Fees will vary widely from location to location and with the experience and reputation of the designer. They are often calculated by the hour but some will quote a fixed price once they have an idea of the scope of the project. You should look for an independant designer - those associated with larger businesses or nurseries often market the design as the hook to sell the contracting services and plant material. Having just a set of plans drawn up with you doing all the work and acquiring all the materials yourself is one of the least expensive ways of pursuing a landscaping project....designer's fees could be as little as a couple hundred bucks depending on the size of the property and complexity or can escalate to several thousands for more elaborate situations. It is the labor and materials that really add up! If you want to tackle the deisgn yourself, I'd suggest getting a couple of good how-to books on home landscaping and at least one textbook on basic design principals from a library or home improvement store. The more you know and become familiar with the process, the better the result will be. Landscape design is not rocket science but it does require some basic knowledge and a certain amount of creativity. Good luck!!

I've avoided offering suggestions for a couple of reasons: first, because of the concrete borders you've already installed. My gut reaction is that if those spaces are planted in a typical way, instead of being an asset they would be a detriment to the overall appearance of the house and property. What compounds this and makes it worse is that one section of the walk is so darned skinny and the turn toward the house is so sharp! it cheapens the overall look of the house and should have been fixed before the borders were added. Second, while you've got a lot of pictures, the information they provide is limited, as the pictures are from all different points of view. What's missing is showing the whole scene from the most important -- front and center -- point of view. The second-from-last picture attempts to do this but it is incomplete and from too great a distance. Hate to be so picky about the pictures but they are what makes the property understandable to us and one of the best vehicles for us to convey suggestions back to you. I suppose the most probable fix is to do a foundation planting based on what the house needs (temporarily ignoring the bordered areas) and then plant primarily low groundcover in the bordered areas. (I would definitely consider perennial peanut for them since you are in Miami.) If you want help for how I think you should arrange a foundation planting, you would need to position the camera in line with the center of the house and midway between house and city sidewalk. It would stay in that position for all pictures, but pivot The series of pictures would span 180*. Begin by aiming far left, and finish aiming far right. We would see neighbor's properties at the beginning and end of the span, and your property at the center. If you look at some other threads, you will probably find examples of such pictures. They can be put back together to show the scene almost as if we were standing there seeing it for ourselves. Also, you might mention if you have any overall goals that are beyond the typical.

My suggestions aren't based on ideals, but on practical attractive suggestions for a new homeowner with a limited budget. I wouldn't choose to barricade the entryway, hiding the walk and much of the door as in the image immediately above, which also uses some plants that aren't shade tolerant and are tightly pruned into unnatural shapes. If you have the time and the inclination, I would move the path out away from the house, take out the worst of the squiggles and make one long sweep of a curve if you don't want it straight as Laceyvail suggested. If not, plant larger plants in the areas of outward squiggles so at least they look like there is a reason for them being there. Certainly remove the ivy from the tree on a regular basis and keep it at ground level. As long as you are willing to manage the edges and keep it from climbing, it is an adequate groundcover as is pachysandra, and either will do better than grass on your shady slope. If there isn't money for a pro to do design, there isn't money for masonry walls which are expensive. For now, I would go to a good garden center with your photo along with some observations of how much sun (if any) the space gets and see what suggestions they have for plants that will stay below the level of your windows and will be narrower than the space between the path and the house by a foot or two so plants are not smooshed against the house. Depending on amount of sun, that might include some smaller azaleas, but I don't really know plants for your area. Then plant a shade tolerant evergreen flowering ground cover beneath it or some evergreen shade tolerant perennials (Veronica Georgia Blue and hellebores are two that come to mind). Hostas in various colors and sizes will provide large leaves for contrast to whatever else you plant as long as deer aren't a problem. If deer are a problem, be sure to tell the nursery where you go for plants. Since you seem to not have a lot of garden experience, spend a bit more to get plants from an independent nursery with qualified staff to help you with design suggestions and appropriate plant choices for your situation. At this time of year, they are more likely to have the time to assist you, and fall planting is often more successful since there is adequate rain and cooling temperatures. You most likely want to get a load of compost and turn it into the bed before planting since the shrubs there previously may have depleted organic matter and nutrients. This is a task you can do now while it is still too hot to plant, working a bit at a time in early morning before it gets hot. Regardless, after planting, mulch the whole bed. Right now, I am not sure you have room for a Japanese maple there unless you place it in the center of the yard away from the house. Perhaps removing the hedge to the left of the house and placing a J maple off that corner would work, but you would need to decide if losing the screening of the hedge would be a good exchange and also would need to choose a small enough cultivar that it wouldn't outgrow the space. Let us know what you end up doing.

Mseamm - yes. That was one of my very favorite seasons in my garden. Most everything had been newly planted - it was 10 years ago. So nothing at that time was overgrown. And we had to change the numbers on the house for solar ones that could be seen at night as per city recommendation. (But, we did move the original numbers and put them by the side door, so they are still on the house). I especially loved the jasmine growing up around the flagpole. The jasmine suddenly died last summer. I have planted more, and hopefully it will catch on. I will say that in person, the garden now does still look really lush. The photos don’t do it justice.