What is the reason for a bed here? To hide the path, transisiton into the woods, a vigenette from a window or patio?

Forest are my favorite type of landscape, but what has always got me is how to work with the scale of the background. The trees in the bed add considerable height and interest to the bed area. On the scale of the bed plantings, the BB left is balanced by the ostrich fern? on the right, which helps to establish a lower scale in comparison to the forested area. The silhouette formed by the plantings, in the middle region looks like a weak link in the composition.

My neighborhood is still under construction and eventually there will be a house behind me. This area was all forest undergrowth at the beginning of the summer so it was a completely blank slate, save a few mature trees.

There will be screening plant in the bare bed behind the island as well as a shade garden. The island, as well as the path, are there mainly to add a more dimension and depth to the area.

The island is centered on my back door and large deck and the "depression" in the middle is there to allow for a port to see the shade garden from the deck and break up the plantings. I am not a fan of the cottage garden look and felt this gave me a little more delineation between plants.

More comments?

Presumably the tulip tree on the left will fill in over time, in response to the clearing. The bare trunk on the right is not particularly interesting and does not relate to the existing low planting which is arranged so as to give it a wide berth, allowing it to dominate visually. It would be better to plan and install a planting that flowed up to the trunk visually by grading up in height as the trunk is approached. A clinging climber (vining plant) could even be planted to grow up the trunk and furnish it.

The location and shape of this part of the bed might indicate it would be best furnished primarily with evergreen shrubs, preferably broad-leaved, with the non-woody plants (and accompanying deciduous shrubs) featured elsewhere, in a more suitable part of the layout.

See the inexpensive and excellent Grant, GARDEN DESIGN ILLUSTRATED (Timber Press) for more on planning and planting beds and borders.