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._

It's better if you post the picture directly into the thread.

Tough, standard landscaping shrubs that can take either full sun or full shade would be best. You can add visual interest via foliage texture (and that lasts year round) and put the color of flowers elsewhere. Boxwood, Nandina 'Firepower' (which has a lot of foliage color--it reds up in cooler months--and is reliably short enough to live below windows) come immediately to mind, but I'm sure there will be a lot more suggestions. Most satisfying results come from working with conditions in each location of the garden, not against them.

zone is not enough ... we need a location.. big city name ... do you know your soil??? what direction does the front door face ... are the only shade trees the one on the left .... if there is clear sky above.. im not sure i would even call this part shade .. if this is a winter pic.. do you have a summer pic to see such?? winner winner chicken dinner is done.. more tomorrow ken