Help Wanted

Tomorrow, we tackle the yard.
I've been trying to get a head start by pruning some of the roses... (yes, I know that bush on the right is not a rose bush)

It maybe not look like I've done much, but they were actually taller than me before I started hacking away.

the clippings just from the first two rose bushes in the front yard...
right at the feet of these desperately overgrown trees with all the dead leaves piled on the ground around them...
It's a great house on a great lot, but every plant here is either overgrown:
(an arborvitae on the side of our carport)

(more roses, outside the dining room window)
(another arborvitae, on the other side of the house)
(rhododendron, also outside the dining room window)
(hedges taller than the house)
or they're dead:
(we think someone may have sprayed some with poison because... I've never seen plants as black as some of these)
(beautiful tree surrounded by gross dead shrubs)
(pretty bad, right?)
or, I just plain don't know what they are or what I'm supposed to do with them:
(this one especially has me interested... what is it?)
and then there's the lawn. We need more grass and less... weeds & bare patches.

Our loan shining star for the moment is this planter my mother-in-law gave me as a housewarming gift.

We bought a lawn mower today and tomorrow morning we're heading out for a new wheel barrow among other lawn care necessities so we can really get to work. I'm excited for the results.