The weeds are coming up where the mulch thinned out. So, it's time to replace the mulch. Plant selection would be based on size of plant, characteristics of soil and exposure. Local outlets will have plenty of suitable plants during main planting season there. Maybe take out the oleander if it is too vigorous and replant bed with other, slower growing and more compact broadleaf evergreen shrubs. Lower ones beneath the window, taller ones against the walls - but nothing likely to get more than 1 1/2 times taller than the bed is wide (deep) anytime soon. Maybe some dwarf azaleas or box, and so on. Use a predominance of small-leaved ones like those so the planting doesn't get too chunky.

The real question is: what do you want to do with this?

If you use this walkway everyday, do you want small fragrant flowers or small non-fragrant flowers? There are a ton of options that you have. Maybe as a point of reference, go to a local bookstore or library and grab a cup of coffee and look through as many books and magazines you can to get ideas. Then use what you like.

But I do agree with bboy, the mulch needs replacing, and the shrub should go and taller ones against the wall and smaller ones in front and around them.

Good luck and have fun!

I agree the oleander should go - at least out of that space which is too small for the plant's potential, and, at best, to somewhere else on your property. Giving it a severe and slanted buzz cut every year to keep it from growing over the window will never enhance its appearance.

Had to look up the unfamiliar to me Mexican Petunias. Quite adaptable in bright growing conditions. The quantity of bloom is related to the amount of light the plant receives. The more direct sunlight the more flowers with fewer flowers appearing when overcast or when grown in more shade.

Mexican Petunia is listed as a Category I invasive by Floridata for all of Florida and other mild climate regions. It's a rampant wetland invader.

The Gumpo Azalea is a spreading evergreen shrub, 2 feet high and 3 feet wide. The leaves are of the typical azalea type, but smaller. Saw a lot of those in use in Maryland for tight or limited space situations. Come in white, pink, and red. Might be something to consider since, after blooming, they can be pruned, a wayward branch cut back etc. to easily keep them in bounds.

And if the space you have is only 2-3' deep, many bushes, shrubs, etc. will grow wide as they grow tall encroaching on the walkway and the garage brick. A trip to a good local garden center with a diagram of your space would get you some good recommendations as to appropriate perennial plant material. But if you're leaning toward annuals for constant all season bloom, or to be able to change the scheme around every season, the selection available to you for both shady and sunny conditions will be large.

great advice. There is no mulch on the left side of the oleander. The sticks are the left over petunias and the green are weeds (except for a small part that are irises). When I got here, the oleander was almost as tall as the window top. I agree, it is planted too close to the window. It freaks me out when it blows in the wind and I can see it through the window. I keep thinking it is a person. It has multiple trunks (I'm guessing that means it has been cut back before). I'm thinking that I don't want shrubs in this bed, mainly as they can get wide and this isn't a wide bed (only 3 feet or so). Although I do like azaleas and gardenias.

I'm sure that the petunias are invasive. That is what I've heard from other people, and I've seen what they were doing here. The roots were growing on the sidewalk. I gave about 20 something walmart bags full of them away, and I still have some left.

We do use the sidewalk everyday. I have been to the library and checked out many, many books. Some even on just design. It is just confusing. I'm not even really sure what I want (hense the asking for advice). I like the look of a cottage garden, but don't know that I can do it. I don't like stuff "touching". Try as I might not to, I always end up putting stuff in order and rows. I'm thinking that I want pretty and pretty smelling as it is the front of the house and I'll walk by it everyday. The other side of the front door is another disaster story for another day or year.
Thanks for all your advice.

Hi Alley, I love your brick so IMO make that the focal point and plant low hosts or similiar to soften the line where the house meets the soil. Then maybe a Clematis in the sunny spot. I would hop over the walkway and plant there where there is room instead of letting the narrow space between the house and walk totally dictate your plantings. Widing the walk with brick edging might be interesting. Builders always make walks to close to house and too narrow. From your pictures, I keep wanting to see a small clump type tree on the outside of the walk to soften the house lines and to give some depth. The walk would look more a part of the landscape if it was included in it. Just some thoughts. I hope I was helpful. Good luck.
Ally

I've been struggling with similar narrow beds against fences and buildings all over my property for years, and have observed that most deciduous shrubs and most perennials will reach out from the wall over the sidewalk trying to get into the light - this has been true in even a south-facing bed against the house.

Plants that behave best in a narrow bed are indeed, as BBoy suggests, the evergreens - box and rhodo, and conifers. You can keep those clipped into bounds more easily and the growth they put out will be upright. Hydrangeas and such are just impossible in such a setting.

If this is indeed north-facing, then yews, hemlock, thuja, thujopsis, and a few other conifers will work, and box, ilex (non-prickly hollies), maybe euonymus?, and rhodos will work well. On the ground, ferns and hostas should more or less grow where you plant them instead of trying to move onto the sidewalk. Hellebores should also do OK... study shade gardening; you'll find lots of plants that will work quite well.

