Massachusetts starting from scratch

This is a house that some friends and I are renting half of (our landlady lives in the other half, and has given me the green light to do pretty much whatever with the garden/yard). I've looked at pages and pages of advice and plants, but I'm completely new to landscaping, so I haven't really got an eye for what will look good or not.

I'll have to take better pictures of the empty mulch beds in front of the house, and behind the fence is the "lawn" (currently a patch of waist-high weeds, but I'll start working on that first, this fall). The first design piece I want to tackle is that strip next to the driveway. At first, I thought of some sort of evergreen hedge, but I think that might look awkward directly in front of the house, especially running perpendicular to the building. Should I go for ground cover, or would groupings of flowers look better there?

Also -- you may be able to tell this from the photo -- there's a sort of nook to the left of the stairs. I would dearly love to incorporate a star magnolia into the design, but thought it might run a little too wild for that small space there. Would a tallish, narrow evergreen be better?

Thanks for reading!

Can you tell us how much sun/shade you get in the area you are wishing to work on as different plants need different light/shade etc, also how much care do you want to give to the garden or have time to do, as this will help in the plant selection to suit the amount of time/money etc you have, with that info, lots of people will be able to give you the best plants for your overall needs. Weenel.

Hi, aerlinnel. What a gorgeous home! I love old houses and this one is stunning in its size and in its charm. I'm still new to landscaping myself, but I've been watching my mom do it for years and years. The only tip that came to my mind right away is that you need to consider "scale" of your landscaping design when you have a house this size. In other words, the scale of your landscape should be proportionate to the scale of the house. You have a tall house so plant some things with a good bit of height next to the house (when I say height, I don't mean a large tree whose roaming roots will cause your foundation to crumble!). Don't fret too much over really small plants and lots of variety. Go for the big picture, because that's what you've got...a BIG picture. Find something you really like and plant it in large numbers. Small plants in small numbers will get lost in the landscape, so whatever you choose to plant, go with the "clumping" method. Clump your plant choices together in groups of odd numbers (3 or 5, as Weenel often says!) and avoid over-patterning your design.

Also, if I were you, I'd not waste your valuable flower bed space on lots of annuals, but would use some planters (maybe hanging on the front porch) to incorporate any annual color you might want. Also, the fact that you have a red house is not only wonderfully dramatic, but it means that anything green will go beautifully because red and green are complimentary colors!

One way to discover what you like the most and what works with a house like yours is to simply drive through your neighborhood and others nearby that have houses similar to yours and scope out the landscape!

Again...I'm a novice at this myself, so I hope my advice is sound. If not, WeeNel, you need to straighten me out! :)

Have fun and enjoy this beautiful setting!
easter_lily