How lucky you are: a blank slate!

What area or zone are you in?

What will work for me in the Dallas area won't work for gardeners in San Antonio or Galveston.

The architecture is very much mid-century modern, but if you went all authentic on the landscaping, you'd leave it just as it is, maybe add a few green shrubs along the front of the house (what one friend called "a green mustache").

Mid-century landscaping was pretty much chemical-laden green carpets.

You might investigate Japanese gardens;

they go well with low-slung, modern, simple lines.

I love cottage gardens, but if you do a cottage garden, you'll need to be very careful to keep to low-growing plants & small ornamental trees.

For example, I'd use a red bud rather than a crepe myrtle;

crepes might overwhelm the house.

It's a very pretty house & a very exciting project.

Have fun!

Yes, sabi. We need more information. Besides the questions Sylvia asked, how much time are you willing to dedicate to gardening?, what are your preferences / style? How much water are you willing to spend in the garden? Provide details and you'll get a plethora of advice.

Omar

The length is 22' long. We live 2 hours west of Fort Worth is that helps. Don't really have clue as to what style I'm looking for. We have never really had to take care of any landscaping so I think we would need something fairly easy to maintain. I would like to have a decent amount of evergreen as well as some color to break it up.thes pics are some examples of the plants I like. Thank you for all the help!!

Oh and Sylvia, I checked out the Japanese garden concept and think it would look awesome if done the right way!!

Out of the four pics you provided, this one is pretty easy to emulate:

The plants with red foliage could be loropetalums. The green ones could be Japanese boxwoods and the gray ones could be a type of artemisa. I would plant a small tree between the window and the entrance. Something like an olive (if you are in z 8b or higher), Mexican olive (if your zone allows it), redbud (like Sylvia suggested), holly, vitex , variegated privet, chilopsis, chitalpa or ?. For the covered area you could use gravel, mulch or decomposed granite, each option with pros and cons you would have to research. I hope this helps.

Omar

I absolutely love the red bud tree idea!!

Please be aware that with time, red buds can get really big. I have one that's 15 years old and it would be too big for your area. When I planted it, it was about as big as a pencil. Now the trunk is 33 inches around the base. The canopy is really wide as well. I also have a vitex that's pretty big. I think if you added something with height in the space to the right of the windows, especially something that flowers, that would be a start. Then you could have a small flowerbed in front with other plants. You could also look at bushes with a pencil shape, such as Will Flemming or a Italian cypress (may get too tall) or a climbing rose (with a trellis or other support). Whatever you do, keep it simple and workable for you.

hmmm, maybe one of the dwarf crepes? Japanese maple if the area is shady? climbing roses are wonderful; I like LaMarque. Every Italian Cypress I've ever seen has been hugely tall.

Check out the will flemming yaupon. It has the same shape as the I. cypress but more manageable. I don't know if it gets the red berries in the fall/winter like the others. If it does, it would have color in winter and would feed the mockingbirds, too. The antique rose emporium website is searchable for climbing roses. You wouldn't want anything really aggressive--something more mannerly with a flower color that would compliment your space/house--yellow, maybe.

LaMarque is mannerly!

& it's a sort of lemonade white. not many thorns, beautiful blue-green foliage.

'Will Fleming' yaupon is male (no berries). ['Scarlet's Peak'[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/scarlets-peak-holly-ilex-hybrid-scarlets-peak-pp20581-miami-phvw-vp~18699276) is a newer female fastigiated cultivar capable of producing the red berries.

Yes, it appears that Will Flemming is not very sturdy either. I would look at a climbing rose that stays within bounds or another vine that flowers. Then you could build around that on colors and heights of other plants. Have you considered a walkway from the drive to the front sidewalk? That would help define your flowerbed.

A sidewalk made of stones or brick?

That could work, but you have to go with something similar to the stone on your house for it not to "stick out". If you have bermuda grass in front (hard to tell by the photo) then I would opt for a cement walk at least 2 feet wide to try to block the bermuda from going under. Cement can be stained if you like. If it is some other grass, you could probably use brick or stone without too many problems.

