I hired a landscape architect this spring. I liked many of his ideas - at least for the structural, practical side of landscaping. However, I felt like he was less knowledgeable about plants and designing garden beds. So I'm checking in here for some advice with the most troublesome part of my yard. My front yard is fairly short (25 feet from the road) but also fairly steep. The lowest terrace is too steep for anything but a ground cover to prevent erosion. The middle terrace is a fairly narrow bed (maybe 3 feet deep). The top terrace has more room. I definitely want this area to look nice - but it is not where I spend my time so a lower maintenance design is best for me. (I spend most of my gardening time in the back where my stream, waterfalls and pond are located.)
Here's a shot of the front. It's as much of the yard as I can get in with one photo, so I apologize the you'll have to piece together the pictures to get the "full picture"
Most of the plantings I had there have been relocated because we started rebuilding the rock walls.
On the left side, there is a second wall that you cannot see in this picture (because it isn't finished yet). It will end at the top stair (of the bottom set of stairs) just before the landing. The wall is lower (about a foot tall) than the one behind it.
On the right side, there will be another stone wall about 2 feet high. It will be flush with the left side, but it will be higher and create a single planting bed above the pachysandra.
From this angle (the street), I am not crazy about the pachysandra. It seems to dominate - but I'm not sure what else I could do.
Oh - I should mention that I'm in zone 5 (NH) and my whole yard is mostly shade. This front section is the sunniest part of my yard, but still would be considered only part-sun.
