Landscaping help !!

I am completely new to gardening. Just started doing some landscaping in the front of our house. Had a few quick ques. In the attached pic you can see that we are trying to mulch a portion of the front of the house and section it off with rocks. The shrub has been there since we bought the house and hardly requires maintenance. We just planted the Japanese maple and did the rocks by the house and the rest is mulch.

We have mulched part of the area. The area not mulched yet has grass. I'm planning on using round up to kill the grass and weeds off in that area and then lay down some newspapers and mulch on top. This is what I gathered from some forums here as the best way to go.

I also wanna put a rhododendron in that section before I mulch. Will that work after I kill all the grass off ? Just wanna make sure I can plant in that area.

Also wats the best way to lay the stones? Do I get rid of the grass and dig a little deeper to put the stones in the ground ?

Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks so much !!!

If it is not too hot the Rhody should be just fine. Round up (the original, basic material) breaks down pretty fast when it hits the dirt. It is now being sold with other ingredients, and I am not sure of the life span of these other ingredients.

How to lay those stones:
1) Set a stake at each end of the project and pull a string tight between the stakes at the height of the top of the first course of stones.
2a) Trench at least half the depth of the stones to make a wall that is higher than the lawn.
2b) Trench about an inch deeper than the stones to make a mow band for the edge of the lawn, flush with the level of the lawn.
3) Use one of the stones, or anything else you have (brick, 2 x 4, sledge hammer...) to compact the soil at the bottom of the trench.
4) Lay some sand or crushed stone (1/4" x dust) in the trench about 1/2" to 1" deep. This allows you to fine tune the positioning of the stones.
5) Set several stones in the trench. Line them up with the string, perhaps slightly above the string. Tamp them in place with whatever you found to tamp the soil in the trench. A bit of wood will protect the stones if you are using a hammer or other think that might scratch them. Use a level to be sure the stones are level with each other. By the time you have finished tamping them in place they will have sunk to the level of the string.
6) Carefully backfill so you do not knock the stones out of place.

I personally never use Round Up. I worry about what it does to the planet. You don't need it. Just lay several layers of newspaper down and put several inches of mulch over it. That's enough. Done this way there's no need to worry about your Rhododendron.

As far as laying stones, if they are just normal sized ones (1-3 lbs) just lay them down. They will sink in themselves soon enough!

The big bed you see at the upper right of the picture was done using the newspaper and mulch only technique. The second picture shows it 7 short years later. Be careful not to plant too much.

Yeah I would not use Round Up either for this application. I love to use Round Up on weeds and around bed edging but I just don't think it's necessary for your application. You would need to use 4-6 sheets of newspaper and then a couple inches of mulch. It's best to wet the newspaper after laying it down so the wind doesn't get it before you put the mulch on. It's also best to do only a section at a time.

On a side note, I have 2 cents to give about the garden layout. In 5-10 years, that JM will be too big for those windows to be useful. Also, that arb will get too big for that spot with the window too. You may have been better served using smaller shrubs and perennials, cutting down the arb, and planting the JM outside the garden. I know it doesn't matter now since it seems like everything is in but I wanted to share anyway. It all does look nice and I really like the stone. The only thing I would do with the stone is dig out enough so that each stone will lay flat.

Another excellent way to kill the grass is putting dark colored, black or brown, plastic bags over the area and holding them down with rocks. Especially if it's hot this will kill the grass and weeds asap -- and no use for chemicals!!

By the way, I totally agree with Sequoiadendron - the space is WAY too small for the plants you want. I would take out the arborvitae, put the JM in the center and forget the Rhodie. One JM, which you could under plant with some very small things, is it for that space. Look at my pictures in the beginning of this thread again. It is not easy taking out shrubs, and I promise you, that is what you will have to do a lot sooner than you think.

Here is a picture I just took of my Rhododendron. It was just a tiny thing a few seasons ago. Now it is massive - about twice as big as your space looks to be.

The full sized Japanese Maple will grow as a low branched tree, higher than the porch so people can walk under it (minor pruning to keep the porch clear) and the view from the window will be through the tree.
Hard to tell how much room there is between house and the tree, but if there is as little as 10' (I can see there is not) that would be OK. Less than 10' and the tree will have to be pruned where it rubs against the house. Looks bad.
If this is one of the smaller types (does not look like it) then placement will depend on the size. But it will probably block the window.
Maybe you want this. Privacy supplied by tree.

There are dwarf Rhododendrons that stay as small as 2' high and wide. I would get a larger one so you can see it from the window and the porch, but probably not much more than about 4' tall. There are many varieties this high.

Arborvitae are slow growing, but yes, this one is poorly located. You could let it go, keep it trimmed and be ready to take it out when it gets too tall.

I agree with Sequoiadendron and the JM . When ever someone thinks about planting a tree I think the first thing to do is to research what will be the high it can grow to .I see lots of people planting JM and Crepe Myrtle very near to their house and I laugh because they have no clue how gigantic these trees get. .I also think that there should be a concern about the roots damaging their house foundation.I do not have a tree on my property but my neighbor"s tree is about 3feet from my fence and the roots are in my yard and coming close to the foundation.

You don't need to use Roundup to kill the grass. Just cover it with newspaper or lay landscape fabric (allows water to penetrate) or top of it. That will kill the grass without adding poison to the ground.