Question
The landscape of the front of my house looks so naked (typical of new subdivision houses).  Please see the picture on my personal web page http://www.judyrestore.com/landscape/landscape.html
The reasons why I would like to change the front landscape are the followings:
1.   I love forest and woods, so like houses surrounded by big tress that create canopies.
2.   I have tried so hard for two years ever since I bought the house to condition the worst clay soil by adding organic matters and fertilizers and pulling weeds.  I think that those weed seeds have been embedded in the Bermuda sods already when the builder put them on, besides the worst clay soil I have (the exposed ground next to my house does not even grow weeds much).  I am tired of being a full time weeder, while seeing weeds still occupy 95% of lawn.  I am out of patience to see how much the lawn will be improving.  It is not getting better at all, but weeds multiply too much faster than I can handle.  If I plant trees, the lawn size can be reduced.
I am going to move the two October Maples in the center bed to somewhere else, because they are too close together.  I will make the bed a little bigger than it is now.
I live in zone 7 in Georgia.  During the past two years, we had drought problem.  I don抰 know about the trees and shrubs, but the flowering plants I chose here are for rock garden.  They are supposed to be water wise plants.  I don抰 plan to install any irrigation system.  Hopefully adding more trees and shrubs reduce the percentage of watering on the lawn.  Also, for this landscape design, I prefer just adding trees and plants only, without adding other features.  Would you please look at my landscape design and give it a critique.  This is my first time designing landscape.  I am not sure if it is ok, or it will be worse than now.  We always have to consider the possibility of selling the property in the future.  I don抰 want to alter the current landscape that would results in less value of the house. Please see the pictures of the plan and its 3D rendering  (The trees in pencil marks are already planted.  The colored trees and plants are the ones in my design for this fall project)
1.    Do you think that the lining up of the trees on both sides is ok? If not, what can I do; the lots are so straight?  
2.   What about the placements of the beds?  Do you think that I should extend the small kidney shaped bed along the walking path towards the entrance door and connect the straight bed in front of the window?  And change the kidney shaped bed to mimic the walking path along with it?  
3.   Should I plant different heights of the trees randomly along both sides of the lot or follow a pattern from high to low?  
4.   Do you think that it will look better to have the left side tree bed ENTIRELY covered with mulch?  I don抰 like the look of each tree having a circular shape of mulch.  Also, it would be difficult to mow the lawn if I keep just little of it around the trees.
5.   What about the trees and plants choices?  Are they ok?
6.   Are the spaces on both sides of the house too small to plant trees?
7.   Is the single Weeping Willow tree ok on the left side of the house?  Should I mulch the entire space?  Again, I don抰 like the circular shape of mulch.  If I create an irregular shape of bed for this tree, it would be again hard to mow the lawn around it.

The above is just a rough idea.  Any extra comments or suggestions will be more than welcome.  Thank you very much in advance  

Answer
Hello, the design looks fine to me but could be lacking evergreen structure. The design should have a strong evergreen structure that forms the aesthetic base for the plan and holds the design together- it also creates interest in the winter months

It is extremely important to remove the leaves that fall from the large tree canopies, as these will kill off the grass. Place as much bark mulch and other organic matter around the trees and shrubs but the ground has to be clear of weeds before putting the mulcch down, otherwise the weeds will actually benefit from the presence of the mulch!

Consider spraying off the lawn area with glyphosate and starting again, as it sounds like the builder didn't do this before putting the sods down- causing the weed problem from the very start!Lawns are not 'natural' occurences and therefore un-natural processes to bring them into being- including spraying herbicides... unfortunately!

Good luck!

Jonathan www.ecologicagardens.com