I don't know if they have Wal-mart in Norway. Go to your local garden center and look for something that will work to make your soil more pourous. Turface is high fired clay, or you could use expanded shale. I think vermiculite (spelling?) works much the same too. You might also buy it online if you can't find it in stores. Sometimes they have stuff on e-bay. The soil there is overpriced compared to the price you pay to mix your own, but if you only have one, it will last awhile. You can also get some reasonable tools there. I got an entire set for a very good bid price. I was worried that they wouldn't be the right thing or that they would be flimsy. When I got them, I had a friend who has been doing bonsai for 15 years or so look at them, and he said they were just fine. I have read that boxwood is hard for beginners to keep up. I have only been doing this for two years, and I am not willing to try one yet. Boxwoods grow as shrubs ALL over Houston, so I am not sure what makes them so difficult. However, all three books that I have on bonsai say that they are not for beginners. That brings up another point; buy a book and read, read, read. THere are lots of great books about how to mix soil, how to root prune, how to prune foliage, etc. Have fun!=0)

Your soil is fairly alkaline, and I know alkaline soil pretty well because my soil tests around 8.2. Hollies would thrive in a more acidic soil, something with a pH anywhere from 4.5 to 6.0 Some hollies can do okay, but not necessarily great, in soil with a pH up to 7.0. I grow Burford and Dwarf Burford hollies in my alkaline soil and they are happy in it and are very robust and healthy---our Burford hollies are about 12-15' tall and 6-8' wide, for example. We have amended the heck out of our soil---we amended the area where we planted the Dwarf Burfords for almost 10 years and grew annuals in it every year until we finally got it to where it had a decent pH and drained well. It started out as dense red clay. The good thing about red clay is that it is highly nutritious but when the pH is too high the plants cannot take up some nutrients well, so we had to fix the soil before we could plant the hollies. Do you, by chance, have extremely sandy or rocky soil? Hollies grown in those soils, especially at a higher pH level, can have trouble absorbing nutrients. That might explain the poor growth.

IMO you currently have no way for a visitor to distinguish where the entry is. The large sea of paving created by the drive and turn around or parking spaces vs. the narrow entry tucked between the two building wings gives no clear message of where a visior should enter. The narrow path and archway to the courtyard says to me that it is private space, akin to walking into someone’s back yard uninvited. I would likely follow the drive around the house if I were looking for the front door, assuming that the house was spun 90 degrees with the entry facing right. Bryan Lovely’s second drawing solves this with problem with a clear pathway from the driveway to the entrance, an entry patio, and bright plantings that bring attention to the home entry. While his planting layout doesn’t do much for me, and I think the path should be wider, at least 6’ wide, this general scheme will improve the front entry and make the house far more welcoming than its current front facade. Tiny changes like window trim don’t solve the largest issue of how a first time visitor find the entrance to a home that presents a barricaded appearance.

I believe that is fairly normal for an in-ground sprinkler system. It's not right, but a lot of people, including me, have the same issues. For now turn off the sprinkler system and let things dry out. Then either call someone to fix it or get out your shovel. Watch some YouTube videos on sprinkler head replacement before you decide to dig in. I used to fix sprinklers for my parents and some neighbors, but my joints don't work like they used to, so I'm calling someone to fix ours.