Hey! I'd suggest some Winterberry. They get rather tall but still look airy. My favorite feature is that when they loose their leaves in fall, you're left with bright red berries! It's like they glow. And the birds love it.

Thanks for the input! That's definitely something to consider.

I would put rhody, hydrangea, azalea, day lily, more hosta, stonecrop, fern, and some perennial flowers. Do you want easy no tending options, or do you enjoy working in the dirt. Makes a difference in selection. What a nice place, I'd love to plant a lot of color and texture there!

I definitely love working in the dirt. I want to choose a few foundation shrubs and do perennials, Hostas, and monkey grass down in front. I'm having a hard time choosing my shrubs! I've thought about lorapelatum, acuba, gardenia...

It would be good if you offered an updated pictures, since the tree is gone, as it would give a much different impression. Also, the picture should be wide enough to show how the area relates to the nearby trees at the right.

It seems premature to think about specific plants as anything but a vague hope until one decides what forms and sizes would appear best against the house. One thing to consider first is the cross slope against the front of the house. That look always makes a house look cheaper. The fact that one must walk downhill from the driveway and then climb a big flight of stairs adds a negative to the appearance and function. You could fix this with regrading and slight remodeling of stairs railing, which could probably eliminate three steps. A second-best approach if you don't want to fix the grade is to fake it by creating plant forms that compensate for the unappealing slope.

What types of plants would offer a good offset to this slope? Believe it or not, it's not nearly as sloped as it appears. I surely don't want the "boxed hedge" look and would prefer to make it look more airy, if that makes sense? I can't get a good picture right in front of the house because of a huge oak that's in front of the yard.

"it's not nearly as sloped as it appears...." The distance to ground from the right porch floor corner is double what it is at the left. If you were to fix it, it would look less spooky.

It's hard to imagine that grass grows well between the house and trees. Wouldn't it be better to eliminate it there?

I may try and build up the bed on the right side to make them a little more even so that I can plant in both of those areas. I am more interested in planting foundation shrubs than adding more grass.

My last submission had nothing to do with grass. It was about grading.

My apologies, I didn't even realize the steps were shortened until I took a second look. I just noticed the green where the current bed is on the left side.
It does look better that way but it's not an option for us at this time.

I see my last note missing ... forgot to push "submit." Oh well! Here's a suggestion for how you might divide up the area with plants. The shrubs you mentioned earlier seem too large to me. The aucuba might work around the corner at the side (end) of porch. Some of the perennials would work for some of the other areas and seem like they might help you toward the airy look you seek. In my view, the bed does not have enough depth to plant anything in front of anything else. It would be better as blocks of plants. It could be ajuga at the far left and ferns at the far right ... with some low groundcover beyond them connecting to the yard border. Daylilies ... barberry ... Japanese spiraea? I'm sure you can come up with some plants that will work.

If you decided to regrade in the future, you would not need to demolish a portion of the steps. You would bury those lower steps and remodel the rail. It would necessitate a new walk which, I'm sure, you would make wider and place farther away from the porch so as to make decent depth beds.

This post was edited by Yardvaark on Tue, Sep 9, 14 at 17:48

Thanks Yardvaark. This is fantastic. I love the color choices and the groupings. I guess my only other concern would be "winter interest" as I know most of the choices would dye back in the winter time. That was my only reason for mentioing the few shrubs I did. However, I do love this look..

In my mind the color choices mean little more than helping to differentiate one object (plant) from another. But if you like them, they can be inspiration for the plants you choose. Of course, reality will be better, even if trying to "match." For me, the barren twigs of shrubs during winter still have interest once they become dense enough.

I think these color choices are great! I will probably paint the house eventually but these colors will still work. Thanks again!