What are we trying to figure out?

Feel free to nit pick, the more ideas the better, I am just looking for comments.

Find an area that you would change and suggest something.

Pick a photo and tell me what is working or what isn't.

In other words, nothing in particular.

Ron, it may be a bit premature to say if it's not working... Give it some time to grow in and fill-in.

If you had a plan view of the mature sizes, it would be easier to understand the end-goal. What other needs do these plants have to meet that would be used as a criteria to understand if they are not working?

This is quite a diverse collection of plants, but people who actually cite the latin names of plants usually are collector types, so that must satisfy your plant aquisition cravings.

Collector? No. I keep a log of what I have, how big it should be , when it was fertilized, bloom color, where it is etc. Most of these are common everyday varieties, but others are smaller than species, others I don't want to duplicate, still others I want consistancy.

As for letting things grow in, I have started largely with structure plants and plan to fill in, so there are designed gaps at this point.

1) Directly to the right of the fire pit
2) the whole back left corner
3) along the side of the house above the wall
4) holes for annuals
5) plants in non-ideal locations (blue rug junipers under the contorted filbert)
6) George L. Taber Azaleas seem to be too big for their current home
7) And the list goes on...

As for what defines failure... Dead plants, can hurt my kids, my kids can easily hurt them, crowding other plants, not visually appealing, etc

Just looking for comments and negative comments give me more to think about.

I appreciate the use of the latin names and only see this as an effort to communicate clearly and accurately, certainly not an indication of "plant acquisition cravings."

I am wholly unqualified to comment on a zone 7 garden, except to say I'd want to see a greater variety of texture than is currently represented.

You have done a lot of planting!

I don't have a good grasp of your whole plan, but in your zone, if a lot of those areas are partial sun, particularly morning sun and pm. shade, then azaleas do provide a nice evergreen shrub for "bones" and also add bloom. And you do have a number of other broadleaf evergreens for "bones" of the garden.
As per catkim, you're a little heavily weighted toward small green leaves and not a lot of contrast in greens, either. Depending on your 5-year plan, you may be planning to flesh this out with other "greens" and leaf forms, such as ferns and hostas in the shady areas, some larger bold-leaved shrubs, some perennials with colored foliage, and so forth. So it's not wrong to start with basics and expand from there.

A lot of your green shrubs look planted too close together to me--will appear overplanted in 2-3 years.

You have a wide variety of the Encore azalea colors, but then you have a lot of different areas in your yard. Did you organize the colors into different areas and combine any color companions based on what you saw blooming in the garden center? Some of those rose and pink-fuschia colors clash with each other or would appear jumbled if planted together. I actually like to mix a few azalea colors occasionally, usually only 2, such as a pink with a deeper pink in the same family or a white-splotched with the color of its splotch, and it's a little easier with the Encores because they do not cover themselves with bloom like the spring-blooming varieties, but you still need to use some color coordination and avoid a hodgepodge. Also, using more of the same color in your yard can be part of the element of "repetition" to tie various areas together--this can be more important at the entry way or in moving the eye across one part of the yard, and not so important if there is one color in front and one in back, which helps satisfy my own plant cravings.

I would not have planted that tree right in front of the window, and so close.

So, we didn't hear anything about what you are trying to accomplish--never assume there is one underlying thing that everyone should aim for--so are you trying to develop views from inside the house, camoflage of certain structures, flowers in certain seasons, low maintenance shrub plantings, or what all?

Thanks Frankie...

The stuff in the front is mostly builder plantings, including the weeping redbud in front of the office window. It is about 6 feet from the house and I doubt it will get much wider than that.

Next year I plan on working on my shadier areas and will include lots of hostas, ferns, bleeding hearts, et cetera and should add some texture and additional variation of color.

The widest range of encores is directly around the fire pit and are arranged to create a stadium seating feel (largest in the back). I am looking for a "hodge podge" like amen corner.

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I have selected them to be different but I stayed away from the reds and oranges, every flower in the yard is along the same gradient of white to dark pink as the azaleas.

The idea...

The front yard is only to blend in with the neighborhood and uses very common plants from the area.

The back foundation bed is camoflage of trash enclosure, protection for the air conditioners (boxwoods), screening from the neighbors (river birch), and to stop ball from rolling under the deck.

The back property line in divided in 4 sections.
1) far right, Mostly sunny woodland with placements to block views from a future road (Hydrangeas, Pines, and grasses)
2) the fire pit surrounded by Encores and Winter blooming camileas to make the most of when it wil be in use.
3) Back right, shade garden Acuba, hosta, ferns, bleeding heart, Solomon's seal, et cetera
4) Peanut around the 2 trees, all hosta (there will be grass dividing the 2 beds)

Hope that helps.

