Beginner Gardening: Starting a project... Suggestions requested - Zone 8b, 1 by GreenThumbSuker

GreenThumbSuker wrote:
The driveway is lined with Maple Trees on both sides. On a moonlit night it looks like Sleepy Hollow. I would like this area to become a beautiful garden and make it so it will no longer need to be mowed.

I would like to get started with the ground work now and be ready to add plants by early fall (Sept). I would like to hear from others but I'm thinking that since we don't usually start getting to what we call cold (30 degrees or less) until Jan/Feb that will be a nice amount of time for my new plants to become established before our (usually) almost non-existant winter. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

I want to do plantings all along the long driveway. The sunlight varies from full sun to dappled shade. When an area is in full shade during the day it it not for very long. None of it is heavily shaded even with all those trees because they let a lot of light through.

I know that when there is pine straw (pine needles) left on the ground it kills any grass and or weeds underneath it. My thoughts are to put down 3-4 inches of pine straw along the entire drive and let it stop the light from reaching the grass in order to naturally kill the grass.

I have posted some pics to start. All of these are at 9:30am. I will take pics at different times throughout the day and post them. The pics here begin at the south end of the drive (closest to the house) and we are looking to the north. - The east side is about 6 ft wide in most places to the pasture fence. The west side is about 4-5 foot wide. There are about 2 feet between our trees and where the neighbors property line begins.

This project is going to happen over time. I would appreciate any suggestions, ideas, critiques or other input as this will be my very first project of this magnitude.

Thanks