I don't see how you can make one in your front yard without a fairly substantial investment in earthmoving and terracing and then it would probably be a not very effective rain garden. Rain gardens are for depressions where water collects. In addition to being a welcoming feature, the space could serve as an outdoor entertaining space during the warm months of the year. A pretty bird bath and two or three lawn chairs wth a small table would look nice in the grassy section in front of the house. Some flower boxes may look nice under the windows, in addition to the hanging plant to the left of the quadruple window. i also would suggest you add a matching triple window above the door so that it will match the upper window on the left. If you do relocate the hanging plants and add sconces, you may want to have large potted plants to flank the front door.
I believe the hanging plants are OK, but you may want to relocate them if and when you add a pair of exterior wall sconces to flank the front door and perhaps even the large front window. Your house may need some shade, so I would suggest you move the small tree to the corner where you have what appears to be a stepladder or trellis in your first photo. I like Carolyn Choi's idea of painting the entire house cream with brown trim. Luckily it looks like you have a nice sized yard to accommodate. Think about keeping it low maintenance, nice shaped beds that are easy to mow and trim with nice radiuses, easy to access with a piece of equipment if you need a repair. I also like to plan to have a nice large area for a tent or bounce house for bigger family events, so a 30 x 30' space is a good size to start with and keep large trees with spreading branching even farther away they don't encroach. I don't think these angles best show the area where you'll want to concentrate. Framed and enhanced by nice plantings and colorful pots as your accessories and it will draw you outside to enjoy. You’ll also have your furniture, fire pit and lighting, a carpet of sod. The ceiling is defined by the shade structure (or tree canopy), the walls by the fence or plants. Your outdoor room should have many elements an indoor room has.
#Houzz forums conifer garden windows
Then create an outdoor room that looks great while you’re looking out from the windows as well as serves your needs poolside. Have you thought about in a high traffic area of putting some synthetic turf and tying it into a putting green? Look at the great ideas on the site and think about what you’re going to be looking at the most when you’re in the house. If there are any other structures, future electrical for more lights or an eventual outdoor kitchen or irrigation, put in those services and sleeves underneath walkways.
#Houzz forums conifer garden install
Just have them prep the beds and use mulch where you eventually want to do smaller planting that you can install yourself if you want. Move in all the bigger landscape trees and stuff you can and while you have the company or labor lined up to install the sod. Now that the project is bare dirt, it's better to do the most major additions now before you restore with sod. I'm not that familiar with which plants work best in Alabama but I think trees give the biggest bang for the buck. There are a lot of good suggestions here. if you use something with that style, you might want to change out your light pole to something a little more contemporary so it'll match.