My web filter is blocking it as "pornographic material" I'm not kidding. Maybe your web host has "other stuff" being done by others. Either that, or it is quite a garden.

I agree that other than filling in with some lower, perennial type plants, you need to allow some time for things to establish, develop and fill out before seeing what might be missing or better located. One thing that strikes me, both from your plant list and the photos, is the sparcity of deciduous plant material - most everything is evergreen :-) And while evergreen shrubs will give your garden some necessary structure and presence through the winter months, I'd like to include more decidous shrubs, both for winter form, flowering ability and the tendency to have much greater foliage impact than do evergreens.

Not knowing exactly where you are located, most zone 7 gardens could include things like variegated shrub dogwoods (can brighten up some of those shadier areas plus offer winter stem interest), perhaps a witch hazel (Hamamelis) for late winter flowers, Clethra for late summer color, Fothergilla or Disanthus for fall color. And then there are choices like Japanese maples, physocarpus, spiraeas, wiegela or smokebush to bring in more intense foliar colors as well as variations in leaf size and textures.

I agree with gardengal and the other responses.
In the front I would like to see more of a variety of colors and textures. There are numerous chamaecyparis(usses?) that would add interest there.
Adding perennials in the back will also add color and interest.
I particularly like the placement of the deciduous trees in the front yard but I can't explain why.

I appreciate the comments and would like more. specific changes would be good as would what were you thinking posts.

Due to a change in Website structure the link has moved to here...

http://ronlarimer.com/gallery/ph_year_end_yard.shtml

I may put up a this page has moved

Pretty house and property. My comments are only to the front of the house pictures. The all green scheme works but I would want more color in the front if it were my house. I would also take out the beds that border the steps coming up and leave the grass. I personally prefer tighter bed definitions but like the fact that you added a curve to one of the beds. I love color and have used barberry, spruces, azaleas crepe myrtles, spirea, nandinas in my front yard as well as day lilies and liriope, not counting my annuals and my rocks! The bones are there, I would just have to punch the color up a notch.

I think there is a bit of perimeteritis* going on, though I haven't thought too thoroughly about what I would do differently. Like Enailes above, I think maybe my eye also wants something in the way of hardscape (rocks?) in the front... not sure. I think I would do something with that slope... a rock garden, a couple of boulders, or a retaining wall. That would bring some planting away from the house and provide hardscape. Would be extra work though, and only you know if you have anything left to tackle that. I might also drag the plantings in the back away from the wall a bit. Maybe it's all just a little too tight to the house, given the size of the house.

I am totally in agreement on the issue of foliage texture in both front and back, but for me the issue is also plant shape. Even the reds that you have are just round blobs, and inclined to stay that way. You could prune some shape in as things grow (admittedly a pain to maintain) or go where Gardengal has suggested - that's a brilliant call and excellent list of plants, with the addition from Steve of Chamaecyparises for evergreen shape and structure.

I think it's great that you've got some trees in. I wonder if you've considered one in the back to break up that big wall some, but there may be a reason why you don't want one plunked into the lawn... trees and soccer maybe don't mix that well. Close to the house is obviously not desirable.

KarinL

*the urge to plant around everything, including the house

Sometimes when one starts to improve things there is no easy stopping point. A few years ago I lost a favorite chair. It started when my wife determined that the living room needed paint and new carpet. Well, OK. Once done she remarks how the sofa no longer fits and it gets replaced. With everything else new, she points to the chair, my chair, as too shabby to stay. Well there was not one darn thing wrong with that chair before the new carpet.

I was reminded of this when I looked at ron's front yard. Everything looks so nice except the steps. I will concede that I am very opinionated about steps that protrude from the slope. To me, they tend to stand out and dominate the visual. It's often a case where one of the most uninteresting elements of the landscape becomes a focal point. Not good.

Steps get built this way because, without side walls, steps recessed into the slope have dirt eroded on to them. In very cold climates the ease of ice removal may dictate that steps are better without sidewalls and protruding from the grade. I live in a warn area and prefer the recessed style.

It's a small thing and I would not suggest that ron rebuild the steps at this point. It is for those that have a step project in their future that I demonstrate my ideas on steps with the graphics below, first the real, and then a photo shop of what a recessed style might look like.

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Very cool. I had no say in that design element, and wouldn't have thought of it anyway, but I really like that!