I wonder why you want a hedge up against the house at all. It's an odd place for it, and the small house is not enhanced by foundation plantings, which only make it look smaller.

The mystery shrub looks like privet, unless you have something I'm not familiar with in your zone, which can be cut back to the ground and will re-sprout new growth, or removed entirely. Same with the holly. The privet would need trimming at least once or twice a year, so you may be better off without it.

The first tree closeup looks like dogwood, but if it's too close to the house, it's not worth saving.

I would remove the plants against the house, remove that odd railing, and put in a wider walk to the door. Groundcover or grass, if it will grow there without a lot of pampering is the easiest to maintain once it's established. You can add a clump of perennials near the entrance path to give you a little "welcome".

The siding isn't spectacularly attractive, and we have that stupid skirting all around the place hiding the pier and beam foundation. I don't think we need a hedge, necessarily, but I'm definitely looking to cut down on the amount of bed-care I have to deal with. And around the house really wouldn't do well as other than beds. On each side of the house there is either walkway or driveway, with the spacing to the house being between 2 feet and 8 feet. I think the house would look very odd with grass right up to the house, plus I like the idea of beds keeping the skirting out of sight and the dogs from attempting to get up under the house.

I do NOT want hedges as large as what we've got. The boxwoods are nice and hardy, seem to do well, and aren't growing too fast to keep up with. They need to be thinned out and pruned back, but they are otherwise fine. But I would love to get rid of the photinias. I just need to figure out what to replace them with.

And we DO need hedge on the front fence, because it keeps the yard much more private, and keeps the dogs from barking at every thing or person that could be seen from the front yard. And keeps the noise down some. But, again, I dislike the red tips and would like to put in something else there.

We do have dogwood, but we've got at least two other additional types of tree in along the west side of the house that I haven't yet figured out. They aren't large, but also aren't particularly attractive. *grin*

By the way, your first mystery plant (pictures 8&9) is chinese privet, an invasive plant and a real menace in the south. No need to keep that, it probably arrived in bird poop! The second mystery one (much later) looks to be a spirea, a nice white flowering shrub.

Thanks. The stuff that is likely privet probably didn't arrive by accident. Or at least the previous owner allowed it to remain and treated it like a chosen plant. (There's a lot of signs of that type of thing in the yard.) There are a number of them in various spots, and they clearly were trimmed and taken care of at some point. I've already cut out about a dozen of them, but there are dozens more left.

Merely an interested bystander, but since they're so handy to have around at Christmas, I'd limb the Holly up and turn it into a small tree rather than cut it down completely. I'm guessing the gangly tree to the right of the Holly is a Redbud; you'll know if it starts making those little flattened beanpods. I like plain old boxwood too, but mainly because I like carving them up into odd shapes. If it were me, all the Phototinia and Juniper would have been gone last week. As far as replacing them with something nicer, are you wanting a front hedge that MOL hides the house from the street, or just hides the street from the dog? (BTW, what a nice looking dog) Your yard looks pretty shady, or maybe you just took pictures on an overcast day? Is there any place that receives more than six hours of sunlight a day?

littledog, thanks first for the compliment on my, well, big dog. *G* He's my boy, always out helping me. In fact, we *just* got in from the front hedge, barely in time to escape the sudden rainfall that just started. Good thing I pulled my head out from the middle of the hedge to look up. 'Cause, you know, Wolfhounds melt in the rain. Just ask them. ;-)

The holly I'm undecided about, but it's on a back corner and we're the only ones who ever see it, so it can wait for a later decision. And yes, that's a redbud next to it. I have many dozens of them of varying sizes and states of decay all around the yard. We've cut down the oldest/weakest of them, we're tending to the ones still remaining, and for the most part I'm pulling up any new ones that spring up from the ground. The yard is a little over an acre, but I don't need or want 400 redbuds. But they have interesting shapes, break up some visual space here and there, and I think if I can get a few of the young ones coming up in places I find acceptable that it might be fun to shape them a bit. I like the giant bonsai look they can have.

The boxwood is harmless, and mostly withstanding vast amounts of Wolfhound urine, so they'll stay. They just need a different shape and some care. I believe I should start by getting into the middle of the shrubs and cutting out anything dead, as well as a few of the oldest/thickest branches, down near the base if possible, right? From what I've read it seems like I need to open them up a bit so light and air can get in? Since they've suffered years of hedge trimmers, should I also thin out the "top" areas, where there are clusters of offshooting branches near the tips? Or should I leave that area and just thin out from further into the bushes?

