Hosta is nice.maybe the north have not enough sun light,add some azalea better too.I suggest you plant some edible vegetable,fruit tree,add evergreen rock.

{{gwi:11581}}

I'm not sure about the landscaping, seems nice to me. I think the evergreens really compliment the house and soften the facade. The yews in the last photo are a little tall so I would trim them back a bit, although I would try to preserve the natural shape of them. You could just leave the yews and add more interest with deciduous plants. But what I really want to tell you is that your house is beautiful with so much fine detail. I especially love the arch, the walled courtyard, the sweeping roof lines and the little tudor window in the last photo.

Ideasshare-thanks for the suggestions, although I am not really sure what evergreen rock is? The whole place will have edibles, although not sure if I will put any in the front.
Theresa, thanks for the compliment on our home. Unfortunately, nobody really sees the front...there are tall trees by the street, and our driveway is not set up to come to the front of the house at this time :( Soon, though, very soon :)
Thanks, and any more ideas much appreciated. I do want something still a bit subtle, but with more interest.

Take it all out, the evergreens that is. The house has a structure to it doesn't it? Is the purpose of the 'landscaping' to downplay that structure or enhance it? i have never seen an architects work improved by throwing a green splodge in front on it.

Incognito - The house does have a nice structure to it. I want to enhance it, and don't know if it is because I am 30 or that only having an evergreen bush there is boring, but it seems that I can do something really beautiful there. Nobody uses the front of the house at this time, and I have a glider on the porch and last summer had some planted pots. I just wish I had a real picture in my mind what I wanted it to look like. I want to find a couple really neat slow growing dwarf type trees, maybe some hostas and other perennials with some nice mulch. I just have no idea where to place them and what all to use.

Do you have any photos taken in the spring or summer when the snow is gone? I can't figure out how much space you have between the front of the house and the driveway or sidewalk or road or whatever's out there.

Is there anyway you could replace those big solid one piece of glass picture windows with more tudor sytle appropriate windows? Casement windows are used in this style of house. It looks like there is a diamond paned smaller window to the left of the door. I love your house, being very fond of the Tudor style and those blank "eyes' staring at me take away from its beauty. yank the yews, they are too heavy. Bulbs and ferns and othe shade loving per. that are lower than the wall, since you say you have privacy from the street.

tanowicki-I don't have any other pics. On the right side (looking at the pic) there is about 4 feet between the sidewalk and the front of the porch. The sidewalk stops at the stairs, so I have more possible planting area on the left, but I don't want to get too crazy there. There is no driveway or garage anywhere near the front, so not much to worry about there.

tibs-No, sorry, the windows were both replaced when we moved here 3 years ago. I Love having the large picture window to see the birds and such, so that is just one of those things that isn't going to go with the tudor style. Also, we are out in the country, so not thinking most people driving by would appreciate it :) Although if I ever get new living room furniture and curtains, that may help...right now, there aren't curtains in the living room because I am spackling and painting...big project with a 5, 3, and 7 month old :)
Ferns sound like a great idea! I love that they would get me a lot of texture! I have never done anything with bulbs, but this may be a great time to start.

I'm just a homeowner in Ca. but I love your beautiful home, nothing wrong with it, wonderful use of brick with the random pattern. I like the right side of pics(looking at the computer). Nothing wrong with the evergreens & pretty easy maintenance. The left side looks "off" the bushes should just come to bottom of window at most or you could change that out. I'm wondering if there is a taller shrub towards far left end of house. Seems like something missing. I see wreath on door & thought the tall evergreen would look so cool with some small lights on it,(very welcoming for visitors when it ends up being front of house) your kids would love that when they get bit older & the new ones are pretty low wattage so don't run up the bills. I just looked at last pic again, very interesting roof detail. Any other homes around town with that? I would try to find out how others work with that. Do you want to follow the line of roof going down hill or do opposite, to me that would figure into what I would do. Were those annuals that look dead(brown) in front of those bushes? Anyway that is only area I think needs something & I would trim back bushes before I did anything else & see how you like it. You have hands full with 3 little ones & working inside, this can get taken care of later!

sunnyca-thanks for your post. The bushes are perrenials. When I am looking out my front door to the left, there is a line of tall bushes maybe 10 feet from the edge of the house. The evergreens don't look BAD when they are cut back, I just really want my own touch :)
Yes, staying home with 3 kiddos is very busy, but I have time for anything that I want to do if I want to do it bad enough. We have been here 3 years now, and this IS the year to take care of this :)
I would also assume I would somewhat follow the roofline rather than go the opposite of it.

I am not a designer so my advice is only preference. You have a lovely home.

I have a red brick tudor and I like a formal look. I would not rip out the bushes but shape them up and plant some Spring and summer bulbs. If you absolutely do not like them I would not rip them out until I knew what I was going to replace them with. Landscaping is part of the value of your home. When you ride around in the winter/summer what do you see that you like?

I love flowers and lots of color but I save that for the back of my house. Also living in a cold climate and winter last so many months of the year it would depress me to look out the window or drive up to my house and see nothing green during those long winter months.

So I said all that to say....When you start to design try to design for winter as well as spring and summer. My evergreen plants are..Rhododendron, Blue star juniper, Gold Cypress, My deciduous bushes are rose glow barberry, Dogwood, Sand cherry.

I loved this essay...

Here is a link that might be useful: Winter Garden

Um, ah, I won't be much help in snow, but there must be hardy evergreens with variatioins in color and form, yes? They all look the same, not so good. There is a guy on this forum from Washington who does lovely dwarf evergreen gardens. Do a search.

Catkim-yes I am totally thinking of still incorporating evergreens, I just don't want this long single hedge. I will have to search out the dwarf evergreen garden guy, that sounds like something that may be of great interest to me...in fact, I was even thinking of a few dwarf trees in the front.

You can check the Conifer Forum.

I do not know how deep your snow gets. My Blue star juniper was buried most of last winter. LOL

Here is a link that might be useful: Conifer

The member who does all the amazing evergreen gardens is "botann". I wish he would post photos here more often. I suspect he wouldn't mind if you contacted him for suggestions, but that's just a guess.

Here is a link that might be useful: A few photos of botann's garden

catkim-Thanks for the link. I am still looking through his photos, but I love them. Obviously I wouldn't be able to do the large evergreens in front of the house, but I could see a lot of those plants in with some dwarf evergreens!

It's not the evergreens ... it's that you have nothing but evergreens, lined up against the little wall as if they were under arrest.

Some lower spreading evergreens to anchor the first ones and some plants with good winter color (bark or berries) go a long way to making it look less sterile.