You can take out the walk and add it from the drive with an expanded garden space in front of it.

Here's one with the walk.

Another without the walk.

Your house is symmetrical, so I'd probably have a symmetrical garden.

Redbuds or dogwoods (there are plenty of pretty native ones, don't get a non-native) should do well for you. You can get varigated dogwoods. You could also do smallish fruit trees, but you will probably just be feeding the local wildlife. If your soil is acidic, high-bush blueberries can become small trees.

You could put your trees in the middle of your yard and put some plants under them. That would use up a lot of lawn. Or you could do a bunch of groundcovers/lowgrowing plants. Creeping phlox is sort of evergreen in zone 5/6. That is, it's evergreen under the snow, but if there's been a lot of cold, cold wind with no snow cover, it can get a bit ratty-looking. It will green up in the spring and look pretty good until the cold wind starts to blow in January.

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I would at the very least double, if not triple, the depth of those foundation beds - bring them out further from the house.

I personally would not put anything tall directly in front of the windows. One, it will block your view out, and two, I think the windows are a nice architectural element. And while not always a concern, there can sometimes be security issues to think about when having a large shrub between a window and the street. But perhaps you are referring to planting something in front of the windows out in the lawn, not actually in that bed?

A first thought was to put a tall narrow evergreen at either end of the house, in front of those little wings, but then again, THOSE are architectural elements you might not want to hide either. What is behind them? Is there space to put something tall and narrow behind the wings?

You could also do some trellising on either side of the door with something growing on it.

Without admittedly giving it too much thought, I would again, bring out that foundation bed, have some window-height evergreens and perennials in there, and perhaps plant a small ornamental/flowering tree in the front lawn; a tree tall enough so at maturity your windows are visible under the canopy.

I know personally I have an almost irrepressible, unavoidable craving for symmetry, lol, so I can't decide if only one tree in the lawn would look better, if a tree on each side would look too crowded on your smaller lawn, or if you should go with a tree on each side. Perhaps it depends on the choice of tree.

Looks like you have some shade there from bigger trees along the street so I don't know if that limits your choices.

And yes to the pathway to the driveway. Although I think I would keep the path from the sidewalk as well, perhaps extending the front bed to go along either side of the center walk. There's always an option to line the front sidewalk with something too - a hedge, a mixed bed, a fence (with or without a garden along it).

If/when you decide on an overall look, post here again and I'm sure you will get many plant-specific recommendations. Good luck and please post "after" pics!

:)

Dee

P.S. Just re-read your original post and see that the house faces east, so that shade must be morning shade. Guessing then that you get afternoon sun? This opens up your choices which is always a good thing!

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