Why not just lay down sod?

Sod on a slope is difficult to mow - Bad idea.

If you're looking for a groundcover - why no ice-plant or some other succulent?

Otherwise, why not add an upper retaining wall and terrace off the yard, so that you can have a lower planting area that's welcoming from street level, and a level upper terrace where you can have a paved patio and arbor to sit out and watch the world go by?

I like Dytecture's idea. That's pretty cool. Landscaping isnt my thing, but I'm glad to have learned something today :-)

I think you need to terrace it into two levels to take down that slope- with the top level brought out into a patio area with a small brick wall for privacy at the top and the lower level filled in with some plantings - trees - and decorative gravels and some big rocks etc. Find a good landscape architect .

Have you looked around your neighborhood and see what they have done and is there something you like? The natural stone wall idea by Dytecture seems to be a sensible option.

cool space. Let me take a guess...Vancouver? Kelowna? I like the rough stone wall idea from Dytecture, He always has good ones. Lyndia 47...Hello, and hows the weather out west? as J. Judy would say RIDICULOUS! here. minus 30 tonight........email me when you get a chance ok? jewelgal@shaw.ca

Yes, extend the Juniper! That's all you have to do! That's a beautiful Black Pine. Love it!

I would cleanse the palette and plant sod.

i agree. Dytecture has all the good ideas :)

If your budget allows, add some large boulders, and repeat the plantings you already have.

Something different from ej610's option. The retaining wall would give you more of an instant transformation and won't die on you, and it contrasts with the rest of your front yard. So it depends which effect you are looking for :)

three low walls may emphasize the roof line

My suggestion is to plant more juniper along the wall or rip out what is there and do something totally different. With the existing brick wall if you were to add another wall it really would be nice to keep the continuity of brick since it is part of the foundation as well. Try getting rid of the straight lines creating sweeping curves for more interest.

If you cannot afford all of the ideas everyone has offered - there is ECO Grass you could seed in-- you don't have to mow it and it will servive drought conditions and if your place is in California or somewhere semi tropical there is Japanese grass - this grass is very lush looking and this also does not have to be cut.

Oh my, so many great options. I like ej610's seamless transition, dytecture's contrasting design, and Slava UDO 's staggering walls.

But I would vote for dytecture's design since it's a bit less maintenance and gives you different things to look at from the street.

Whatever you do, don't plant more juniper. There is nothing that makes a house look more boring and unappealing than a big bank of juniper.

I think the idea with the three walls to the accent the roof line would give you something different. If the budget don't have rock walls in your future. You can create the illusion of rock walls with different textures and heights of plants. For instance you could use a red fountain grass(grows about 3 ft tall) to unify with the red brick as the wall. Then use greens and yellow folliage on the "tiers".

I would look for plants that bloom or look their best at different times of the year for your maximum enjoyment.

I feel the best gardens are the ones that are slowly created vice the weekend plant fest. When planted slowly, every time you come home you give yourself a new look at it. And you can add to it to make it better. It will save you money also.

My final piece of advice is for variety, too many landscape designers are lazy pick three plants, put them in groups of 5, and move on. This is bad for a couple of reasons. When you get a plant disease(disease in plants in inevitable like humans), with variety only a couple of plants are affected. If you have lots of the same plants, lots are affected and if they die then you lost all of them. My other opinion about variety is that in a housing market of thousands of similar houses made with parts from big box stores, built by big box builders, landscaped by big box landscapers; variety is what stands out.

I forgot to mention that black pine. That is a beautiful specimen, you should make it the focal point of you front yard. There is too much green to give it's time in the spot light though. Remove some of the juniper around it, put some big rocks or something to drawn attention to it!

You're getting some great ideas here. Right off, that hillside is not really suitable for lawn; mowing even that small an area would be aggravating and could be dangerous. I really like Slava's rock walls to echo the roof line. You could then do plantings that are basically self maintaining while picking up some color contrast. I'd agree that bringing the black pine into a more prominent role would be very attractive - some suitably sized boulders to pick up on the ruggedness of it would be great, along with reducing some of the juniper. Would the juniper tolerate transplanting to the other side to compliment the low walls or would they just dominate them?

Indeed these are all excellent suggestions, thanks so much! I like the idea of the terraces, however, I'm afraid it'll feel a bit disconnected from our already established Japanese/English inspired garden. I definitely need to think about all these great options.

I've attached another photo showing the rest of the front yard. I am not a fan of palm trees, so that's going to be removed.

Google "Japanese Grass "

You might think about taking out the two round shrubs on both sides of the window. They add to the expanse of the front lawn, which engulfs your house a little bit. If you can, transplant them to the lower right corner near the street. They're probably too large to transplant though. Taking out the palm would help too.

You have a beautiful house and japanese garden, btw.