I love your house! By the way, you can totally ask outdoor questions here. All are welcome. :)

What is your walkway made out of? I can't quite make it out in the photo.

One of my favorite things is to see a nice path to the sidewalk lined with either flower beds or smaller shrubs.

I would love to see ferns around the perimeter of the house. They would contrast nicely against the color of the house.

Hope that helps. Charmean Neithart

The sidewalk is concrete. I live in IL - so I would like to have something for the winter landscape too. I was thinking some boxwoods and maybe planting some flowering vines of some sort on the fence (hard to see but there is a fance on the side of the house).

Here are two designs for Victorian homes.


I would not plant right up to the foundation, because it is so interesting. I think beds of plants that grown well in IL. Don't put vines where they will grown on to the house, but deciduous or vines that die back to the ground would be fine on a fence.

Check out the landscapes in the photo section on Houzz for other ideas.

Why not have some small Erica palms lined up on both sides with flower beds , they are easy to maintain and look Good .

There is certainly room around the left front and side of the house for some foundation plantings layered down into a wide flower bed, as well as along your front path, if you are interested. But in order to make any suggestions about specific plants, you'll need to let us know what planting zone you are in. I am not a landscaping professional, but I'm an avid gardener with lots of experience in Zone 6. And there are landscape professionals who sometimes post on Houzz who may be able to help you with any climate once they know where you are located. You have a beautiful house, and it would be nice to set it off with a nice landscape design. A few photos of houses with nicely layered borders, foundation plantings, and side gardens:

I'm in Chicago as well, so understand the winter issue. Have you thought about maintenance? How much time do you want to put into the yard during the season? Boxwood is great, easy to trim. Also red twig dogwood. I would "ground" the porch side and front with one type of shrub that does not grow too tall so you can still see the porch. Maybe a great little tree on that corner that flowers in the spring.

Looks like an O.P. home! I had a professional draw up a design for me which helped considerably.

Ornamental grasses would look great. Provide good winter interest and very low maintenance

Your house is beautiful and I think the landscaping should reflect you and your family (relaxed versus formal) AND accurately reflect your desired ability to upkeep the landscaping. Will you have help mowing and weeding or will you have to keep it up yourself? Do you have children and/or dogs? I also recommend speaking to a landscape designer or architect - I'm hoping to do that as well. My house is getting some curb appeal (new roof, portico) - and now I need the landscaping to reflect the new look.

Such a beautiful home! As a landscape designer in the Philadelphia suburbs, I come across homes exactly like yours right in my own neighborhood. I would certainly, as many other members have already recommended, consult a landscape designer to help shape your outdoor space to reflect your area, the functionality you'd want to maintain, and the overall look you like. With a home such as yours, I would recommend a marrying of the traditional and relaxed. By creating structure within the garden, through plants or hardscape, and filling it with the looseness of a more organic approach, you will pull the aesthetic and style of the home into the landscape and allow you to still reflect your personal lifestyle. The biggest thing I want to emphasize is scale. Your landscape and gardens should pull your property together and connect your house with the land, meshing the two together seamlessly. One of the primary things I see when I drive around,is a lack of understanding when it comes to scale. Don't be afraid to come well away from the foundation of your house. And I never recommend planting just right up against the foundation of the house, unless the space limits anything but. Good luck with your property!

This looks great! Many local nurseries (not box stores, I mean the small neighborhood shops) will help you with plant selection on an informal basis even if you don't want to have a plan drawn-up. I would start there. I also really like Garden Gate magazine for ideas. I agree with the above comments about coming away from the foundation some - you could put in some curvy beds to balance out some of the straight lines of the house. just make sure that you allow space for the MATURE size of the plants. Too many houses have overgrown plantings because they are too close to the house or each other...
Burning bushes have year round interest or red-twig dogwood bushes

Would you mind telling me your paint colors? I also have an historic home (Indianapolis) and need to repaint.

In addition to Charmean Neithart's suggestions, you should consider THUMBTACK landscape lights, because they are so tiny and unobtrusive, and are excellent for pathway lighting, and inside-plant lighting. THUMBTACK by MINIMIS

Mugo pines would look really pretty running down both sides of the sidewalk. They look pretty all year and stay small. They do require some trimming, but are easy to maintain. We hae them at our home in Colorado.

Your house is beauiful. The yard need a little work. Just make the beds bigger an add height and color. Make your selection for the amount of sun you get. Check houses around yours and see which plants you like. Make sure you pick plants that max height grows to the height you want. Dont buy a plant that will grow to 8 feet and you really want 3 feet. You will be there trimming all summer to keep it at 3, which gets old.

I have to agree with Carolyn Albert-Kind Design. Seek the advise of a professional first. It will save you money in the long run.

The Victorian era featured massed plantings in exotic colors, and intricate designs. Roses, hydrangeas, other fragrant flowers and shrubs. A white or pink dogwood, some climbing vines, a water feature, and a bench would complete this part of the landscape. Don't forget the kitchen garden!

Landscaping is not one time job. Consider who will do day to day work. Formal style is more constant commitment. Relaxed gives you more room for changes and experiment. I see there two mature trees and quite bit of shade. Landscaping with plants is most about using right plants, tolerable to shade, partial shade or full sun, or it's wasting money and time. It's wise to do your homework on plants or consult with gardener. For winter landscape I would recommend some evergreen shrubs otherwise house looks bare in winter. To have all year round beautiful garden mentally wipe out dead and bare plants in winter, it should help you locate evergreens. For fall imagine foliage colour change and blooms. Plant bulbs for early spring colour. Perennials excellent for easy maintenance, but have some space in between for annuals because most annuals bloom for months as perennials bloom usually just couple weeks. It's not recommended planting close to the walls, watering plants can cause mould in the basement (if you have it).

I use this blog for landscaping advice: http://thegreenmanfld.blogspot.com/2011_08_01_archive.html
I would recommend a bloodgood japanese maple, some boxwoods, maybe some sunny knockout roses, a doublefile viburnum, limelight hydrangea, gold mop cypress, degroot's spire arborvitae, hostas, and impatiens just to name a few. Stick with warm colors since your house is yellow and gray. (yellow, brown, orange, reds) You could also use yellow and purple flowers for contrast. Good luck! I love your house :-)

Thank you everyone for the help. I am taking all of your ideas together and thank you for those who shared images for inspriation. I will keep look for ideas - I am working on drawing out a plan now. I think the plan will be to do a formatish garden in the front of my house and in my back yard (its only grass) - will be less formal.