Yes, we have a ton of shade, and that's AFTER having a half dozen very large trees removed and the rest thinned out and cleaned up. Another half dozen or so old growth trees are going to have to come out probably in the next 2-5 years. They're mostly not very good trees...a few hackberry, a few mulberry. I have to figure out if and where we'll do any replacement trees. I think the pics were taken on an overcast day (since that's mostly what we had the last few months...haha...I seem to recall ducking out a few weeks ago between storms to take those pics). Some areas do get a fair bit of light in the middle of the day, some do not. The front fence line, for example, is in sun most of the day in the summer, other than getting some patchy shade from the magnolias that are in the middle of that fence line hedge. That fence line really must have something there blocking the view of the street, providing some privacy, and keeping the dogs from seeing every little thing that goes on outside the yard. The house, on the other hand, I don't necessarily need to hide. But the way the walkways are set up around the house, it would seem odd to me to have grass in those areas. I like the cottage-garden feel that the yard currently has, I just want it to be under control, as opposed to just being entire mayhem, which is what we have now. And I want to be able to see out my windows, which in most rooms I can not right now. All I can see out the windows is damned photinia branches.

The photinias on the front fence I started tackling today. Right now I'm just cutting out about half of the growth on them. I'm cutting them back to just a bit lower than I'd prefer them to be, cutting out dead wood, clearing dead leaves from the magnolias out of them, cutting branches out of the fence, and anything that seems to be really overly long with only one leaf on the end. I WISH I could just cut them down to the ground right now, but I don't really want to remove all the privacy. I HATE the photinia. I think it's ugly, grows too fast, and is just unsightly. I have some hibiscus in the corner by the gate that I'm trying to free from the photinia as well as from some honeysuckle. And I have what I believe to be some more hibiscus popping up further down the fence line under the photinias. Can hibiscus fill in enough to provide some privacy? Or would it be too sensitive to being rummaged through by the dogs?

I've got some other beds in the yard that I'm in the process of removing. One is the bed in front of the house, in front of the walkway, that encloses a tree (I think that one's a hackberry, can't remember). That will open up the front of the house some. I cut out all but one of the shrubby things growing there this morning, and still have to pull out whatever vine ground cover is there, and remove the wood rails. There's another large "bed" that encloses a bunch of trees on the west side of the house, that just makes that whole side crowded. The tree guys removed a lot of the smaller shrubs and trees there when they were working (I told them to feel free to get rid of anything in their way on that side of the house...haha), but I'll cut out a bunch more probably in the next week, and again remove the wood rails making up the edge of the bed. That will make it easier to get through that side of the yard, and we can just let the grass move in over there.

And at some point I really need to deal with the giant bed, with its thousands of bulbs (seriously...thousands) of unknown type. But I'm still putting off that particular challenge. *G*

I like the look of limbed up holly but you will have to decide if it works where yours is. I think what I would do is go through this yard and remove every dead, diseased or dying plant. Don't spare anything, the plants you've got are all replaceable so don't worry about it. Next step would be to reduce the size of everything that is blocking a window or door or gate. Get the shrubs down below the level of the windows. Remove any tree that blocks the view to a doorway or is crowding your walkways. That alone is going to be an enormous amount of labor, and you may want to have some of the stumps ground out so you can smoothe over the spaces. Next step is going through the place to remove seedlings and to start to select what goes and what is going to stay. I know how I think and I have to see a place empty and cleaned up before I can start to rebuild it. Some people have the gift of seeing beyond the current situation and visualizing the new layout but I don't. So somewhere here you will be able to begin thinking about how to use your spaces and what you want to look at from inside the house. If you want a firepit or BBQ, patio, walkways, places to sit, lighting, etc. What style you enjoy - that comes with time.

Having just completed the prep and presentation of a class on creating curb appeal, I'd like to offer this thought. It is the natural inclination of homeowners to retain much of the original plantings they inherit with a new home simply because they are there. That doesn't necessarily mean they are appropriate choices nor does it mean that they were well-sited with any kind of eye to the overall design or to future growth. Sometimes ripping out the majority and starting over makes a great deal of sense.

Like the previous poster has mentioned, some folks have an innate ability to see through what currently exists and view the potential of a property as if it were a clean slate. Others have more difficulty at this and may need the vision of an unbiased outsider, often a design professional. One suggestion is to take photos of your property from a distance, if possible, like your neighbor's front porch :-) You can blow these up and use tracing paper to sketch possible changes to the street presence. That and mapping out your property and using that as a base for an entirely new plan can help you to see beyond what currently exists.

