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Landscaping advice - plants along walkway (PIP)
When we bought our house, things hadn't been maintained well - plants were overgrown, hadn't been trimmed (or hadn't been trimmed well).
I tried to trim the plants with a hedge trimmer, and they look SO much better, but they are still in sad shape (PIP below - the two bushes on the left that are dark green, and then the 5 arborvitae on the right). At this point I want to rip them all out and start from scratch. The branch you see at the top of the pic is an ENORMOUS oak in the middle of the front yard, so I'm trying to make the house look a little less crowded.
We actually ripped out some half-dead azaleas along the house and replaced them with euonymous bushes:
I like the euonymous plants - they are green year round, lower to the ground. Any suggestions what to replace the arborvitae and the other evergreen with? I plan on making a mulched bed like the euonymous are in (on the other side of the walkway where the evergreens are).
BTW we have a two story house, the porch goes along the length of the front, and next week we are getting tan/beige siding. I will also neaten the bricks and the borders around the beds etc. Thanks for any ideas!
Re: Landscaping advice - plants along walkway (PIP)
I'm unhappy with the layout here. The shape of the beds is wrong and they are too small. I'd start there. I would redesign the beds, and take out the arbs. Not only are they very badly shaped, but they're an inappropriate choice for this space.
Having a "crowded" and very diverse plantscape is the smartest strategy from an ecological standpoint as well as a maintenance standpoint. You should reduce the size of the lawn and greatly increase the size of the plant beds, and load them up with flowering species.
But the shape of the bed along the walkway is the biggest glaring design flaw that jumps out at me immediately. I couldn't sleep at night if I had that.