Herb Garden?

I pretty much love my house.  The inside is all organized to cater to my varying wants and needs.  My husband says the only thing in the house that's his is the couch!  And don't get me wrong, I love my little back garden and I'm really pleased with how we re-landscaped the front of the house.

There's just one thing:  herbs.  They need sun.  I don't have enough sun in the front or in the back to grow herbs. And I need them.  I HATE paying $2.50 for a little box of pitiful basil.  And since I cook a lot, I use a lot of fresh herbs.  I tried growing them in the garden at my son's house, but it's just not convenient (I'm so spoiled!)  So I had the idea of removing some plants along my driveway and putting in an herb garden.  I watched the sun yesterday and - total shade - my house gets in the way.  So I went to the other side of the house, the south side:

The driveway that you see belongs to my neighbor and good friend, Dotsie.  I checked with her and she's ok with removing some plants and grass and putting in a small herb garden, and maybe some tomatoes?  Her only request was to keep the gardenias there in the middle as they love this location.

As I said, this is a southern exposure and gets full sun.  Starting on the right side, there are two hollies, the gardenia, something I don't know, a dogwood, and what looks like a laurel.  I plan to keep the front holly, remove the next one, keep the gardenia, and remove the mystery shrub.  I may keep the laurel as it helps hide that access door to my crawlspace.  The big question:  should I remove the dogwood?  It was a volunteer, according to Dotsie, and it's really too close to the house, but it's so pretty.  And I don't think it would shade the sun-loving plants too much.  So what to do?

The resulting bed will be roughly 8 feet deep by 12 feet wide.  I'm open to suggestions regarding design and herb selection!  Please let me know what you think, either by commenting here or on Facebook.

Going and Coming - the Reveal

Remember how I posted that I was redoing some of my landscaping?  Well, it's finished now (for the time being!)  Here are some before and after photos.

Front - before

Front - after

South side - before

South side - after

North side - before

North side - after

You can't see them, but behind the azaleas on either side are Nikko Blue hydrangeas which I hope will peek over the tops of the azaleas next summer.

Back garden - before

Back garden - after

And do you remember my yearning for this trellis?  Thanks to my handy-dandy sons and daughter-in-law and girlfriend:

My Mother's Day trellis!

I made sure to leave space for future purchases - like maybe in Jackson this Thursday when I go to Summer Celebration!

Going, Coming, and a Question

First, the bad news about my 20+ year old Japanese Maple:

It's a fungus

It succumbed to a fungus, literally overnight.  I'm so sad.

But I had already planned to redo another section of that garden:

So I'll just include the Japanese Maple section in the redo.  In the section above, we'll remove the spirea and replace them with hydrangeas and loropetalums.  I'm getting a variety called 'Suzanne'!

Also going and coming will be plants in the front of my house.  This will be a major redo. We've lived here almost 13 years and have never done anything to speak of in the front, other than trimming the maples there.  Everything has gotten HUGE and I think it overwhelms the house.

Overall view of the front

South side of front

The liriope will be extended in a curve in front of the tree and over to the side of the house.

Center

We're planning to remove the large hollies and azaleas right by the front door.  There are also Japanese hollies under the bay windows, behind the small azaleas, that will be replaced.   I'll share the replacements after they're done!
         

North side of front

The liriope on this side will be extended to the side as well.  We're also going to try tree-forming the large hollies on either side of the house.  

Isn't that the nature of gardening - going and coming?

Now for the question.  Can anyone recommend a weed-eater that is easy to load the string into and it doesn't constantly jam?   Grrr.  I have an Echo and I like the way it's easy for me to start.  It's a little too heavy, but I don't do a lot at one time, mainly because I'm constantly stopping to UNJAM THE STRING.  Please help if you can.