Maybe some fountain grass with the lirope why does lirope not feel strong enough for that huge space

The sketch is only suggesting that the bed continues to some point down the side of the house and re-shaping how you place the color.

Extend bed up house partially. Beyond circle.

Red indicated annual placement . The green under the annual represents lirope placement I'm assuming.

I'm guessing continue shrubs up along side the home.

That's very incredible

When it does to the annuals would You suggest just one? Or mix some variables together to add interest.

Please Ignore that red marker. My daughter thought we were coloring. I think I am having a light bulb moment. The lirope in time will fill in the space like this photo I attached correct? I also lined the bed with lirope. Should I have put pieces in the shrub bed as well.

I've seen some lirope look terrible this time of year. Very brown and unattractive. Since this will be in the front of our home any suggestions for avoiding that? I've heard to cut it in February so the new bloom will come in spring? Will the spot look very bare during that time of year?

?????

Usually, people cut liriope old growth off before new growth begins. That way, what you see is fresh growth without old, ratty growth mixed in. Yes, it will be a solid bed of liriope, not a line at the edge.

Where you bring bed along side of house, do not pinch it to a shallow bed. How deep it is depends on what you're growing, but most shrubs are going to require 5' - 6' min. in order to look good. 3' is too little. 8' is OK if you have that size stuff. (In this thread, we haven't dealt with the side yet.) How far down the side the bed extends depends on the design, but the corner planting will wrap the house and extend down the bed to some point.

When you do the annuals as I've shown in the red, they will be taller than the liriope and show just fine even though Liriope is in front of them.

Okay. So taller annuals. Such as maybe this so like a annual mound. Thank you so much for your patience. I'm very new to this. So remove the bed lining of lirope correct.

This photo should have been attached. Or maybe some ferns?

I don't think I'd pick Dipladenia as the annual to start with. I've had them just sit there for the longest time. Since color is a main objective of annuals, I wouldn't pick fern either. Start with something simple like salvia, petunias, zinnias, marigolds, geraniums, etc.

Salvia! That's what they are called. I love the way they look! Purple is my favorite color. I picked some up from lowes just now and put the edging in the bed. I also widened our bed on the side. No grass has grown there and it just leads to our hvac system so my husband was happy to sacrifice that dirt. I placed big blue lirope around the tree and the variegated in the bed closest to the house. I put three bushes around the line backer in the large shrub Area. The place on the right of the walkway.. Below the annual spot I planted lirope.. I was unsure of what else to put and I had a few pieces left.

To the right of the garage in front of the home and the patch on the side of the home where the bed was just extended I'm unsure what would best be grown there, it gets full sun and is On a slope. There is grass at the bottom but most of the slope is bare (maybe a opportunity for some trailing ground cover and tall shrubs?)

Im the front to the right of the garage I had a pencil holly placed however I'm guessing maybe more lirope and annuals to tie to the front? In the future I am still wanting to potentially add the arbor above the garage, I don't plan to immediately grow anything towards the arbor. I am assuming that small area would eventually be connected with the whole side down that right side of the home, I call that space the valley of death. There is no grass only the busted concrete from the old front walk way. I could plant some shade loving plants like maybe a hostas variation some hydrangeas where the concrete currently is ..?. I think we should also consider making a concrete paver walkway bc we bring our trash and down this way and often use this side as a way to the back of the home when outside..

I would guess that you could use a small tree diagonally off the right of the garage, expanding the bed forward and surrounding the tree. But that side doesn't show so it's just wild speculation at this point. At the slope, you need groundcover. something that spreads, creeps. If you have nothing it's going to erode eventually. A hard surface walkway of some type would make sense if you use that path much.

"But that side doesn't show so it's just wild speculation at this point. "

As as in the photo is poor in quality or literally that side of the home is not very visible.

Would you you suggest tall shrubs( i.e. Pencil holly) and ground cover or simply ground cover? I forgot about erosion very good point.

