Beginner Gardening: HELP with front yard of 60's Split level, 0 by ranch57

ranch57 wrote:
Hi there,
Your post actually compelled me to register here (though I've been meaning to anyway!) as we have very similar-looking houses. I have a garage/driveway on the lower level though, and I think more steps up to the front door. We just bought it, and I want to change a lot, but I do like how the landscaping was done around the entry way. It has been terraced with natural rock retaining walls, about 7 feet deep at the door level, and there's another bed 7-10 feet deep below that. This is like what TwinCol suggested. It softens the approach to the house and "nestles" it into the landscape.

For your house I'd suggest a shrub about 2/3 the height of the roofline to go at the left corner, and plants would decrease in height towards the door to draw attention to it.. At the other (tall) corner on the right, you could have a tree to soften the corner if you like. A rock garden on the slope in the foreground would look really nice too. But take your time to think about what you'd like and what will work for your property.

I'm a big fan of the asian inspired modern look as well. Moss, rock, ornamental grasses, bamboo (in pot?), weeping Japanese maple, dwarf conifers... wish I had more $$ for landscaping! There's some good advice in the posts above, I say look at lots of pictures for inspiration. Learn to do a scale drawing and and make a lot of photocopies so you can draw ideas on top of it. Pick the plants last - start with bed shapes and patterns. When you pick plants, start with the trees and shrubs, working your way down to the perennials and groundcovers. Can you tell I'm taking a landscape design class :) Would love to hear how your plans go.

Anyways, I'll attach a photo of the terraced bed along the steps so you can see what I mean.