The photo is a little fuzzy so can't tell for sure, but you might consider allowing the burning bushes at the end of the house to grow into tree forms if it wouldn't conflict with any windows. And then underplanting them in the future. For below the front window you might consider one of the Japanese Spiraea cultivars. At the back of the perennials, if there is enough light, you might consider including Siberian Iris 'Caesar's Brother'. It has long lasting nice foliage in addition to the great blooms and general plant vigor without being invasive. Potentilla somewhere? Peonies? A tree Peony?

just wanted to say I wonder if anyone other than a southerner would know the word 'stoop.' love it. haven't heard that word in a while. in new orleans everyone had a front stoop. i also love your green shutters and hardware, looks like what i had in louisiana, built custom from cypress. your house is lovely. i think daylillies would look great there and maybe some sage. even herbs. if it gets georgia sun after 12 noon, i think that is plenty sun. carpet roses. you would need a contrasting color from the yellow so i think red roses or lillies or purple sage. you can keep the pretty ferns and put the other flowers in clumps so as not to totally obstruct the background. a bench would also be nice. mexican heather is pretty too and low growing, with small purple flowers. we grew in louisiana and mom grows on gulf coast but not sure it would be perennial in atlanta area. your place is gorgeous. laurie

I love the old metal chairs you have by your pool. I was visiting a garden in Frisco awhile back and this lady really had an eye for creating little vignettes in her garden. She would find old windows without the glass, paint them red or whatever color was attractive for the area and hang those on the fence. Then she would also hang a couple other things like a candle sconce or a little garden plaque then in front of that place an old chair. She had several of those old metal chairs she used in the design and you could sit in any of them. She also had an antique wash tub filled with flowers - lots of really neat ideas. Just wanted to pass that idea long to you to maybe incorporate something like that into your design. This coming from my brother who is an HVAC technician - whatever you plant around your A/C unit - make sure it isn't prickly and keep it at least two feet away from the unit so they can get in to do repairs. So, when planting, consider the plant's mature size. Also, don't put anything near them that will have stuff that might get caught up in the unit and cause it to not run efficiently. Maybe something like compact nandinas that only get to about 4-5 feet tall would be a good screening plant. Just leave space for the technicians. As far as the curves of the landscape borders go, make sure you can mow along them - no really sharp curves that would be difficult to maneuver the mower.

I doubt that's a yew, and even if it is, when a shrub is that big it has a root system that is capable of pushing out a lot of growth every season and so makes for an unnecessarily high maintenance plant even if it CAN be pruned to shape. Same with the maple, I think, though I believe they can take root pruning as is done for bonsai. I have, however, NO idea what time of year that should be done, or how, or even whether it should be done on a mature specimen, so don't quote me! Since the discussion is ongoing here, I'll also paste in below my comment from the other forum (the thread there needed an addition, so I initially posted there). To take the focus off that bed for a moment, it is also worth going back to what Laag said about putting in a new bed along the sidewalk and across the hedge, and also about weighting the yard differently. Sometimes I find that the longer I delay a decision, the easier it becomes - and that might apply to the maple, so you could do other stuff first and then re-evaluate. In addition, if you have other new plantings in, the loss of the maple won't leave you with a moonscape. KarinL "You do have an interesting problem with that maple. It is the only softening influence in what is otherwise a very linear house and yard, and it is the only thing that crosses and thus muddies the rather sharp dividing line between yard and driveway. What Laag has written on the other thread addresses the lines of your house and the DESIGN of the front yard in a way that will mitigate some of its unfortunate features: the half-yard half-driveway frontage, and the vertical linearity of the house. I put "design" in caps to distinguish it from "decorating" the yard, which is what a lot of people limit themselves to when looking at their landscapes. If you step back and think just about the lines, ignoring the details, I think you'll see the house as Laag does. And Laag is right that its removal will leave you with a bleak prospect, a very driveway-ey house, one dominated by unattractive lines. However, the maple is big and so I think I too would be inclined to remove it - or as has been mentioned on the other thread, try to have it moved to another part of the yard. This can be done in fall in my area, and you may get some dieback, but the majesty of the plant is likely to be preserved. And really, if you don't like the maple, it is your house and you can't be expected to house it as a favour to the forum. The trick to coming out of this with a good design solution that will make you happy AND make your house look its best is to identify what it is about the maple that makes it a good design feature. I believe it is the fact that it obscures the line bordering the driveway, which from the driveway side is a lovely rock wall, but from the front is just a straight line that is elongated by the driveway itself and the fact that it connects visually to the nearest column. So the fact that the maple breaks up that line close to the house is key. So perhaps you could prune the maple away from the sidewalk and just let it overhang the driveway, if you were inclined to keep it. Or you could replace it with a more upright variety and enjoy the early years of its growth, rather than the latter years of this one. Add in other softening, border-crossing, horizontal-arching plant material right up to where the green ball shrub currently is, and you may have an all-round pleasing result. It might also be an idea to paint the columns a less stark colour, but that's not my area of expertise."