Extending driveway to a semi-circular driveway

by Mary
(Bethesda, MD)

I have a sloped front yard with a driveway leading to a 2-car garage. The garage is in the front of the house to the left as you face the house. I'm thinking of extending the driveway to form a half-circular driveway but I face the following challenges:

1. I have two plant beds in the front yard that were installed by the previous owners of the house.

2. I have three tall mature trees on the 1st bed closer to the main road leading to the driveway.

3. I have retaining walls from the driveway leading to the front door. The retaining wall surrounds the front door so it won't be easy to access the front door from the half-circle driveway, should I install it.

Do you have suggestions as to how to make the semi-circle driveway work without getting rid of the retaining wall surrounding the areas on the front door and the tall trees?

I would appreciate your suggestions. Thank you.

Dear Mary,

It's hard to see from the pictures how a circular driveway may fit in your front yard. It would be helpful to see a picture of the entire front of the house, not just the planting beds. In general, when you are doing a driveway, I wouldn't work around any plant that can be moved. Your small tree would be expensive to move and obviously you don't want to remove the large, established trees. The circle needs to be a size that is functional and lines up at good points with the house, usually accenting the front door. You would need to add steps through or over the retaining wall in order to get to the level of the front door.

I hope this information helps some. Thanks for your submission and send another picture if you want.

Nancy