Here is another picture, it was one of the listing pictures:

House sits on a corner lot: I forgot to add as well, that I would like to put some fruit trees in the front, like a couple of peach trees or something like that.

Your house looks beautiful in summer! Is there sun in the back yard for your veggie garden? Those big trees might make it pretty shady back there, and veggies like sun.

Suzi

Is there no way you can hire a professional? Your house deserves it.

I agree about the azaleas and overgrown boxwood. I feel rather confident in saying this original landscape was not designed by a professional.

Your house is stunning.

It would help us help you if we knew your planting zone. Just go to your profile, and put your zone in the zone box. Then your zone will show on all your posts.

It's hard for someone in California to recommend plants to someone in the deep south or North East.......... But this forum has many participants, so someone will know.

I don't think your house is Tudor style. It looks like Texas to me. But I'm no style expert.

I think much of your landscape looks very professional. Especially the steps. The lawn is beautiful. But the landscaping reflects the age of the home, and sometimes you have to let go of things, or completely refresh others.

Suzi

Thanks for your comments! I always forget the zone ! We live in hot and humid memphis, tn. :)

I forgot to say that it might be American Gothic revival

Thanks emmarene. Are there people you can who will just design a landscaping plan, and then you can implement yourself?

Suzi, we plan to do our vegetable garden on the right side of house, where the round trampoline and shed are (we have since moved them), so I am hoping that area will get enough sun. This is a little tricky, because we have a tall retaining wall in our backyard and on top of that there is a regular fence, but I do think there will be enough light to grow a veg Garden. We are also planning to cut down the tree on the left side (near the drive way) of the house and bring the fence up towards the front of the house and apply for a variance to move the fence on the left side out toward the curb-past the legal 15 ft limit for corner lots. I am really hoping they would do this because we are on a dead end. That would also give us a lot of usable gardening space. The whole lot is .36 acre which isn't large, so we are trying to maximize our space (part of why we want to plant a couple of fruit trees in the front). Thanks,

There may be small plants that are reusable, but other than that, I can't see anything redeeming about the existing planting scheme. The architecture has sufficient detail that large portions of it do not need to be covered up and smothered with plants. The hedge that flanks the walks is the worst offender and should be the first thing to "walk the plank."

The house front seems exposed and unprotected. Everything is wide open with no shade or visual framing. Trees of some type along the street would be useful, strengthening the property boundary like a picture frame stengthens a painting. Nearer the house, a small tree could perform some visual separation between the garage face and the front building face. Another small tree could add a sense of protection near the entry.

For such a sizable house, the front step/walk seems skinny. You probably don't want to bear the expense of installing cheekwalls, which would add some visual heft, but it wouldn't be too expensive to create faux cheekwalls out of flanking strips of low (barely higher than steps themselves) groundcover.

The gigantic blemish bordered by drystack stone should be cleared out in favor of some nice, clean lawn.

Consider painting the triangle of siding at the front the same color as the brick so as to make it camouflaged and disappear.

Thank you all for the great feed back, I feel like I have a great starting point!