Why did they pave all the way up to the foundation? They could saw cut the pavement and then dig out a planting bed - that would be my first choice.

I have to guess that they are not gooing to be interested in removing any of that new pavement since they just had it put in (design first build second).

You have to be careful about putting a retaining wall and soil up against that wall because there is a "cold joint" between the original concrete and the infill concrete wall which could leak moisture through to the interior of that room. If you do that, do some serious water proofing first. Concrete does not adhere to concrete.

How is the drainage? It looks to be sloping right into the old garage entrance area. It almost looks like the planter may have been there partly to divert water to the side.

I would not stress too much over it as these folks have an aesthetic preference that obviously does not come close to yours. They took out a planting bed and replaced it with wall to wall asphalt and they see whiskey barrels as a good look. How can you go wrong?

I don't think anything positive will come of this and you may also put yourself in a situation where you could be held liable for problems.

You'd do best to let them get the whiskey barrels, or cut in beds, or build planters and THEN help them with the planting.

I think she could put a small patio there. Curve it from the corner of the house over to the wall. If she could get some stone that somewhat matches her existing stone wall it could be just laid on top of the asphalt. Add a garden bench and a couple of pots of flowers, or even a small fountain and you have a nice little area that looks like it was planned that way.

Iaag, oops! Looks like the photographer (moi) was kinda slanted. Yes, the driveway does generally slope down from the road, but my slanted picture really made it look worse.

Yeah, they didn't want the extra expense of cutting it out to put in the new expanded driveway for new garage to the left. Yet they had to remove the old retaining wall/planter so that the existing asphalt could be covered with new layer completely.

THe water runoff is intended to drain to the left of the new garage. The gutter is tied into a drain underneath.

This pic may put it in better context.

{{gwi:51958}}

oh and there is a long term plan to redo the existing retaining wall and steps. They don't like them and they are very dysfunctional in winter. At that time they said they will expand to the left side of the house. But they felt they had couldn't expand the garage project to the house-front project at the same time.

Here's a link for inspiration...

Here is a link that might be useful: the Crack Garden

Ditch the whiskey barrels and just paint the exposed foundation wall the color of the siding, so it looks like this was the way it was intended to be built.

The whiskey barrels will look like what they are, just an after thought, or maybe better as barriers to prevent bad drivers from hitting the house.

Inside or outside the box; that one's a poser. Aside from painting the foundation the same color as the siding, I'd let it go until a possible solution for it could be worked into the reconfiguring of the existing steps and wall.

No offense to oilpainter, but you can put barrels, benches, birdbaths, and fountains into the area and call it Central Park if you're of the mind to do so, but that doesn't necessarily make it so. The end result will look pretty contrived. :-)

Just a question - are you getting responses via your email; has that feature been somewhat fixed? So many on so many of the forums request this and if they're not going through, it may be why many posts seem to be drive-bys.

Oh, yes I'm seeing emails. I'm not a driveby for sure! I am anxious for an idea.

I notice on the form that it says "a copy of your followup will ... be emailed.." I don't think I've ever noticed that before. Is that new? Your question seems to imply there's been a problem with the email system????

I do like the paint the foundation idea. Not sure if it will be enough to discourage whiskey barrels.

How about a single something just in the corner?

The patio idea is intriguing but I agree it seems out of place. You do see patios in "entry gardens" a lot, but this isn't really an entry garden.

Another poser is that they store their trash barrel on the side of the house next to the gutter. Maybe with the new garage, that will change. (its still being finished by the contractor)

Interesting - the email feature seems spotty and GW was running some tests on it last week, I think. I knew you weren't a drive-by having seen your interaction on other posts. The follow-up copy message has always appeared on threads where it was requested and box checked by someone when logging in. It seems to be popular with some who can't muster the extra keystroke needed to check in at a forum again after posting ... unless I'm painting with too broad a brush. Me personally, I'd rather check the forums; you never know when there will be something else of interest under discussion.

There really is a great opportunity to enhance the look of this house now that tey have the detached garage. The opportunity is limited if they are fixated on keeping the pavement all the way to the foundation, but it is good discussion material.

The fact that it is a raised ranch lends itself well to making the motor court area (archi-speak for driveway and parking)appear less significant or almost sunken by filling and retaining the area in front of the house and partially around the side. The driveway could be cut to curve over to the left and still have some turnaround area.

The reconfiguring of the wall and steps through the wall could really improve the "welcome to my front door" feeling instead of the "welcome to my contractor's yard" look. A curved cove for the steps in a wall that wraps around the house corner could be laid out to re-center the front door in the landscape and double for driveway turnaround space. Plantings could anchor the left side of the house and frame the walkway and door.

PS .... that looks like my brother in laws road. What town?

I'd just tell them to paint foundation,same as siding. They can add whiskey barrels if they want to, they can be moved. If they plan to keep garbage at that corner(not very attractive when arriving at house & can be smelly also) maybe encouraged to buy a panel or 2 from Home Depot so it's enclosed from front view. Would be better over to side of garage with panel to make it less noticeable. Since they are going to tear out the steps & stone before long,that's when they can make the front entrance appealing!

Yeah, I tend to agree. simple simple simple. I tried out some photo editing software to see if I could simulate it... kinda pathetic, but this is what I came up with.

{{gwi:51959}}

{{gwi:51960}}

{{gwi:51961}}

And if anyone is interested, this is the site plan and prelim design I have come up with (newbie warning) Would welcome any critique. Next step is plant lists. That's the fun/easy part. The design part gives me a headache.

{{gwi:51962}} {{gwi:51963}}

One constraint is that they need a perimeter fence boundary for a 2nd level of security for the horses if the paddock fails for some reason.

Pre-garage construction, they had a utility fence from the rear left corner of the house going across to the left behind the shed. I was thinking that another choice for where that fence could start would be where the asphalt meets the lawn. so I jogged it over to the garage. But then I realized that would be a problem for winter snow-dumping, so it might have to be moved back to the edge of the house.

I uploaded a bunch of site photos too.

http://picasaweb.google.com/gardengal4/GSitePhotos?feat=directlink