Landscaping dummy here and I need some serious help!

[bldgengineer]

First of all just about all I know about landscaping is cutting my grass. Last year I began cutting these piney bushes down that were in front of my house. I still have some of the roots hanging around and now I have a serious mess on my hands! I found a fairly deep hole next to my front steps and the roots that I did manage to get out left 6in deep by 2ft or 3ft holes

I also have this island in my front yard that needs serious attention that I have no idea what to do with. If anybody has any suggestions or creative ideas I'd LOVE to hear what you would do with this!

I'm a real idiot when it comes to this type of thing and the more I get into it the more I realize that I need serious help. Like step by step help(ie what should I do first once everything is cleaned up? get top soil? fill dirt? whats the difference?).

Here are some pictures of what I'm dealing with

[img]https://i1079.photobucket.com/albums/w501/bldgengineer/Front%20Lawn/IMAG0190.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i1079.photobucket.com/albums/w501/bldgengineer/Front%20Lawn/IMAG0191.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i1079.photobucket.com/albums/w501/bldgengineer/Front%20Lawn/IMAG0192.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i1079.photobucket.com/albums/w501/bldgengineer/Front%20Lawn/IMAG0193.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i1079.photobucket.com/albums/w501/bldgengineer/Front%20Lawn/IMAG0194.jpg[/img]

[rainbowgardener]

The island with the two trees isn't looking so bad. The picture doesn't enlarge enough for me to tell what the plants are or if some are just weeds. What is your problem with it?

So you are wanting to do some foundation planting for the strip next to your house? To start with after you get all the weeds out, you could enrich the soil some. NOT fill dirt, which is generally just what they dig out of some construction site. If your current soil isn't too bad, just add some compost or aged composted manure. If what is there is hard clay or something, then you could add some good topsoil with it.

In the heat of summer isn't the best time to be planting new shrubbery and stuff and probably there won't be a good selection of things in the nurseries because of that. If you want to plant now, you need to commit to watering every 2-3 days all summer.

What direction does your house face? How sunny is the strip you want to plant? It looks like you have wide eaves, which is very nice for keeping the house cool, but means that strip is probably not only shaded from sun, but also from rain, so very dry.

The biggest landscape design error people make is making their foundation plantings too small and skinny. So you get just a little thin line of small plants in a row. All out of scale with the size of the house right behind them, and very artificial and boring. Nothing in nature grows in a straight row.

[bldgengineer]

The problem with the island is everything thing you see that isn't tree is a weed. It also has that black plastic edging I really don't care for.

I don't really plan to plant anything right now but I would like to get it ready for next year. I also plan to extend both sides out a bit. Possibly out to the sidewalk.

The front of the house faces north.

I got 6 of the 8 stumps left out yesterday and plan on finishing that up and cleaning the weeds up today along with getting rid of the railroad tie edging.

[tomf]

I would get low growing shrubs for the house and put edging around it. You could do flowers but in the winter there would be nothing there. Make sure what you get will not get to big or hurt the foundation.
You could plant a number of things on the island it looks like it gets sun and shade so pick some thing that likes that. There are a number of stone edging you could use to replace the plastic. I will be driving to a stone quarry this week to get some rocks to make an edge wall.

[tomf]

I am doing some boarders and I found a rock quarry that sells boulders for $30 a ton. They come in 1' to 2" or 2' to 4" size and larger if you want. I can pick some up or have them deliver it for a small charge. I am thinking of getting some.