But the bottom line is that holding on to old, established plantings simply because they are already there is not an absolute. By the same token, look at the configuration of paths, walkways and the entry area and if awkward, uncomfortably narrow or confining or uninviting/unwelcoming, consider making changes. Pretend that you have won the lottery and can do whatever you wish to your property and design accordingly. Then revise that design to fit your budget and ability and proceed from there. But don't feel compelled to retain everything or anything simply because it is already present.

Amen gardengal. Its taken me years to be able to toss a daylily that was still alive, much less to be able to remove a tree. But we did it at our current home and it is very liberating. That old overgrown stuff is just plain ugly. We have old hemlock trees that have been pruned for over 25 years to keep them fitting at the side of the house and this fall they are going to be pulled out. Even if I did nothing but replace them with a young tree and started the process all over I'd have a much more attractive plant. But there are newer things now that will fit in my space and keep their form and not overgrow. Like pencil holly, etc. Anyway the fall is when nice sales start and fall is a great time to plant shrubs and trees.

Your idea of taking photos from the neighbors house is a good one. I have tons of photos of my house from the road in all seasons of the year. It's helped me pick shrubs that will add structure during the winter - and since we have no leaves on the trees for almost 6 months of the year - Oct/November till mid April the overall structure really does matter. Its a work in progress since I didn't use a professional but I do agree that I would benefit from a professional opinion.

You probably will not do it, but I strongly suggest that you call an area landscape nursery and have one of their staff familiar with plant types and pruning techniques visit you for a consultation. To just hack away with little knowlege of shrub regeneration or shrub varieties just doesn't make sense. For instance, Photinia is a very prone to disease and every time a branch is cut the pruners should be dipped in Clorox before making the next cut to prevent spreading it. Diseased Photinia can be cut right down to the ground and they will regrow and remain disease free for awhile. It's your choice as to how you wish to proceed.

My sincere thanks to everyone for the input. I have NO problem with removing things. Much of what is here will be removed. But there is a LOT of it, and we are, like most folks, on a budget, so I can't hire out most of the work, and have to work through things at my own pace. *g*

I'm afraid that photos from the neighbors' yards or the street would mostly show hedges, and some roof. I understand that most people would prefer to be able to see the house from the curb, but for our life this would not be ideal. We do want and need the front hedge, so when I do remove the photinias I need to replace them with something that will fill in without taking 5 years to do so.

I would love to bring in someone who knows what the heck they're doing to help with ideas, as well as identification. Much of what we have I do want to remove. Some things I really like. The bed with all the bulbs and iris...I love all of this stuff except for the grape hyacinth, which I'll be trying to wrangle under control. We have some beautiful yucca, as well, though again we have too many of them. Part of the problem I'm having is that I'm new to gardening in this area. I grew up in Utah, and I did all sorts of gardening there. This climate has totally different plants, and totally different problems, however. So I do need to find someone that can come help with figuring out the yard, and helping us figure out the best way to put in a deck, and to expand the little pond we have, in addition to all the plantings. One of the benefits of having waited (as well as having experienced both drought and flooding now...haha) is that we know the areas most affected by the dogs. I have figured out one problem area that will need some pretty drastic re-designing to manage traffic from 400 pounds of dog running through and laying about, and we have pretty much figured out which paths are going to be constantly without grass, and which will just be problems in heavy rain. (I'm strongly considering grass pavers from some of the path areas, because I don't want to interrupt the grass look, but also don't want the areas to suffer from too much erosion from dog traffic.)

I'll step up my search for a professional (or extremely generous volunteer...haha...that's what I need, a really knowledgeable gardening buddy)to come provide some help.

It sounds like a huge amount of work, and it sounds as though you're tackling it with a fair amount of rhyme and reason. Certainly, if you need permission to remove the Photinias, the holly, or anything else, I'd say you've got that here. That's the UN-designing part. (And a grin to Alyrics on how hard it is to learn to part with living plant material).

In terms of the RE-desiging, however, it sounds as though the appearance of the house or property to outside eyes is not your purpose. Your priority is what you see from inside, and the dog's needs. While these are laudable and something that many strangers can empathize with, they are not needs that strangers can help with. Indeed, you did not provide photos from inside, but from outside, suggesting that you wanted input about how the place looks.

So I guess my question to you would be... what did you want from this forum?

