I did lots of thinking on this and came up with this non-constructive thought. If you were to want to sell you home, you would probably ask some real estate agents for proposals (price, their way of marketing, commission, etc.). Once you determined which one you want to represent you and home, the agent will take some pictures as part of the marketing (mostly online anymore). The agent is looking out for you, but also seeking the sale. If the agent believes that something is not right with the photo taken, then you would have a tendency to listen. A real estate agent is not an artist, nor a landscape person, but a good one will have seen lots of homes and knows what works and what doesn't. Stand at the curb. Take a picture, walk to the left and right several paces and take more pictures. Walk up the drive a bit and take pictures, not just of the house, but the view from the house. What would you want to do if you were thinking about buying your home? Now for some other comments: You have many horizontal lines on the actual house. The windows and doors are rectangle. All of that is very typical. Your yard counters that look a bit, but it also moves the eye in an awkward manner. You need to negate that. In your first photo, it appears that the house is leaning because of all that. I concur on getting rid of all that grows between the current walkway and the house. I concur that you ought to not have a straight line walk to replace it. My suggestion to balance the overall look would be to create a small berm on the left side, about 20' out from the house. Nothing large, but something that would break up that falling away appearance. In the first photo, there is lots of shade coming from the left side, I'll assume that there are some tall trees there. I'm a big promoter of color in the front yard; something that complements the colors of the house. Some might think it trite, but a burning bush on the berm would look good as the leaves are changing color this time of year. Those can be pruned to shape or let it go. I would also include blooming perennials that show different colors throughout the year. Poppies might work, as might some Veronica. There are many, many options for that kind of thing. Jim

Like the changes already! How about moving the address to the R of the window? And the flag doesn't do anything for me--it says "soccer mom" rather than "French," no matter how tasteful the flag, though I totally understand why you felt you needed something to take up the space. :-) I'd put in a wrought iron trellis next to the "closed" shutters and grow an antique rose up it. ("New Dawn" would almost certainly be too much of a thug. Someone who knows more about roses than I could give you a better cultivar.) That's a house begging for lavender, too--and some small, well-kempt, carefully pruned (not usually a fan of shaping heavily, but the house calls for it, and with the lot size, it'll be very manageable to maintain) evergreens to ground it. Maybe dwarf boxwood? Topiaries by the door or leading up to it? Carefully shaped dwarf fruit trees? I'm thinking rosemary and irises, too. I like the window box, but it should be larger. Geraniums are popular for window boxes in that part of the world and look great, but you can make it more modern by adding something that spills, too. These are just a few thrown-out-there thoughts, not a design yet. :-) But here's some eye-candy for inspiration. Here is a link that might be useful: French Gardens

American Beauty Berry is said to grow to a mature height and width of 4 to 6'. It can occasionally get as tall as 10'. A potentially 6' wide shrub should be planted 3' from a wall, fence or property line. If planted too close to a wall it may eventually lean. It prefers full sun to light shade and moist, well drained soil. It's main attraction is its bright purple berries from late summer on. It is deciduous and not a focal piece over winter. When I looked up silver euonymous there were two cultivars. Silver King and Silver Queen are evergreen and said to grow up to 6' tall and 4' wide with Silver Queen being shorter and wider. Euonymous prefers full sun though medium shade is acceptable. It's not picky about soil, and will tolerate drought once established. The azaleas are the most delicate shrubs in this bed. They need partial to medium shade—more shade in hotter climates—and moist, well drained, acid soil. HERE is an article with helpful info. Most azaleas are evergreen, but there is a taller deciduous group that includes the Knaphill, Mollis, and Ghent hybrids. It would be really helpful to know what cultivar are the hollies. Most hollies grow quite large and many dwarf varieties are still large. Burford holly (Ilex cornuta 'Burfordii') can grow to 15'. Dwarf Burford grows 8 to 10' tall and wide. However, the cultivar 'Carissa' only grows 3 to 4' tall and 4 to 5' wide. Both of these dwarf hollies have a single spine on the tip of the leaf. Japanese holly has a dwarf form (I. crenata 'compacta') that grows 2' tall and 5' wide. It is also known as boxwood holly, and takes shearing well. It prefers full sun to partial shade and acid to neutral soil. Some list Japanese holly as hardy to zone 5, but others say zone 6. The final dwarf holly is Yaupon holly (I. vomitoria 'nana') growing 2' high and 5' wide. It is only hardy to zone 7, and prefers full sun to partial shade and moist, well drained soil. There are too many shrubs in this bed, but not knowing what cultivars you have means I cannot say where else in your yard they will look better. emmarene's suggestions seem good. I, too would intersperse low, preferably flowering shrubs with perennials. Plant spring bulbs between perennials that can hide their dying foliage. Fill in with annuals until the perennials take over.

Missing still are large chunks of the view that are important to the yard. You are not capturing the problem with steps in the photos. (They look like some kind of stained, textured concrete.) I would not have necessarily added them like that. But they are there so I wouldn't necessarily remove them. If your drive is too steep to walk on comfortably, the steps are probably actually useful. If they need a handrail is better judged on site, as photos can be very misleading about grade. It looks like the grass could stand being fertilized, watered and mowed regularly.