The pictures show neither the space beyond the end of house (as viewed from front) or of the side of house, viewed from face on, so they are not good pictures to make judgements from about what planting is needed ... other than a groundcover for the sloped area, where nothing seems to be growing. From what I can see, though, I can't imagine a place for pencil hollies. Since there seems to be no windows on the garage side wall, I'm thinking 3 Large shrubs/small trees would be the most likely thing to put over there.

Side from neighbors

Other side of home valley of death.

Not sure what question is pending for these pictures.

These photos were in reference to what to place in the right side of the garage. The initial photos were poor in quality soo was attempting to take better photos of the spot now question as well as the slope in question.

Then the photo needs to be more face-on to the wall (as much as possible) and from farther back so the whole wall and a good chunk of house can be seen.

Concerning the right side front of the home

That's a lot of ground cover we will need . I will need to research what is cost effective and not too evasive that it doesn't we usually just put more pine straw down around this time of year. We have a neighbor whose entire front bedos ivy and its growing up the side of their home. Under the perennial what does that say? Annual? I believe it's pointing to something red.

Thank you so much! We have had a few neighbors compliment us on our landscaping so far and we are still not done.

If you're saying that your neighbor has English ivy and it's growing up the side of their home -- and that's a bad thing -- then your neighbor is not properly maintaining his ivy. It should be sprayed with herbicide in a line along the house foundation periodically, or cut periodically before it reaches the foundation.

Mulching a hill at least once per year is one way to address it. The problem is that is ends up looking like yours looks like now, and it needs an annual batch of mulch which is work and adds to the cost of maintaining the yard. While there's an up front cost to do groundcover, it results in one never needing to add mulch again as the groundcover grows together. As far as the up front cost goes, one option is to buy all the plants one needs and be done with it. Another, much cheaper way, is to find out how to start plants and make them one's self. When I lived in Atlanta, I rooted a gazillion cuttings of ivy as it was my mainstay groundcover. It was easy and I was able to create large areas of ivy grown together within one year. Now I live in Florida and my entire "lawn" area is a different groundcover (perennial peanut). I found it was easiest to create by planting pieces that already had roots. When I edged some with a spade, I would plant the discarded pieces wherever I wanted more of it to grow, which was basically everywhere. If I was starting from scratch, I would find some already growing and ask the owner if they minded if I edged a bed for them. No one would say no to that.

Hmm. I now am wondering if my mother has ivy in her garden and how I can transport them safely back to my home. I will be doing my share of research to see the best way to do the latter of the two options. I think my husband is slightly aggravated with the amount I've spent in landscaping this year.. I LOVE ivy and that would be my number one choice for the hills.

I love English ivy, too. If one maintains it correctly, it is quite the easy plant and a solid workhorse. If one expects it to maintain itself and never does anything with it, it will turn into a PITA. It must be edged. It must be cut once per year at bottom of trees if one doesn't want it to climb. (It's not necessary to remove the cut portions. The leaves will fall off in a short while, and later, the stems.) It must be cut monthly where it meets paving. And it must be sprayed every couple of months with herbicide where it meets a wall or fence ... or cut, but that's a pain.

Small update

Since this is a house you are planning to sell in just a few years, I would not plant ivy here. As Yardvaark said it needs regular maintenance, and to my mind, unless you are selling to someone willing to do that, you will be leaving them with something of a nightmare. I would figure out something in your area that likes your growing conditions, but not so much as to require herbicide applications 6 times a year to prevent damage to the house and escape into the trees above and to the right of the house. I also see a child's scooter, and I am sure I would not want to be applying herbicides several times a year with a little one running around the yard as they can have more effect on a small child than on an adult.

In my area some of the Geraniums such as Biokovo or G. macrorrhizum would work for groundcover on a hill as would old-fashioned orange ditch lilies, Hemerocallis fulva, but I don't know what would make sense in your area. Perhaps one of the sedges would work, or perhaps if you ask on the perennials forum or the forum for your area such as the mid-Atlantic forum, you might get suggestions for more easily managed plants than ivy.

