Drawing a blank on my own house!

[chrisvinky]

I bought our house last spring and landscaped the front.

This year is time for the back, but I am drawing a blank on what to put in front of the second story part on the far left. The problem is, there is only 8.5 feet from the house to the driveway in that area. It is also 15 feet from the corner of the house to the window.

I considered putting a pyramidal holly that gets about 8' or an emerald green arborvitae about 4' from the corner and 4' from the house. I just don't know how it would look.

I also considered three arborvitae between the corner and window, but not sure of the look and afraid of overcrowding.

I believe I am going to go with Blue Princess Holly in front of the window and A/C unit and in front of the deck along with some Merlot Itea and Rumba Weigelia for color.

Still yet to decide on something on th far right also. Considered Royal Star Magnolia, Muskegee Crepe Myrtle, Dogwood, etc...

Any help on plant selection for the far left and far right would be appreciated.

I live in west kentucky in zone 6. The back of the house faces south.

BTW, I know the yard looks like crap. I took the pic before we closed. It looks better now, though still a work in progress!

http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd249/chrisvinky/2008358.jpg

http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd249/chrisvinky/2008359.jpg

[AGLA]

You might consider a white trellis on (or just off) the face of the wall to balance that wall with the existing window. That will help balance things out on the building itself leaving you with less to overcome through planting.

Another thing that might work for you is to bulk up around the AC unit by swinging a planting out around it back to the deck steps - maybe some big ornamental grasses like Yaku-Jima Maiden Grass that is easy to work around when servicing needs to be done.

A larger evergreen shrub on the garage door corner, like Blue Princess Holly could be nice with some smaller shrubs in the foreground. Then you could continue the lawn from the backyard around those ornamental grasses an narrow the bed across the back of the garage with a 4' lawn apron until you get to where those foreground shrubs wrap the holly. A 4.5' bed is enough to put a traditional foundation planting with something on the trellis as well. The reason for narrowing the bed is to make the ends more prominent than the middle of the wall which will tame down the height of the gable wall (the opposite would happen if you put a big shrub in the middle of that wall).

That is just one way to do it to get you thinking.

[chrisvinky]

I like the idea of the trellis. Never thought of that. I originally intended for the bed to go from the middle of the turn around and gently curve around in front of the deck back to the retaining wall on the right.

I have some flagstone that I was going to use as stepping stones in the mulch from the drive to the stairs.

Now you have me thinking of having two separate beds with the flagstones placed in the lawn and the beds starting on each side of the steps.

I would put in a paving stone walkway, but we are going to put in a sunroom where the deck is eventually with a paving stone patio off of the sunroom. I hate to put it in if I have to tear it out in a few years.

[AGLA]

I like the idea of stepping stones in lawn rather than an oversized bed with stepping stones going through mulch, also.

[chesterlawn]

You might be able to get a Dawn Redwood in there.

[chesterlawn]

Sorry, I don't know what I was thinking.