Well, you bought a classic example of overgrown shrubbery, too many shrubs that got too large, all planted too close to the house.

One way to start thinking about landscaping your house is to take pictures of each side of the house. Take them at some distance and blow them up to 8x10. Then lay tracing paper over the pictures and sketch in shapes--not plants. When you get shapes right, you can go to a good nursery and get help in choosing plants.

Your old landscaping was entirely evergreens. While having some evergreens is always good, you don't need to have all evergreens, and you don't need to have them marching around the house--you don't have an ugly foundation to hide. Consider bringing beds out from the house to include at least one small, ornamental tree. In the beds think of including flowering shrubs and grasses. Think in terms of 4 season interest--fall color, berries, interesting winter silhouettes--as well as bloom.

Good luck.

Do you want help with a landscape design or do you just want planting suggestions? There's a pretty big difference between the two :-)

If you want to develop a landscape design, one of the first things you need to do is determine what you want from your garden and how you intend to use it. If you do a search of this forum, you will turn up a recent thread titled "Landscape Design Forum FAQ - Improved" that will present a checklist of issues for you to review that will help you focus your thoughts and clarify your requirements. It involves examining your property in detail and evaluating your lifestyle so that you develop a garden/landscape that "works" for you. Maintenance, budget considerations and the function of the garden are all considered.

At that point you may decide that help with plant selection is all you need. That's a relatively easy process and can be approached in just the manner lacyvail outlined. Many nurseries will have staff that can assist in this process. If you are unfamiliar with plants, visiting local public gardens or arboreta or even large garden centers can offer a wide display of plantings in situ that may inspire.

Often, it is just more efficient and economical to hire a professional for design assistance. This avoids a great deal of expensive trial and error, escalates the knowledge base and shortcuts the entire process. You can also do a great deal of self-teaching if you can afford the time and are willing to expend the effort - there are tons of very good DIY landscaping texts on the market and most home improvement centers or book stores will have a bunch available.

But you are not going to come away from this forum with a landscape plan in hand. That's not how it works. You may get some good advice on how to proceed in the process, you may even get some specific plant suggestions, although at this point I believe they would be very premature, but the development of a "landscape design" is something that will take study, time, effort and careful consideration, either yours or a professional designer's.

SORRY, maybe i mispoke, not understanding the least bit about landscape design. i guess what i meant was i am looking for suggestions on types of trees/bushes to plant. i am interested in lower maintenance ones that will not end up as big as the ones that were there before. thanks.

Then what you need to do is take some clear photos of the areas you want planted, note the sun/shade exposure and visit a couple of good local nurseries or garden centers. They can help you select low maintenance, smaller scale plants best suited for your area and climate. Most nurseries are very accustomed to this approach and are well able to offer sound planting advice.

Cdowns,

Hi, Could you post some pics of your house after your shrubs have been removed? It would be easier to make suggestions if we could see the house more clearly. And also where are you located?

Brat

I thought of your post today when I was at Home Depot. I saw a book in their garden section titled "Hillside Gardening".

I personally, get lots of inspiration from pictures. So perhaps a book like this will help give you a good starting point.

Also note, you're in Maryland and there are several gardening zones in MD. Check out this link: http://images.meredith.com/bhg/pdf/gardening/hardiness/hzm_Maryland.pdf When you're looking at books and websites for plant suggestions, make sure the plants are hardy in your zone. Example: don't get attached to the thought of beautiful Crepe Myrtle if you're in zone 4 !!!

Oh, next time you post, be sure to put your zone in the Zone section of your post. See, like mine is 4a and I also included my area too, as many others here do as well.

I hope this helps!