That's beautiful, thank you. I love the bush under the window, and there is a globe juniper there, but it's dying from the middle out. I think I did not dig out enough landscape fabric from the previous owner to give it room to grow.

Anyone with thoughts on planting a Jane magnolia near the house, for the tree suggested above? If you can see the plant sitting in the yard, it's a Jane. I planned on using it for a screen to the neighbors property, but maybe it would be better used by the house?

first.. watch out for that cat.. she looks fat and sassy... lol ..

get rid of the so called viburnum ... if you going after a redo.. do it all .. its a beast .. and as you say.. it isnt within your abilities any more ..

just as a side note.. you might want to look into attic air movement ... thats a weird paint issue up there ...

the bed is a bit tight.. for any larger shrubs ... i would suggest.. you move out into the lawn if you want anything of size ... else.. you will be right back where you started with too big shrubs.. too close to the house ...

man that is one huge chimney .. lol .. what have you got in there.. a blast furnace ... lol ...

since you know the utilities are right there on the wall .. be careful when digging out the beast ... or is that what the dude marked for you .. if so.. take pix of the flags .. while they are there ...

ken

There's a larger tree at the right foreground that I couldn't tell how close it is to the house. If there's some space between them, then a possible reconfiguration of the foundation bed could be moving the small tree toward being off the house corner, but overlapping onto the blank wall, which would put the larger circle of the groundcover bed, at the corner. It's a possibility, if it helps anything.

That is a 'he' and his name is Fatso =) Yes, if I did a tree there, I would widen that section. It is a narrow bed.

Yes, I was thinking the viburnum should go, I just didn't want to screw around in that area. About the markings, all my utilities came in to mark my lines. No one could tell me who requested the locate. I never did figure it out and finally took the flags down myself. Normally my dad would drive the John Deere over and pull it out with a chain. I don't think that will fly for this one.

The chimney is for the fireplace turned entertainment center.

Any suggestions on shrubs/trees, Ken?

Also, Ken...the paint issue. I'm almost certain its from the highway. I live off a major, two-lane, high traffic highway. It's Minnesota, and lots of salt chemicals are used on the roads. The highway is expected to be re-routed and expanded into a four-lane starting in summer 2021. I don't want to do any exterior home repair until the project is finished.

I would suspect an attic ventilation issue, too, especially since there is no gable end vent. IMO, almost all attics are seriously under-vented. People would be shocked at the summer temps if they had thermometers in the attic.

i just mentioned the attic.. since you dont want to waste a lot of time and money.. just repainting.. only to have it fail again ... i dont quite figure how road salt is an issue ... but who knows ...

nice fireplace inside ... i too gave up on actual burning .. i might do an electric insert some day.. gas is not convenient ...

i dont know z4 MN .. wonder if junkie has an ideas ???

i presume you dont want to put a tree into the lawn.. due to the mad john deere driver???? ... lol ... you really are limiting yourself.. even if you double the width of the bed ...

you have a lot of lawn there..to incorporate into the plan ... think outside the box you are firmly sitting in ...

ken

The paint issue is all over the house, but interesting about the attic! I will talk to my contractor friend about that.

To the right of the air conditioned area is the massive silver maple and my flower garden. The yard is a little rough. I used to have a stacked field rock border around the entire house and the maple garden. I removed it because I was getting overrun with snakes on my property. I'm still working on correcting the lawn from that. This area is the worst.

The lilac tree is my neighbor's property line.

So between the garden and the air unit is a thin path, not ideal for expansion. But the rest of the east side, I have plenty of room.

Silver maples get a lot bigger than that, you should expect yours to do so also over time. Which means that since you already see it as "massive", large growing maple species such as this tend to become dominating of garden spaces - including making it difficult to grow other plants beneath them - and this species becomes prone to breakage with age you might consider removal. In other words it's the type of tree that works out in the middle of a field but not in built up settings where there are things nearby that it could interfere with. Including drop branches on.

The photo isn't conveying the size well. But, yes, I've read up on them extensively, so I know their issues. I already cut down two on the west side of the house because I didn't want more this size in my yard. This one is about as large as any I've seen. Maybe a couple I've seen are bigger, but not by much. My neighbor believes this tree was planted in '70 or '71. I've been growing under if for 6 years, so I'm just going to keep going until/if it isn't possible anymore.