I would do a cement walk with the flowerbed wide enough to handle medium sized rosebushes, then plant Valentine on the right (under the house numbers), a climber next (where the wall is), then about 3 knockout roses under the windows. The beds would look skimpy until the roses filled in, but annuals could be planted in front until they did get some size.

What I don't see in the photo is a water faucet. If there isn't one nearby, I would re-consider planting anything in a space where I would have to drag hoses. I've gotten really lazy in my old age.

What is the towns water rationing history during dry times? And plan for that with your choices. It is a different world out here and water is a scarcer and less reliable commodity. It is hard to remember that during wet years. Also , What is your PH levels. What are in your neighbors yards that you like. talk to a neighbor who's garden you like and ask about watering and ground preparation , besides the names of the plants.

I think putting a walk from the driveway to the front door is an excellent idea. You could plant shrubs next to the house and then the sidewalk, and then your curved beds. Lots less grass to mow that way. You may even want to put a arbor over the walk way someday. That would add a lot of curb appeal to the house.

When we bought our house the grass went right upto the front wall like yours does. No shrubs, no nothin'. We made a brick walk from our driveway to the front door, put a bench, and planted shrubs and the full size youpon holly tree which is evergreen and has berries. After the fact I read online that it's one tree you can plant near the foundation as the roots will not disturb it. The foliage shades the front wall of the house and gives a nice shady place to sit and talk to the neighbors. We have mockingbirds that build their nest in the tree every year and eat the berries all winter.

The photo was taken several years ago and is just to give you an idea of what I'm talking about. Not saying, of course, it should be exactly like this:

Photo taken this morning from the other direction ...

When landscaping our front yard I drove around a lot neighborhoods to get ideas of both design and plants.

Roselee, Very nice brick walk. Do you recall what was used for the base? Unless that was a huge yaupon when you planted it, the walk appears to have stayed in wonderful shape over a number of years.

Bostedo, the base used was sand. Yes, the bricks have stayed in place well for 26 years and roots from the youpon holly have not disturbed it.

The youpon holly was wild dug and was in a 10 or 15 gal pot. I picked it because of the multi trunks. I bought two more at the same time and planted them along the back walls of the house. One of them was just begging to be clouded (somewhat). It's the one with the St. Francis statue in front of it.

Love those trees with their grey spotted bark, interesting twisty trunks, dark green evergreen and berries (if females). The only upkeep is to occasionally trim little sprouts from around the bottom.

Roselee, Thanks for answering the OT question on the walk; helps with some decisions about some yard space we recently opened up. Love the large yaupons, especially the berried females, but can't recall one used that close to a house that was allowed to survive the space beyond a couple decades. A beautiful tree-form in our neighbor's wide side yard was probably over 20 ft across by the same age; so nice to see how your "clouded" version can work in tighter spots. Reminds me of a Wasowski quote that over the years I've been swinging towards believing is more right than wrong: It is the pruning, not the plants, their placement, or their age, that decides the personality of the garden.

This is the finished product. Thanks for the help!!

Very nice! It will be fun to watch the growth the next year or two. Thank you for checking back in ... :-)

That looks really nice! I love the stone on your home too!

Here are few tips to Plan a Landscape Garden Architecture; borrowed from the blog of Ashwin Architects.

• Decide whether you want to devote a larger area for children playing, or a barbecue station, or other outdoor activities. A pre-decided layout for a garden always works the best. It supports your the front elevation beauty.

• Decide the style of garden landscaping whether you want it formal, casual, oriental, woodland or some other style.

• Make a list of plants you want in your home garden. For instance, you can plant your trees and shrubs with flower pots or vine plants on the walls of your house. This will give a great visual appeal.

• Have a pathway with pebbles and some lamp-post on sides. A stone patio, ipe decking, artificial grass, stony steps, patterned patio for arrangement of chairs can add to the beauty.

• Use Kota, wooden tiles, wooden planks or concrete pavers to give your landscape a trendy flooring.