What term can describe the result of this extra effort for this first view of the front of a property? As used above, I would just simply call it the front garden. I think there is a bit of west coast vs east coast different pages thing happening here too. Yardvaark's observation that plenty of people put all their effort out front and have a dog patch out back they would never dream of inviting guests in to is completely valid. Outdoor privacy, found in the back yard not the front, and privacy in general was valued a lot more out west. Much like 'foundation plants' had a certain ethos and design style associated with it, 'curb appeal' these days does too. Inkognito's original question way back at the height of the housing frenzy before the crash was "Is this whole notion that the only reason for working on the way our house and garden is presented is so that we can sell it on detrimental to domestic garden design? Yes it is. As the wealth of working people is clawed away from them in service to the god of vulture capitalism's endless greed for growth and profits, homes are ever more considered their last available investment and asset that will likely have to be sold off for people to survive their decrepitude with any amount of dignity. They can never really expect to grow old and die peacefully at home. This is an investment not a home. Not that 'curb appeal' implies completely ignoring everything else, but when it becomes a primary and most valued focus of applied residential landscape design, is it driving standard residential landscape design towards the banal beige of real estate agents wet dreams? When does it really become just another form of capitalist consumption that has to be changed out every so often like paint and wallpaper to keep things fresh? What about real homes and a sense of place? What about real gardens filled with life and individual personality? "Oh great. You have fabulous curb appeal. Do you garden?" Added: Yes you can read this as an extreme take on things. Few things are that black and white or all inclusive. It's not like the term 'curb appeal' makes my skin crawl. There is also a valid need to stage homes when they go on the market. It's more about how the ethos contained in this thinking takes hold and affects people's thinking and expectations about what gardens are really for. No matter, there will always be the Hyacinths who continue keeping up appearances.

I'm very late to the party, but here goes. Well, I think your place has lots of potential. I did not read every response in detail, so I hope I don't duplicate what others have said. I'm not a professional designer. First where in PA are you? I'm in Lancaster county and there are lots of quality nurseries with good prices. A good book for beginners is "Garden Primer" by Barbara Damrosch. And it is good advice, but hard to do, maybe try living thru all four seasons before you make changes. You might get surprised by drainage patterns, etc. Is your house visible from the road? Maybe take a pic from there to help visualize the house and setting. Do you ever plan to subdivide the property or build another home, as the previous owners did? This would make a difference for large tree placement. My sense of your question is that you just want to make your house and its setting look better. It sounds like you are new to gardening and still developing a sense of style. The curving path is nice. I would suggest making an area in front of door that would serve as a "landing", say about a 4 ft x 4 ft square (could be bigger though, but not entire width of house) that would be a transition from path to front door. Use slate or more substantial stepping stones for this landing. Then move planters away from house to somewhere else. Make the beds deeper, with some curves. I read somewhere that if take your house and tipped it forward on its 'face', your beds should be that deep. I would use some cone shaped evergreens by corners of the house, do not exceed the height of house. Pant a grouping of shrubs to step down a bit from these tallest shrubs next to the corners. Maybe around the corner from the garage you could make a little landing pad for garbage can, and then they could be somewhat hidden from view by the evergreens. I'm thinking in hot summer you will want the cans outside and not in the garage. Maybe a trellis between window and driveway to soften exterior of house. Adding shutters will be nice, use the paneled type, not louvered. (you have enough "lines" with the siding.) Not sure about good choices for deer resistant plants, that seems to be very regional. Maybe the nursery down the road can help with that.. How much sun do you get, and what zone? If sunny then you could do a lot. Holly both evergreen and deciduous with some berries. You will need male and female plants with hollies. Also, arborvitae, or juniper, for evergreen shrubs. I would put some rounded, kind of fluffy evergreens, in front also. There are some arborvitaes like that, some have gold foilage. I think the foundation planting can't get too huge though, you don't want to overwhelm the house. Then some easy care perennials, coral bells, daylily, daisy, white and purple cone flowers, lambs ears, yarrow and some ornamental grasses. Other deciduous shrubs that could be nice in a a separate border are butterfly bush, they can get huge, though. Viburnums, some smell wonderful, but others not so much, so check them out when in bloom. Clethra is nice but takes forever to leaf out in spring so you may not want this in front of house. Other easy care deciduous shrubs are itea, fothergilla, they both get nice fall color, beauty berry, red twig dogwood, blue mist shrub. You could incorporate these with some huge spruces in a largish bed, some distance from house but visible from inside. Best of luck.

You have to show pictures of it in its surroundings. The the photo become full color before submitting.

Shutters should appear to be operable, so they would need to be as wide as the window... so if closed, they would cover the window. So no shutters on your house. I agree with taking out the boxwood that have been butchered. If you take the bed all the way to the sidewalk, you need a pocket bed on the left side. Yes to learn more about pruning the Crepe Myrtle. Ever heard of Crepe Murder? It's a thing. LOL Honestly you don't even have to prune them. We had several over 30ft tall at our last house, but you don't want one too tall right next to the house. Having lived in the South all my life, I don't have a problem with the grass since we get rain. No idea where you live, but the grass looks healthy. Unless you want to spend every weekend gardening, or hire a gardener, I would not go to the extreme of removing the grass. If there room for a wooden bench on the front porch?