Here is a pulled back view of the house so you can get a better idea of what might look good. We will be paving the driveway in the fall and a sidewalk to porch in spring.

The tree that you refer to as Alaskan weeping cypress looks like Picea glauca 'Pendula' to me. I really like it and I think that it will work well with your beautiful house. But I would plant it just behind the rock, so that it will eventually grow tall between the windows and will screen one meter. BTW, don't worry so much about the meters, they are not very conspicuous, and will be even less so when your landscaping is installed.

Canyon, that tree you see in the pic is a weeping white spruce. The Alaskan cypress is not pictured here. I mentioned I thought about putting the Alaskan in the corner but thought it would get too big. I had the tree pictured (weeping white spruce) where you suggested and did not like it so I moved it to where you see it now.

That higher box looks like it might be your circuit breakers. If it is you will need easy access to it. How would you feel about having a hedge from the corner of the house to the driveway? Who will be doing the garden maintenance? A hedge would need regular grooming.

I have seen people to paint their utility boxes the color of the house to blend in.

Let me assure you that area is not ruining your house. You are just focusing on it because your house is new. Your landscaper was not a good one. He should have told you where you can plant trees. Neither tree you mention can be planted in that spot. It is too close to the house.

Edit to add that I now see that a hedge might make access to the hose bib difficult. Your hose is not attractive. If you put it in a container it could go right under the bib.

Emmarene I did mention the hose is there temporarily. I hope to get a new hose bib installed on the other side of the porch. What kind of tree do you recommend I put there? Perhaps something like a weeping cherry tree behind the rock with some lower accent shrubs next to the rock?

A weeping Alaska cedar could work. Yes, they can get tall but they grow slowly and the house offers a pretty tall facade anyway - a tall tree will not be out of place. Width is the major concern but WAC's come in very narrow forms - look for the cultivars 'Van den Akker', 'Green Arrow' or 'Strict Weeping'. These will all offer an extremely narrow profile....typically only a couple of feet and that mostly at the base.

And don't plant right in the corner. Site the tree on a diagonal from the corner that juts out with the stone face (the one with the electric meter). If it were my property or you were my design client, I'd suggest berming that area, incorporating the big boulder in the berm and planting 3 of the WAC in a cluster. IMO, one looks silly; three looks intentional and provides much better impact. I also like grouping them with a difference in heights as well......looks much more natural. No one - including you - will ever notice the meters again :-)

Please, avoid the weeping cherries. They are short-lived, trouble-prone trees that seldom look good much past their first season and almost never when out of bloom.

Gardengal, I was thinking the Alaskan for the other side of my house. I actually do like things in 3's so your post peaked my interest. I fear 3 Alaskans would completely cover my view out the window from inside the house. Any other type trees or plants you can suggest? The rock does not have to stay. Thanks so much. Also, does that weeping white spruce look ok in front of the pilar on my front porch. It's not planted yet.

Gardengal, glad you reminded me of the weeping cherry issues, thanks. We had one at our last house and some branches got really out of control and odd looking. Plus I hated all the leaves all over and the beatles loved them!

If placed right, the WAC's won't block the view out of the front window (by porch) but could block any views from the garage side windows. They can be planted very closely.

Not sure where in the world you are located or how that might affect growth, but the weeping white spruce has the potential to get much larger than the WAC's in both height and width and I DON'T recommend leaving it in that position. In time you won't be able to navigate the porch :-) It could, however, be a potential candidate for the berm (but only the one!!)

I like the rock - I'd use it :-)

Can you "pull" lawn over to the left a few more feet so it fronts at a minimum the meter on the left and perhaps even that drainpipe a little, eliminating a long strip of the gravel. The amount of lawn is too skimpy for the area, something you really notice in the full front photo of the house. I realize there's a side door of some sort there, but you simply need more lawn there to balance out the look of the house. Bring the new lawn forward to at least the the path to the front door. Besides balancing the house, it will give you a little more room to plant a narrow specimen. You might look at something like Chamaecyparis nootkatensis 'Green Arrow'.

Ifanyone here is is good with photoshop and can give me ideas that way gosh would I be grateful. I do better with seeing pics than trying to visualize it. I am inserting an inspiration pic I love of box woods. We actually did this in front of our house and I like it. I plan on doing this on one side of the front yard after the driveway is in. I like clean, low maintenance and just green and white.

Here is how I did it in front if the porch.mi plan on repeating this along the outer curve of the front lawn as you will see in next pic.

Here is a pic of where the sidewalk to front porch will be. As you can see, it's still just builder stone. The curve on the outer part I want to repeat the stone and boxwood. It's not exact to my inspiration pic but close as I like edging it with the stone.

I think you should stop planting and get a design from better landscaper. Looking at the bed of boxwoods convinced me he or she knew nothing about scale. I remember while your house was being built how you managed every tiny detail. Hire a designer or Landscape Architect.

Ouch! I put the box woods there. I like the inspiration photo and went with that design. I did not want anything to block our view too much while sitting in the porch or have anything too much in that area since we get tons of huge spiders and snakes here. Didn't want many places for them to live right where we sit.

Forgive my apparent rudeness. I did not explain well. I think the boxwoods look good. I even think that the rocks look good which is a rarity for me. It is just that no room has been left for them to grow and the bed is very narrow in comparison to the wide porch and the vast lawn.

This is not really about that bed anyway. It is just that you had professional help for everything in the house, even though you made the final decisions. I think it is fair to do the same for the outdoors. I would feel better if you had a professional and local to tell you where to plant trees.

I like small boxwoods. Mine are twelve inches tall. I do not like shearing so I just clip them when they get too tall. They just seem so cute at that size.

I wish you would cross post this in Home Decorating.

I am happy to see that at least one of the cats came to the new home.

Will we ever see the reveal?

Emmarene, no need to apologize, we all have different taste. You probably can't tell in the pic, but the bed is quite wide. Not huge, but appropriate, and the front yard is actually not that big. Because the house sits up on a hill a bit, both the front yard and house look bigger in pics than they are.

did you see my inspiration pic for the landscaping? I plan on doing more Of the box woods sweeping the edges of the front yard, but could not afford to do it all at once. I did it just in the front of the porch this spring to have something to enjoy over the summer and see how I felt about that design before doing more like it. Some people have lived in my neighborhood for 3 years and not done any landscaping yet at all, so I am at least ahead of the game lol.

also, I plan on posting pics on the home page, but it's been non stop since we moved in. We moved in right before thanksgiving, it was obviously crazy moving in over the holidays. Shortly after the holidays and trying to catch my breath, my mother became I'll. My life was consumed with that and she unfortunately passed away this spring. I'm surprised I got done what I even did but it kept my mind occupied afterwards. I will post on home decorating page :)

I am so sorry for your loss. I think it is a miracle you got anything done at all. Grief has a way to make even small projects seem unbearable.