This is the part of the show where I really enjoy because we get to take some photographs you sent to me. We play around with some design ideas. Today, we got a beautiful new house in the craftsman-style from Becky in Oregon. Now, just take a look. You can see it’s new construction and she says she’s not that happy with the landscape she has. It was probably part of the builders package. So, now is a good time to maybe move some of those things around. I’ve got a few ideas for you Becky.

The first thing of course that jumps out at you here is that you’ve got all these utilities here that will definitely want to screen. I’m not sure exactly where your property line is from this photograph but let’s assume it’s somewhere in here. I think that to give this a very natural feel which is something you indicated you wanted, we might start on this side up here with maybe some of those birch, being in Oregon, you’re going to be able to grow that beautiful, white multi-trunk birch. There is an idea for that. And then under the birch, I would fill this all in with evergreens to try to hide these utilities as much as possible.

Let me put away this and let’s get started with some ideas at our springboard off of what I just talked about. Let’s go back and we’re going to put in our birch here. Maybe it’s two or three of them and they’re on this hill side and we’re going to use some rhododendron back here in the back, I love leaving the big stones that you have in place. I would come down and probably add some walls in front. Now, I don’t know, you need to check with the code and make sure you can cover these things and then likewise here, I would another evergreen. You might take one of these little spruce or maybe just leave these and this one back to keep that group of spruce here in the corner. And then for the front, I think what I would do is I’d like to balance this with a spring flowering tree.

So, all the way on the far right side, over here, I might come in with a beautiful yoshino cherry that would be planted over here and come into this space. You’d probably need another evergreen right in here, so we could go back to a rhododendron and you will repeat the same thing. So, think about rhododendron here, you’ll have the cherry over there and you can see how we’re beginning to balance this.

If you really wanted to make it charming in a cottage-style, I'm not sure which direction in front of the house faces but what we could come in and do and we could do a rose of some sort or some of vine across those really handsome timbers.

Now, let’s think just a moment about some of the perennials and annuals which would really add a lot of punch to this. Currently, you have this little yellow daylily, it looks like a variety called “happy returns.” What I think would be better with the color palette you have here is made more of an apricot or salmon colored daylily, just think about that and we’ve been spot them around and see, we’ve got them all over the place. I would group them together.

So, what I’m going to suggest to yours, obviously, you’re going to have to keep this gravel for your drainage but you can conceal that quite readily by using some pennisetum or grasses along here. I would add purple coneflowers and then those big drifts of daylilies like I’ve talked about maybe here across the front.

Then you’ve got right at the edge an opportunity to grow any number of annuals. You could, in the spring and summer; you could have petunia’s cascading out here. Maybe one called Bermuda Beach that has sort of that salmon color to it would work out I think beautifully with the bright color.

You got a great looking place here Becky, good luck with it.

Would you like to see your home featured in a makeover like you just saw in the last segment? If so, just go to pallensmith.com/virtualmakeover and send me a photograph of your house. If your house I selected, it will be featured in the future episode of the Public Television Series, P. Allen Smith's Garden Home, distributed by American Public Television. Also, on my website, you’ll find great tips on gardening, recipes and videos. Just check out pallensmith.com.