I have a rather neglected section of landscaping I my front yard, and I'm tired of looking at it. It's an eyesore, and every time I look at it, it makes me cringe. The previous owners neglected it, but we've had the house for 8 years now and did nothing with it. That needs to change, and I'm trying to work up a plan.

A bit of info: The space it roughly 13 ft. wide by 4 ft. deep. I live in zone 6A in a Midwest metro. The garden bed faces south, so it gets a ton of sun. We can get down to negative single digits for 1-2 weeks in January, with a fair amount of wind from the west, while summer temps routinely hit mid 90F with 70% humidity. Directly to the left of the image is the front door with a covered portico. It's framed by two large, wood facade pillars, providing substantial structure and height. To the left of that is the wall of the garage, which gives a fair amount of cover from storms and western wind. To the east is another two story house, much like ours. Directly around the corner at the right is an outside tap for a hose.

Here's my idea: Extend the bed about 4 ft past the corner if the house and sweep it around the corner a few feet. Add another 2 feet of depth max, and create a couple of gentle curves. At the front right corner, make a small semi circle. I'd remove what's left of the old mulch, till up existing dirt and add new topsoil and mulch.

Plant wise, I want to keep the existing boxwoods, but reduce them down by nearly half. Maybe add one or two more to the right. Add a tall, skinny conference shrub of some sort to the left, and another, shorter one to the right and slightly ahead of the boxwood line. I front of that ba row of flowering perennials, then at the very front (just behind the edging), I'll split out the monkey grass into clean clumps. Maybe interspersed with another, shorter flowering perennial. The semi circle will contain a nice, color dwarf tree, like a Korean lilac or sun loving Japanese maple variety.

Am I on the right track? Any suggestions? I've never taken on a project like this, but I'm genuinely excited to give it a try.

Thoughts on a Landscape Plan for