't want looked at. Instead, it seems more like an impediment to better seeing an inviting entrance. I would opt for blank, clean lawn instead. The tree that's in the island might could stay. I don't know if it's a good tree and can't evaluate its placement based on the pictures we have so far. (It would need to be a picture from a distance showing the whole front yard all the way to the street.) If it remains as a tree in the lawn, you would want to remove its lower branches as it grows and keep a nice single trunk all the way to the bottom of the finished canopy. (Instead of letting it branch helter-skelter and become an ugly trunk.) I like the idea of some evergreens to screen the side of the house to the left and help place a limit on your yard. (That is, if you have room for them. It's kind of hard to tell.) The rest is tidying up and simplifying the foundation planting. Right now, there are too many odds and ends one-offs doing their own thing. It needs some cohesion. Also, I'd eliminate the plantings at the near side of the walk and bring the lawn all the way to the walk. The plants there are like a barricade and they don't help the entrance to seem inviting. I can't say what the individual shrubs in the illustration are. They are whatever that grows there that would best do that. I think the little tree at the left corner of the house is an overgrown shrub ... like beautybush or something. Below the largest bank of windows, the depth of bed will determine to some extent what shrub will fit there. The groundcover near the AC needs to come up to the bottom of the two windows, but not higher. The rest are perennials. At the steps could be annuals or perennials. All the details you will work out in a measured plan view (looking straight down from above.) With a small tree added to the right side:

That looks very nice Yardvaark. We actually had to remove the tree stumps from the spot where your placing the peach color tree and one from the tree placed by the garage. There use to be trees there, however, they were hideous because they were another type of evergreen so I'm glad they removed them. Putting something else I believe will look much nicer, so thank you for showing that. In addition underneath that tree isn't shrubs there are three sedums which stay around maybe a foot high and round (had 4 one was dead when we bought the house) and all the others are spotted dead nettle which acts somewhat like a ground cover so there really isn't much maintenance under there. Last year I put flowers under there which is what you see in the picture but they were just annuals, this year I put the spotted dead nettle because it stays small, flowers a little and is a perennial.