Even though I grumbled about the walk being not wide enough it is definitely an improvement over the one you started with, with a much better shape. Maybe in a year or so you'd decide you want to widen it a little more with an 8" strip of brick bordering each side. That would look nice. I'm mostly grateful you didn't plant the strip bed at the outside of the walk and the entrance looks more inviting on account of it. You did a lot of work! Now hopefully everything will grow for you. Good luck.

Very good point at Nhbabs. For now my husband has asked that we use pine straw and research our options since it is such a mass amount of space. I agreed with him. We have invested a bit in the front for now and ultimately I have learned this is a process that takes time and planing. I do want to also add brick to the area but for now I will accept the concrete and look into the cost of us doing that vs hiring someone. My husband kept saying how great the yard is and once this Bermuda greens up I think he will like it even more. I planted some verbena and day lillies around the mail box and right now I have about 12 pieces of lirope around the ornamental tree I'm not sure if I should add more but for now I'm just waiting to see what happens.

THANK YOU SO VERY VERY MUCH for all your time, valuable knowledge and insight. I cannot thank you enough.

I didn't see NHBabs comment earlier and see that she is an ivy hater. I do not really care how anyone personally relates to the plant, but only care insofar as how they characterize it to others. Calling it a "nightmare" only indicates to me that someone is not willing to learn about how easily it can be maintained. To spray a narrow strip with herbicide is not a big deal. Glyphosate breaks down into harmless components in a relatively short time. To keep ivy from expanding is probably 2x per year, not 6. (Its leading edge grows 3' per year.) Insofar as children goes, one doesn't let them contact freshly sprayed wet foliage. And unless the child is into licking the leaves of outdoor plants, it does not present a danger. If one doesn't wish to spray, there's always manual cutting. It's more labor intensive, but possible. Keeping it from climbing trees takes about one minute per 2' diameter tree per year. These are easy things! If doing them is what constitutes a nightmare, then I think it is simply a matter of attitude adjustment.

hartcm08, research the invasiveness of species in your area prior to planting. English ivy is considered invasive in a quite a few places. And if spraying herbicides, understand what you are spraying and the half-life of the chemical and its residuals in the environment.

I've been following this thread and you have done some nice work.

Yardvaark, I am not an ivy hater. I have no opinion on it other than that leaving any plant that is potentially such a vigorous spreader or invasive to another owner (elsewhere hartcm08 commented that they will be here at most 5 years) isn't particularly responsible. If she were planning on staying there for 10-20 years and wanted to do the maintenance herself, that is fine, but that isn't her plan.

I inherited a whole series of invasives(not just aggressive garden spreaders) from the previous owner of my property, which most likely explains my hesitation.

On the left side of the home we seeded the home and are starting to see some fruit from our labor. I would like to extend the front bed down the side of the home as pictured in sketches above. I'm wondering if planting three pencil hollies in that space with some annuals would be ok. I'm afraid to plant any evasive ground cover because this slope dips into the side of my neighbors yard. The last photo shows how close the left side is to the neighbors home.

The red will be wider. I think with the grass growing beneath that there won't be a need for the ground cover.

I'm not familiar enough with long term growth of pencil holly to know how long it would take for them to achieve a size that is meaningful for your house. At least they're skinny and could fit in the tight space in the side yard. But really ... grass and mowing in a narrow area that is all slope? It seems so impractical! I am sure if mine, it would be groundcover only.

Maybe a Thuja green giant or a Emerald green. I just worry about planting it so close to the foundation of the home.

You will have to research plants for your conditions.

:) hartcm08. The word you're looking for is "invasive," not "evasive."

I decided on wooly thyme for ground cover on the left side of the home :)

It seems a bit of an unconventional choice for an area like that. I don't know what your criteria is, but I would make sure that wooly thyme is being used in your area like that by others. If not, find out what groundcovers are and use one of them. Conventional plants are the the ones you'll succeed with.

Update.

Beautiful! Congratulations! Enjoy!