Beautiful home, Gymgirl. But yeah, your landscaping really needs a facelift.
I think those hedges, all uniform height and color, look boring. More varied heights and colors would be nicer. You could use a few shrubs, a few perennials, and maybe tuck in a few annuals for continuous color. Try a few good vegetatively propagated coleus, I find they do so much better than seed grown ones. I bought most of mine from Rosy Dawn and they are wonderful plants.
http://www.rosydawngardens.com...
If you visit the coleus forum here, you'll find a lot of coleus experts from the deep south who grow coleus extensively- south Fl, Louisiana, the Carolinas. And they're very easy to grow from cuttings, so you can keep them for years.
Does the area get enough sun for a dwarf (shrub size) crepe myrtle?
Instead of a straight line, would you consider extending the bed in places, making the edges more rounded?
In areas where you have problems growing plants because of tree roots, you could consider adding a few giant pots. Or, add hanging baskets from the tree?
Karen
