Replace with garden--bulbs--for all the seasons!

Better picture…stand back, you will get more useful ideas.

View from farther away

Rather than a straight hedge consider shrubs that will still provide a screen but be a bit more interesting.

I hate to torture you,lol, but you would need to post a zone and maybe location to get real advice. I am not a professional so the following is a layman’s opinion. Those hedges are (literally) old, id pull them out regardless. The trees on the left look as if theres not enough sun hitting them so no hedge would thrive there. Depending on your area, Id probably replant some sort of bushes or shrub foundation plantings to disguise said foundation lol. To soften things up and to modernize the landscape in front of your home, you would also need to plant maybe a mix of perennials and annuals, but what they are depends on your zone and what direction the bed is facing. On the right, youre space limited, but on the left you could recut and expand the footprint of that bed, and really jazz things up. Id also clean up the porch area, repaint the stairs add maybe a cute carpet and maybe some sort of decor (bench,planters). Repaint the stairs and maybe add planters of colorful annuals. If it is possible, id pull up the concrete and switch to pavers and add a curve to the walkway to the driveway to enable a larger bed and some softness. Thats my laymans opinion good luck Im sure you will get some good ideas here

to add, you could soften up the walkway as is by adding a planting bed to the other side of the walkway. Kind of tucking the walk into the bed. Plant appropriate plants to the new curved extention.

Yes, remove the existing shrubs. Your house us super cute!!

I'd redo the whole thing. It's too attractive a home to not do it right :)

"i was thinking of continuing the storybook look by putting chicken wire on thr bottom to grow ivy across the house and up the sides"

A lovely trellis may indeed be in the cards for your design, but IMO stringing chicken wire along the front of your home is a fast track to making it look trashy. Just no- sorry to be blunt.

Please take Jinx advice and google some design inspiration and visit local nurseries- many offer free design if you purchase. You can do it right the first time and have a stunning exterior with all the curb appeal possible, or you can halfway do it and have to do it over and over yet never get it right.

It's a gem of an exterior- respect that and do it right.

YES remove, NO to vines. Paint the lower grey area same color as house if needed.

Options are endless and it depends on your interest level in maintaining, climate/soil, budget, and look you want. To help, look at ”front porch gardening” on Pinterest.

I’d take a picture of your house and head to a nursery at a slow time. They will make recommendations based on your criteria and importantly, discuss how it will look longer term. Curb appeal is a valuable asset and worth it!

when you ask plant suggestions.. you need to tell us where you are ... big city name ....

chicken wire rusts ... imo.. you dont want to be painting the house any more often than you have to .. and god help you if you stain vinyl siding ...

and you simply dont want some of the ivys otherwise rooting into your siding and ruining it...

so .. just.. no ...

remove the old bushes.. like yesterday ...

double the garden on the other side of the walkway.. and extend the garden on teh other side just as far ... and plant at a proper distance form the house ... so you dont have to be out there shearing ugly too large shrubs twice a year.. to jam them in that little bed .. and in your plan.. try to leave about 2 feet at the foundation.. just to walk back there ....

never forget.. foundation plants are planted to hide the foundation. and not on the foundation ... the problem with those old shrubs.. is they had to much annual growth potential.;. to be planted that close to the house ...

ken

ps: why id the garbage can not on the driveway side.. or is that a gift from an idiot neighbor?

What a beautiful home! Before you remove any of the evergreen shrubs, get a design in hand. Those could very well be a perfect backdrop to a new plan. Your location and zone will dictate certain plants. I’d also include a new path to the door in the plan as the existing one looks ready for replacement and upgrade to a nicer material than concrete.

@ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5 lol good eye spotting the trashcan! Yes it was from the previous owner- he left us 4 trashcans and we still aren't sure how we "return" a trashcan to the city. Thank you for the advice! We are in Atlanta, so Zone 8a. @Sarah great advice about getting the design in mind first! I never thought about asking the local nursery until this community pointed me in that direction. Really appreciate all the suggestions from everyone- even just knowing what to google looking for design ideas is really helpful.

I would just add that your foundation isn't ugly, it doesn't need "hiding" as such. I love the green of your brick and the and cream of your trim and railing. Paint the foundation green if it isn't already. Replace the shrubs with something that will stay low enough to show off your porch railing. Hostas, daylilies, rudbeckia, echinacea, phlox, autumn joy sedum -- so many choices. I could list a hundred more, but that's not much design help!

If you want to experiment with a vine, try an annual flowering vine first -- moonflowers would be appropriate for a storybook house :-) Or thunbergia (black-eyed susan vine) or morning glories.

