The presentation currently is on the weedy/junky side. It looks too busy. Some things I would do are:

• redefine the island edges to be simpler and such that trees are not at or near the edge.
• redefine the island edges to tie to paved areas at 90* (so as not to have skinny, triangular wedges of lawn grass.) And avoid skinny strips of lawn grass.
• create a distinct edge (not raised) to the beds, such as a brick or paver mowing strip.
• plant more uniformly within the islands, using less variety. Use low material where the view beyond needs to be retained or enhanced. (Some sizable areas of hybrid daylilies at the sunny areas would be nice.)
• clean up trunks of mature trees by removing scruffy growth.

If you want to get help with organizing and redefining the geometry of the beds, you'd need to present the front yard in plan view with trees, paving and house footprint plotted out.

Many people come on here these days asking about curb appeal, seem to think the thing to do is foundation planting. With the rest of the lot being pretty much all grass. What you talked about in your opening remarks sounds like a movement in that direction - maybe you should in fact level and grass over the area(s) where the "too big" planting(s) are now and just have some other stuff going on in small narrow beds at the front of the house. That puttering with some flowers, grasses and shrubs just in that one area would fit the extent of your interest and available time.

Yardvaark I will work on the plan view tonight. Thank you for your suggestions.

Embothrium I also have 2 large flower beds in the back of the yard that I am maintaining. There are some cool plants I want to keep that are taking over the place. I will get more pictures and a plan view so we can dive into this.

Thanks, Mike

I agree with Yardvaark. The current look is far too busy and on the weedy/junky side for your house. There is too much mulch and not enough ground covered. It needs clean, strong architectural lines. That may not require making the beds smaller and adding more lawn. Large drifts of a groundcover and/or low growing shrubs with the specimen flowering tree would make for clean, simple and strong visuals. Grasses as a back ground for lower plants would work fine as one element of that.

The lower sprouts on the mature tree trunks are most likely the result of recent tree removal/thinning in a former grove of trees. They will have to grow out of that. Just remove any sprouts below where you would want the lowest limbs to be. The trunks need shade to stop the lower sprouts from growing.

Don't hate me for saying this. It may not be on your mind or in the budget, but I really don't care for the brick drive and front walk. It is too much brick and again, too busy visually. I would prefer a more uniform surface like colored concrete. I am curious to get a closer look at the front entry, the steps to it and the stone work on the left side of the house.

Here is a ms paint view
Brown are the flower beds.
Green grass.
Green circles are trees, planning to keep the big trees, not the pear tree upfront

Pictures of the steps.

Mike, presumably, you saved the Paint dwg. Could you make a copy and remove the brown and greens such that the landscape portion is a black and white line drawing? Also, instead of photographing it and uploading the photo, could you upload it directly from the computer (same as a photo) so that it is squared up and complete?

Where you are showing trees (green circles) are those the trunks and are they realistically sized to scale?

Wow, that's amazing!

Accomplish the stated desire to change the relative proportions of lawn to bed by having beds around the bases of the trees only and grassing the rest - in the brown and green rendering the lawn is all carved up into visually ineffective little sections by the current bed layout.

Where any particular individual (or grouped) trees are too physically dominating to allow successful expansion of existing turf then you are either stuck with having bed in those parts or reducing the number of trees present.

Here you go Yardvaark

The tree trunks are approximate. I can send you actual photos if it helps.

I would eliminate the beds.

Replace with lawn where possible and ground cover where the incline is too steep to mow.

The foundation beds are not attractive either. The brick is very dark and it looks like some of your shrubs are so dark that they do not stand out. Plants with lighter foliage would be an improvement.

emmarene9- The darker plants are beefsteak plant. Trying to figure out if it is a weed, but definitely going to cut back on those. There are also some peonies and hydrangea back there also that i want to keep.

I would simplify the beds along these lines, with the light green being lawn. (Second pic is of existing.) ...

Bed edges tie to paving at 90*. And as mentioned, greatly simplify the plantings within the bed. The left bed could tie to the neighboring lawn as does the black line, or it could be as the red dashed line. I can't see that side so am second-guessing.

Yardvaark thank you for taking the time to do this and I like the layout. 2 questions

What kind of edging would you recommend on the blue lines? Not sure i like having a garden bed directly next to the street unless i used a small paver edge, also concern on the side of the driveway during heavy rain washing mulch onto the driveway.

i was thinking a magnolia tree where i placed the arrow. Any other recommendations for a tree?

Also in terms of plant layout in the beds, I know there are tons of options for plants, but I really am having a hard time visualizing a pattern.

Where do we see places that planting beds are next to paved areas, but that mulch and plant debris does not wash onto the paving? At literally thousands of areas! One only need look around. A previously identified problem with this yard is the excess of unplanted (mulch-only) areas. If all areas were planted, there would come an end to replenishing mulch and likewise an end to material that washes onto walks & drives. Likewise, it's often the case that people maintain planted areas at a higher elevation than adjacent paved areas ... which, of course, invites the washing of debris onto the paved areas. If these two problems are corrected, it puts an end to debris washing.
In effect, I'm recommending that the walk and drive (blue lines) BE the edging. If I ever recommend an "edging" it's about 99% likely that it would be a flush mowing strip ... so no different really than the edge of a walk.

Given that the proposed tree location is approaching the central area (as one views the home from the street) it would not be my goal to create screening ... which a magnolia (either evergreen or glowering) is likely to do. I'd want something that one would be capable of maintaining a view below and beyond (of the house.) On top of that, we don't have a good, comprehensive view* of the front of your house from the street, so it's hard to say what tree you need or if you need it.

*Shows complete scene from end to end, top to bottom.

Do you have any pictures of what it looked like when the previous homeowner lived there? I'm just not seeing what was so award-winning? Unless they filled everyting with annuals?

I wouldn't want to have a magnolia glowering at me either.

He's in Chicagoland. I image he is thinking Magnolia x soulangeana or M. stellata not a glowering Magnolia grandiflora. He does have the house for it though.

The actual front entry is still a mystery so the tree placement can be adjusted as needed. He has plenty of room for one and more when the pear tree gets whacked.

Magnolia x soulangeana & stellata tend to be low, spreading ... not trees that allow a view to pass below. Not the sort of tree I'd want in front of the central zone in front of the house face. Nearer to the side, OK.

Here are more pics of the front

Front view of right flower bed

Here is where i am at so far-

-Remove pear tree

-Update the bed/grass transitions to 90 degrees pretty close to how Yardvaark planned.

-Add a smaller flowering tree on the right bed(any more suggestions?)

-Trim the larger trees to get rid of the bushiness

-Still need some ground cover suggestions. There are a bunch of lilly of the valley on the right side by the garage. Was wanting a more colorful ground cover.

Mike