What zone are you in and which way does your house face? Who will be maintaining your garden?

I think it would be easier to communicate to you about it if you offered a wide panoramic view, lined up with the front door, and including space at each end of the house. Overlapping pictures from that point of view would be fine.

Thanks for the replies! I am located in zone 6b. I will get a panoramic photo of the front in the daylight tomorrow! I would prefer to maintain all the plants (watering/fertilizing/trimming) myself.

A few more questions for you: How far is the sidewalk from the garage windows? Do you know what the two trees already planted are and do you know how tall and wide they will become in the next 10 years? That may affect how much shade your other plants will need to be able to tolerate, as well as the size and placement of your third tree. It looks like the area to the right of your house (when facing it) slopes down into some sort of ravine that (presumably) will not be developed. Is it something attractive that you want to "borrow" as part of your landscaping or is it something that you want to block from view? If you are fond of both boxwoods and roses, I'm guessing that you may prefer a more formal style of landscaping (think England or France, rather than the Great Plains or the Pacific Northwest). If that's the case, I'm suspect that you will want to block that view. Is there a path along the right side of your house for you or meter readers, etc. to get to the back yard, or do you access that side of the house from the rear? You say you'd like a pop of color; any particular colors you love or hate? How much of your new plant material do you want to be evergreen? I can see what I assume is a black hose in the second to last picture, but I don't see any faucets ("hose bibs", if you live in my neck of the woods). Do you have access to water for irrigation on the front side of the house? If not, is there faucet just around the right corner of the house? If so, I assume that you'll need to leave room for human access, hose storage and hose-dragging space over there

Very attractive stone work on the front of the house, by the way.

Thanks everyone for the comments so far. I really appreciate all who took an interest. I wish I knew what the trees in the front of the house were. I will find out.

For the third tree I'd really like to place it on the far right side diagonally out from the house but anchored to that corner. Seems to be a popular choice around here.

The back yard does indeed slope downward to a walkout basement. I figure I will worry about the side landscaping and back myself next Spring and for now just want to get the front facing area planted. Here in central Pennsylvania it is a pretty formal landscaping style we traditionally see especially in my neighborhood.

I have hose bibs in the garage, around back, and on both sides of the house. None on the front but can easily reach from the sides or garage accesses.

I prefer evergreen mostly but would like a pop of color here and there, perhaps in some of the bushes which is why I was thinking maybe roses or a flowering tree. No particular love or hate of any color.

The lot on the side will eventually be developed, it's for sale, though the slope is more severe so it may take time to sell.

For now, I would love to keep the plants along the front of the house against it for the most part, perhaps one or two near the lamp post and the outermost tree.

Any suggestions on my 12 plans and tree would be most appreciated! Photos are attached as requested!

I'll try to play catch up. (Have been travelling for a little more than a month in the past 40 days. Much of that was without Internet so more absent than I thought might happen.)

The drawing is pretty basic but hopefully it will convey some ideas. First, I would get rid of the odd angles on the beds. They would look much better to tie in to walks at 90* angles instead of weird wedge shapes. In the lower, right corner I'm illustrating two ways you could make a circular bed around the lamp post. (The lamp post is a primary purpose of the bed so the bed ought to use the post, at least roughly, as the radius point. And a generally circular shape would make more sense than a sprawling asymmetrical wedge shape.) Also, I would re-shape the large front bed. It should swell out to accommodate the tree you intend to plant but does not need to extend outward, around the walk in a grabbing fashion.

To explain the planting in the illustration, it is a shrub below each window of the garage, and a small hedge below the pair of windows (right half). None of those should get taller than bottom of the window. There is seasonal color flanking the entrance to the porch and at the left of the porch. A perennial mass wraps the garage corners and right house corner. A low groundcover, solid, links the other plantings together.

Can't tell how your existing tree would possibly conflict with the proposed tree. (The third picture you posted was taken from a different position so the existing tree location shown could be seriously misleading.) You might want to consider moving the proposed tree farther back in the scene rather than placing it at a pure diagonal to the house corner. (I wouldn't know because we don't have the information.) A large shade tree is probably not in order. A flowering tree (such as redbud) might be a better size to use so close to the house.

As far as what plants to use, gauge the heights and research what plants grow locally that could perform well.

Thanks so much for the wonderful response Yaardvaark! I'm absolutely going to take this advice which I love as far as changing the bed shapes. Really great start here.

I'm heading out to pick out shrubs this weekend so any suggestions on my zone that would be nice but fairly easy to maintain (nothing too large or out of control) would be wonderful. In the spring, I'm going to tackle my side yards and rear yard, for now, just want to get stuff out front.

I love the idea of moving the tree out from the corner and am going to extend that bed out. The way it is now, it is just too small of a bed to include a large tree in there.

I also realized some of the later pics I took were too far away so I attached some new ones in case anyone has some good ideas on plants for Central Pennsylvania. The bed depth is 6 feet from house to front, along the house, obviously more room in the porch area.

Any other comments based on these pics, would love to hear!!!

I will recommend a small leaved low groundcover. I think it will look more tidy since you will have that big bed of it in front of the porch. For shrubs look for something with a natural mounding habit. I like Raphiolepis. The upright blue perennials could be Salvia. I know there are some that can live in zone 6. It could also be Veronica if you have the right soil. It can be frustrating to look at perennials that are not in flower. You have to know in advance what it will look like. By the way, look at the tags on plants to be sure they are in your USDA zone. I hope someone from PA will respond.

Can't say what are best shrubs for you, but below windows you are looking for something that can be maintained at only 2' height or so. Always good to check around town and see what others are using to achieve a similar goal.