However, some perennials with a creeping habit will probably grow toward the sidewalk as your petunias have done - your petunias may be invasive (and that being the case I'd be destroying them, not giving them away), but the way they were growing was a symptom of going hunting for light.

Such a mostly evergreen planting will give you a somewhat formal look, depending on how you prune, but I think that will suit the brick, and it can blend with a looser look out further into the yard. But the bottom line is that honestly, any other plant selection will drive you crazy.

Incidentally, the option of tearing up this sidewalk and putting in a nicer, wider one further from the building should perhaps be considered now, as opposed to after trying to garden up this little strip. I've now moved or widened most of these frustrating beds - unfortunately it hasn't proved possible in every case.

KarinL

Dwarfer growth habits prevalent among more recent introductions, fully stocked outlets should have plenty of dwarf and compact forms. Even the choice of strains of comparatively small flowering annuals is dominated by dwarfness. Almost no non-dwarf annual impatiens may have been offered for years.

I'm going to second karin's suggestion to consider removing and replacing the walkway. Somehow when we think about improving an existing landscape, we tend to focus only on possible plantings when a spatial reconfiguration will have enormously greater impact. Relocating and enlarging a front walkway to provide a more gracious and welcoming entry to your home will have a huge impact on curb appeal and allow for much greater design flexibility. Even if this is a secondary walkway (which it appears to be), I'd consider redoing it. It IS a project you can undertake yourself with reasonable effort and expense.

Just because certain conditions exist in a landscape - like the walkway or a large tree or shrub - that does not mean you are obligated to maintain them as is. In this planning stage, the only element that is controlling you is your creativity. Everything can be changed.

I did not think of the walkway being removed, but that is an option. Personally, I think it is the way to go. After breaking it up(rent a jack hammer), move the concrete to another part of the yard, maybe use it elsewhere in the yard, maybe recycling it as a raised bed, but definitely recycle it rather than throwing it out. Put down a nice curved walkway, which in turn will increase the appeal and appearance of the beds.

Straight beds can be boring, unless you are going for a formal garden. But a curved bed can greatly enhance the planting possibilities.

For example, you could put in a shrub or dwarf tree (check your local garden center) at the widest point from the walkway to the house and fill in with small flowers. Maybe even a water feature down the line?

Good luck, you have a lot of possibility.

It might be an improvement to change the walk. However, since the purpose of this walk is to get people from point A to point B, if the new one doesn't succeed at that task, it won't be an improvement. Walks tend to run straight because people tend to walk straight toward their goal unless there is a reason to go otherwise.

In the south it is quite common to solve this type of planting problem by espaliering free standing Camellia sasanqua tightly against the wall. Suggest planting the white blooming type centered on each wall either side of the window, planted tight to the brick. It is very easy to keep the branches trimmed and trained against the wall. I would allow lower branches to extend under the window. This approach leaves you with a planting bed beneath suitable for hostas or variegated liriope or whatever you choose to grow there. My eye wants to restrict the plant/leaf color combo to green and white.

Oooh Nandina~You paint a pretty picture! What about adding some black liriope (Ophiopogon planiscapus 'Nigrescens') to pick up the black in the brick, and using a fragrant, white flowering hosta, like Hosta plataginea 'Aphrodite' with that Camellia? A large nursery with a good plant selection should be able to help you plan this out using these pictures and actual measurements of the bed. If you widen the bed (ie move the walk) later on, these plants will all like the shade of the bigger shrub or tree you plant in it.

Hi Alley,
I'm not a designer, just a gardenblogger - but your photo triggered a few thoughts: With your wish for fragrance, annual color and things not touching each other, have you ever considered putting two of those tall, jar-shaped containers in this bed, toward the two ends, with a low group or hedge of some evergreen like the ones already mentioned centered under the window? When you brush past this area several times a day, the rounded shapes won't stick out into your path, but the pots will raise any fragrant plants up higher so you could catch the scent. I think your soil is more alkaline, right? With containers you could control the soil mix and make it more acidic.

If your winters get cold enough to crack terra cotta or the big ceramic planters, there are some fiberglass ones that are less money but still look pretty good. Good luck with whatever you end up doing.

Annie at the Transplantable Rose

I donÂt really see any mulch there  just what looks to be compacted soil  I think that has to be addressed before you go ahead with your planting. IÂd remove whatever plants youÂre taking out (plus the weeds), first. Then, IÂd get a garden fork (the kind you turn compost with) and stick it in the soil (tine-deep) at intervals and move the fork back and forth to loosen up the soil a bit. IÂd also add organic matter  eg. compost, etc. Let it settle. Then IÂd put my plants in.