Perhaps if you look at your outdoor spaces as outdoor rooms, it may help you personalize and organize the areas. What I see in the photo is a small front yard divided in half, and a tree placed exactly in the center of the other half, within a little square of bed. I expect you would not do that with an interior room. A visitor will be compelled to race down the hallway to the front door, and probably not even notice the tree, since it is not part of a composition, a furniture grouping. You enter your living room to a welcoming composition of a furniture grouping, lamps, pictures on the wall, drapes (I hope) on the windows. You get the idea. Would you put a post lamp in the middle of an empty room? It would tend to diminish the size of the space and it's usefulness as a space. Would you put a carpet down the center of a room? -- only if you were creating two separate scenarios of equal size. You need some on-site advisers, whether they be landscape architects or interior designers, someone or more than one who will offer their experienced suggestions for you to consider, but not immediately act upon. You need to live with your new spaces and walk through their ideas for weeks, or months, before making a decision on how to proceed. Perhaps it would help you to read the thoughts of some international designers like Bunny Williams, with her book, On Garden Style, where you will get the feeling that the views of the outside rooms from within the house are as important as the views from the street. You will want to move the maple out of its central location, remove the central path, - and the conifers scare me. You really have a very small space up front here. Take a look in the park at the size of a mature conifer. They will occupy your yard and that of your neighbor, as they develop as nature intended. They are very beautiful, a work of art, but space-consuming. You may have room in the back yard, but be careful when blocking the magnificent views from within the house. Perhaps you will provide an entrance to your outdoor room over to the right, near your property line, with the tree, the lamp post, a small chair or bench, a bed of small plants that have beauty and fragrance throughout the seasons - a space you would like to sit in yourself, perhaps have coffee with the neighbor, or the kids hang out with a pal. Then have the walk work its way over toward the entrance area - not the door, but the welcoming area before the door, slow them down to enjoy the sequence, while providing a most pleasant view of this area from within. Make the plantings permanent, with no soil or mulch to show, after two years, as the groundcover plants mature and cover the beds. Keep all the annual plants in containers, to be stored away if empty, so the views of your spaces are not distracted by an open area in the bed where the annuals have departed, or an empty pot. Consider excluding your auto from your outdoor room, your welcoming area. You don't have room for a real screen, so just a suggestion, as a small hedge or plant bed to stop the eye before it gets to the drive. Perhaps the view beyond the drive is attractive, so all you need to filter from the view is the driveway pavement itself, as the car belongs in the garage, yes? Sometimes a little perimeter fence with a gate says welcome to my special space. In your case perhaps a darker color, not the typical white, which would be a high contrast to the house and not appropriate here, grabbing all the attention. What I have offered may be of no use to you, however, the intent of my words is to provoke you to analyze first, then plan. Consider alternatives from all viewpoints before deciding how to proceed, as these spaces and plants will be a part of your life for many years. Good luck to you. Continue the process at the tortoise pace, not the hare.

Hi Ida, I’m sure other Houzzers will offer up some suggestions :) I just wanted to share with you -my grandparents lived on a main road in Brisbane... two lanes inbound & two lanes outbound... it was heavy traffic most days so you can imagine the noise. Strange thing is... after living with my grandmother for 6 months, you don’t really notice the noise anymore... sort of like a non essential sound your ears don’t need to bother with listening out for anymore if that makes sense? One thing to bear in mind... the dirty black dust from heavy traffic, made the window sills & window screens in the front bedroom/loungeroom as black as tar which was a pain to keep clean. That said... they loved their home & lived there over 60 years :) congratulations on your purchase & I hope you can implement some beautiful hedges, gorgeous plants & timber screening for your front yard ... even if it’s not technically a noise barrier... the greenery will be beautiful :)

Your site is far too exposed for Maples. They are small trees that really need to be buffered from winds and too much sun by other plantings. They also need the soil constantly moist which will be nearly impossible on that slope. You really don't want to grow magnolias anywhere near the footings of a house. Have you seen how large a tree they are? Since you are in a temperate zone and like autumn foliage I can recommend a gingko tree. It will be right sized for your yard and give you that similar lighter than air look and autumn colour as maples but it's more hardy. Another option are silver birches. I would hedge the boundary for privacy and also to cut down winds to your garden which will dry out the grass and scorch it. With that slope you are going to need more rocks I think to prevent your topsoil from washing away in the first rain. It's really no use of us to provide you a list of random plants. What you need to do is put together a series of photo's of gardens you like the look of, then find plants to match that style. If you don't plan gardens then you end up with the ubiquitous suburban patch of grass and odd bushes look instead of a lovely garden.

The tree would be to replace the silver birch in the photo which doesn't provide much shade.