I got a bunch of great ideas on this website

http://www.landscapingideasonline.com

It's free too, so it should fit in with your budget too :)

Tim

Here is a link that might be useful: Landscaping Ideas

It's a very lovely house (from what I can tell by the first-floor exterior!). It's also quite formal, and since I have a certain preference for formality (in landscapes and houses), I would definitely suggest going with the formal look that's somewhat established.

There is an amazing dry stone wall (it looks dry, at least) which runs along the street. There is also a less-than-stellar dry stone wall to either side of the entrance of the house (bordering the parking pad). It would be nice if you could get that re-done. See if there is any local branches/members of the Dry Stone Wall Association of Canada who might be interested in volunteering to do a small job such as this for charitable reasons.

Other than that, a general cleaning-up of the front yard will go a long way to enhancing its appearance. There seem to be some randomly-placed shrubs or small trees in the middle of the lawn which seem very out-of-place.

-Audric

You should try to ply your business with more legitimate means, you can actually do it here but it is not free and may not fit in with your advertizing budget. Post again after this thread has been zapped canadiana.

How limited is your budget? Are we talking $100 or $1000? With a $100 budget I would say: trim up some of the bushes, mulch and edge the beds, plant some daffodils or tulips this fall, and next spring purchase some bedding annuals and annuals for the pots by the front door. I would be worried about counting on just bulb to provide color for an entire month.

I am a little out of touch with what is blooming at what time in your area (heck, I can't remember when stuff blooms in my area without looking back through pictures). I am guessing that you can plant out tender annuals around Memorial Day.

I do think that the wooden art sculpture could use a more substantial base/bed so that it does not look like it is plopped in the lawn...probably something other than wood mulch. I could see some type of stone base and I bet you could get some real interesting shadows with some lighting.

- Brent

Thank you all who helped with ideas.
I'll be looking for someone to fix the dry rock bed...
The weeding and clearing up will start next week, followed by the planting of daffodils, hyacints and tulips.
The door colour will be a bright red, I think (still needs an approval form the charity people). My favorite tulips are Angelique, they bloom for a long time here, but I was wondering maybe I should have different colour tulips to go better with the red of the front door and the reddish wood of the statue. New ideas done in Photoshop have been posted on the pictures link.
I'm going to see the garden centre this week to see how much of donation they can give me.
Thanks all!

Here is a link that might be useful: Updated pics

A bench, situated near the sculpture, might be nice--if you can't buy one, can you borrow one?

How nice of you to do this volunteer work! Brent's right about the general shaping and cleaning, and it sounds like you have that part in progress.

I find it interesting that the Angelique tulips will be blooming between Mothers' Day and Fathers' Day in your area, because I always thought they were beautiful, too.

Tulips and daffodils bloomed somewhat earlier where I lived in Illinois. In most years, the daffodils and tulips had lost most of their petals by the third week in May, and all the denuded stems and beat-up leaves looked pretty sad. I guess your spring flowers last longer in Canada.

Will pansies be blooming for you at that time? There are some gorgeous dark red ones available, since you'd like that color. Here in Texas we grow pansies as winter annuals, but when I lived up north, pansies in bloom always meant that it was finally spring.

Good luck with your project,

Annie in Austin