KarinL

That's an excellent question, Karin. :-) I'm sorry if I haven't been clear. I actually probably have too many things happening at once here with all this, but such is my life.

I am concerned with how the exterior of the house looks. While the house might not be visible from the street (except through the front gate...hehe), there is plenty of room in the yard to step back and see the house. So "curb appeal" is important, though one would have to actually get through that gate to see it, at least for now. From inside the house, the main concern is simply being able to SEE out the windows. (The view from my desk, for example, through a set of windows that is 5 x 10 feet, is entirely of the inside of photinia. I do get to watch some birds who hide in there, but that's about it.)

My main initial concern was the best method for getting control of the shrubs...whether I should cut them way back, get rid of them, or what. I'd love ideas for items that could be used in place of hedges along the house. For the front fence line, I'm seeking advice on something to replace the photinias that will still provide privacy and hold up to a very large dog periodically shoving his body through to peek out at the street. (So, for example, yuccas wouldn't work because they'd skewer the dogs. Other plants wouldn't have the structural strength to not break off every time they were pushed through.)

The front fence hedge and the photinias on the front of the house are the items in the worst condition, disease-wise, and also the two areas most likely to be seen by people other than us, so those are the spots I want to work on first. The rest I'm sort of hoping to get some degree of control over while I figure out what steps to take next. *grin*

And yes, permission, so to speak, to remove things is important. Especially with that holly. I've had a couple of people act really surprised and shocked that I would want to remove it completely, like it's some sort of coveted plant. To me it's just a huge pokey thing in the worst possible spot of the yard. (Even the yuccas are at least in a mostly out of the way edge of a bed, and not right on the main path to and from the house.) I'm not even sure I can get the holly out without injury or putting out an eye. Haha!

Thanks again!

I'm at a standstill as to what could replace the photinia because I don't understand your environment, but the answer to that is get thee down to a few nurseries and go ask the nurserymen. If it was zone 5 I'd tell you burning bush or privet would probably be the fastest and densest growing replacement - but both need biannual hedge trimming and are deciduous. If you have to, do only one side of the house at a time. I liked your common sense idea of using pavers set in the grass to provide a path for the dogs without sacrificing everything. I also don't know the optimal time of year to plant in Dallas, so I'd say start making a list of questions to ask and go see 2 or 3 places and talk to an employee who is knowledgable about shrubs. We have local garden centers with staff employees that have 25 years in the business and are terrific gardeners in their own right. They love to talk shop and I don't think you need to feel pressured to buy right on the spot. Ask them when their best sales are on as you're on a budget and are going to work on the whole yard. Anybody could understand that.

In the meantime, remove the dead and diseased stuff. Nandina has a point about sterilizing clipper blades between cuts - I do that with all my broad leaved evergreens - but the easy solution there is make a list of the plants you have and call a garden center or your County Extension Service and ask them what to do. I think the Univ of Texas has a huge website on local plants - you can just search the internet for TX plant info. Surely you have an arboretum in Dallas - they would probably talk to you.

Getting the overgrown stuff out of the way will improve the looks of the exterior of your home right away. If nobody mentioned it, you should also get plant material cut away from touching your home. There are plenty of 6 legged pests in TX that could seek entrance to your home by crawling along a branch that touches the house. You may want to paint or pressure wash the house if they do that in TX.

I think you know what questions you have - now you just have to ask someone local. BTW our Master Gardeners have a Q&A hotline that they operate a few times a week, as does our arboretum. They put knowledgable plantspeople on the hotline to answer questions from folks like you. And that of course is a free service you can get just by calling.
Good luck and show us some of your changes
a

Gardengal has given great advice once again.

I might add to that by suggesting that the work in the form of both information gathering and labor may be more to try and resurect the plantings that are there vs. cleaning it all out (around the house). I'd weigh that against the result.

If you were to clear all the plants out around the house and have nothing there, would it look that much worse than what you will have with the pruned and weeded junk that you have now? I don't think it would. You could then make the first investment in fixing up the skirting and siding of the house with lots of room to do it. At the same time you would not have the unending chore of maintaining a flawed landscape. You already know that you can get busy and it can get away from you just as fast as it did last year. Why put yourself through that for that result?

Then you could look at what you have and start planning the landscape immediately around the house and implementing the plan as budget allows.

The hedge might not be pretty or healthy, but it is giving you a great deal of privacy. I think I'd wait until I got the house area under control before revitilizing the hedge more than pruning out unwanteds and controlling disease and growth. That way when you do remove and replace it the view into it will be nice while you wait for it to grow in.