A trip to the Grower's Outlet in Loganville after you determine what you want to plant is in order. The perfect place for the plant addicted. Look at their website for what plants they have.

Yes, paint the foundation to match the rest of the siding - I painted mine in 2002 and it hasn't needed repainting yet (proper prep and proper paint!). That will give you more flexibility in planning your landscape, too, because the need to "hide" the foundation is diminished.

Definitely pull out those current shrubs, they are too much work to keep looking good even if they looked good to start.

Local nurseries often offer free or low cost landscape design, in exchange for purchasing the plants there. An option that I used was to contact the head of the landscape program at the local college, and ask if a student would like the project for a moderate fee (and/or program credit). The student who contacted me had some great ideas, better than the nursery!

I really think it depends on how much time you have to do yard work weekly or daily. What about trimming a good 12 inches off and decide on how you want to proceed.

Oh, it would be gorgous to have long blooming tough perennials in front, like catmint, russian sage, or lavender, along with coneflowers, or shasta daisies, and asters with maybe some daylilies or salvias in front. Plant some daffodils in the fall, and you would have a garden that blooms for the whole growing season. None of those plants need much water and all are really tough. It would really look like a storybook!

cute house. ugly landscaping! sorry. you could really amp up the curb appeal.

Hydrangeas

or local flowers, roses, nice grass,,, don't forget your front porch

This is an Atlanta bugalow

do you plan on painting? if not, I think a diff door color would look better w/your current color combo.

if you do paint, I'd just do the trim in a whiter shade rather than that antique cream color.

This shade of white (and you can also see how ugly these shrubs look once they're high like this. I don't care for them)

With that blue, imagine the bright white trim, and a gorgeous shade of Orchid on your front door

both of these are simlar to yours. notice landscaping and colors.

Adorable house! Definitely get rid of the bushes and add some cute landscaping - flowers, and varying sized plants would look great.

Such a nice house:) of course, do it! it will look fresher and cozier

Great suggestions so far. You have a charming house.

Don't plant ivy. It is a thug plant. You'll never get rid of it. It is such a nuisance and can damage siding. The sale of ivy is now outlawed in some states.

Such a sweet house. An important thing about those shrubs is they look like they are evergeen and in Michigan, I think it is worthwhile having greenery throughout the year. Many of the gardens people have posted pictures of will be beautiful for a few months out of the year and then you will be left with starkness. I would find a way to prune those so they look more attractive and then add in some perennials in.

Go to a very good local nursery with pictures in hand and ask for their help. And yes, please do not grow ivy. You will regret it. Your home already looks like a story book. If you really need ivy, grow it in a container with a trellis or some other climbing structure.

There are plenty of small evergreen shrubs that will be a huge improvement on that old, tired hedge. Use some of those along with a couple of small deciduous shrubs and some perennials and bulbs.

While you are pondering, you do need to remove the self sown maple sapling which has grown up to the left of the steps (as you look at them). It will already have quite big roots so do it asap.

Yes to changing the trim to white and adding pops of white-flowering shrubbery to the new design. Remove your right side hedge, install narrow concrete pavers from trash cans to street, mount cutdown Craftsman-style (recycled) door at side of porch as trash can screen. Your home can be "the best on the block" - it's got great curb appeal.

I just wanted to add that your style of house is on my list of favorites, and I love the color!

If you're getting nice rain, use this opportunity to pull them out. They are old, bedraggled and unkempt. You can do so much better, as illustrated by so many Houzzers above.

My neighbor came to my house with his truck and pulled out about 15 large, overgrown bushes when he saw me struggling to dig one out. Just wrapped a chain around the base and drove. So much easier. Tore up a little bit of lawn, but that was an easy fix.

he left us 4 trashcans and we still aren't sure how we "return" a trashcan to the city.

==>> well./. in my area.. if you stop paying for all 4.. they will come take back those you dont want to pay for .. and great its not an idiot neighbor ....

go jump in those ugly shrubs.. and see if you can figure out.. or see ... where they were severely cut back to paint the porch... and when you replant something else.. keep in mind.. that you need somewhere to stand.. to paint the porch every few years ... so just dont plant stuff too close ...

ken

Those shrubs shouldn’t be difficult to take out, if you decide to do so.

We just had to remove three 12 yr old Red Tip Photinias from small beds bordered by concrete and the house that some moron planted … now that was brutal. We just cut them to the ground and dug. And dug. And dug. I promise yours won’t be that hard. ;)