DESPERATE for advice...H E L P !

picture of our house from the street

This is a bed at one side of the house. It has impatience, mexican sun flowers and other perinials

Here is a 15 year old japanese. red maple. i do prune them several times a year. This was a gift from our children. I hope this is the right picture

above picture is not the right one.! Here is the right one

Apparently I did not take a picture of the tree that I wanted to show you however the tree near the banana chinese yellow is a red maple and it is over 10 years old. Have fun choosing your landscaping deign. Bellieg

bellieg , If the weeping japanese maple in the pic with your koi pond grows as big as mine , it will be much to close to the house . Is the other maple a red jp ? they get hugh . My friend has a bloodgood 10 ' away from her house , in a corner and 20 yrs. old They are going to have to take it out , the roots have cracked the foundation . Didn't want to scare you .
I love that pond , It's just what I want here , but keep putting it off . If I wait long enough , they can put on my tombstone , Time on DG would have built that pond . LOL

Both Jap maples are not near the house. i can not remember the variety but they are very slow growing.My pond is 7 years old and I love it too. It was built by a local pond designer.

the jap maples that are by my pond are dwarf and the all green one is about to its max size,,I keep it pruned to give a nice shape to it,,I do agree unless you keep up with your maples you should not plant them that close to a house,,and the roots I do not worry about due to my house being built a a very thick slab the roots will not hurt my foundation,, heres a pic from some years ago of my deck when i was renting a condo!

This message was edited Sep 6, 2009 3:10 PM

Love that deck , and is there room for you on it ? No kidding , the plants are beautiful . D

To Bellieg ...I really enjoyed your photos and seeing how you blended your gardens so nicely. I am very jealous! Especially of the palm trees...those only grow indoors in Illinois weather :-( They remind me of some really nice resorts we have visited. I would like to know what that plant was that you said came back every year...I like that alot. Also in your post at 10:26 am...what are those bushes in the back. Do they bloom? I have so much research to do before we begin....

The smaller shrubs in front are very slow growing, unfortunately I do not know the names but will google and will let you know. My backyard is a forest and I like it this way. i had not posted a lot of the pictures that I took.It is a lot of work and $ to maintain but I am organized now by hiring someone to bring them in as well as take them out for me. DH does not do a lot as far as my potted plants because he plays golf almost everyday all year round. It takes time to get the landscaping to your liking but take your time and get some books. You can also get a landscaper and will give you a design and a quote. I remember you read my posts on this years travel. Please posts pix when you start. Belle

okay, I google the shrub and they are box woods. the taller ones has finer and light green color leaves and they are 25 + years old. Boxwood comes different variety and it is best to go to a nursery because they know their stuff.Our other original shrubs were dug and went to shrub heaven. DH prunes the smaller ones to control the height, does them early spring and by late spring they look nice. Make sure you post your pix when you start, take your time and plan well. Check the garden design forum, they have good threads. I thought you are moving to Korea or do i have the wrong person?Belle

Just putting in a word for native plants. I see echinacea, sweet flag, coreopsis, mexican hat. Hanging baskets on the porch to bring more color close to the door. Or, on my walkway, I have my bulbs (from back to front) iris, tulips, daffodils, crocus. Interplanted with these are hardy mums. First the bulbs come up, then when they die back, the mums are starting. I get great color in the fall. This is the time to order bulbs & buy mums. With your beige & green you get to pick any color. I'm in KC, which should be the same zone almost. Not all the mums came back, but eventually I got all good ones. As you can guess, I'm not one for neatness, I like it that I can just yank out some weeds on my way to the car and let nature do the rest. Ooh... can you see a climbing rose right in front of the porch rail? I am envious of all your sunshine! Aside from my mum area, I have to go straight to shade plants, which brings us to hostas. You could have beautiful hostas of all types, which would look great under the boxwoods. Gosh! I can't stop thinking of stuff. Whatever you do, bring it on down the edge of the drive and sidewalk to say, "come on in!" And match the seasons colors to a pretty wreath on your door. Oh, I love flowering trees (i.e. crabapple) in the front yard, so midwestern and beautiful in the spring.

hi buzbug, I just want to add, if you check out bhg.com they have lots of landscaping plans to look at, and they show how to lay plants out so they don't look lined up. I followed one of their designs for my front foundation beds (substituted a couple things) when I got stuck. It's a good starting point.

Hello...I am back...I will check out bhg.com...because I hate the "lined up look"...I will post photos if it comes out OK...hahahahahaha

lol buzbug I'm STILL working on mine ...I alternated some plants along the front, hate it, plan on moving stuff in the spring, just to group them together a bit. The part where I followed bhg's plan came out nice. It doesn't come naturally to me, I really have to work on it.