Hi welcome to my design studio. Now for those of you who have been following the show for sometime, you know this is where we take images that you send to me of your homes and we explore some ideas that hopefully improve it.

Now we’ve got Betty fro Mississippi sending us this picture of there house and she says Alan help, help I need some help, ok Betty. Here’s just a few thought, one if you really don’t want to draw attention to the architecture of a house remember that, darker colors will recede and lighter colors are going to pop out. So you might want to consider, the next time you paint the house to change the color.

So for instance, which you might do here is take this trim color and convert it from white to sort of a dull brown or tope and then change the color of these shutters to really dark, sort of classic, I call it a Charleston green or a Black green . the shutters would change and then I would even add shutters under this charming port you have on ether side of these windows and paint that door dark as well and that will cause the entire house to sort of recede, and allow you landscaping to pop. Because that’s what you really are focused on and I can see you’ve done some beautiful things here across the front of a house with your foundation planting.

Alright with that said, lets take away these red lines and I just want to give you a few suggestions on some plants you might consider. One thought is I see you have a path that comes around the side of the house and across the front to this point. What you might do is bring the entire bed out like this and let it move in this direction of the quarter and come around and tie in to that bed over there and replace the steppingstones. This round concrete stones with some flag stone, natural stones and those could even be left in the lawn, where this becomes bed here or you could make it all one solid bed and that’s what I would recommend.

With some kind of ground cover growing in between, you can track Creeping Jenny. Now be careful it can be very invasive, it’s a fast grower. I would anchor this bed with some sort of tree here on the corner. That could be a beautiful Chinese Fringe tree which would do beautifully in your area. I would probably on this corner even accent it with a big bank of azaleas, here you could use white Azaleas.

So you can see we’re anchoring this corner, your creating a focal point, your breaking up that roof line and your using natural materials that carry you all the way around to this entry and up long to your very hospitable porch. Now Betty I hope this are helpful tips for you and good luck with your project.

Would you like to see your home featured in a make over like you saw in the last segment, if so just go to PAlenSmith.com/virtualMakeOver and send me a photograph of your house. If your house is selected, it will be featured in the future episode of my public television series P. Alen Smith Garden Home, distributed by American public television. Also on my website you will find great tips on gardening recipes and and videos. Just check out PAlenSmith.com.