You may want to think twice about a raised bed in a foundation. The soil grade in a foundation should always be highest at the foundation and gradually taper away from the house. If you raise the soil level further away, you will create low spots where water will collect and can make its way to your basement.

However, I don't see what that has to do with your plan to have a stone gravel path against the house. I wouldn't call it a path so much as a border. I have such a border and it is great. I have 1" round stones in my front foundation and 3/4" in back. I also have an unusually deep roof eaves, so I made sure all my plants are beyond the reach of the roof, so that they get all the rainwater possible.

As far as plants, you may want to consider layers to add a polished look. Some taller plants like Pieris, Hollies (Blue Princess is a good one) in the rear and shorter plants, such as azalea, hosta, daylilies in front.

Many more possibilities, but others will chime in with plenty of ideas.

Sorry to hear that your poor old Rhodies did not survive. :(

Agree with Wendy - water should always be diverted away from the foundation.

I do not understand the popular landscape aesthetic that dictates people plant shrubs and trees against their foundation and houses. Supposedly this hides the "ugly" concrete foundation or whatever, but it's terrible for the integrity of the structure. The plants are cute and small when they're planted, but eventually, after 20 or 40 years, they become large mature specimens that attempt to swallow the house. Vegetation near the house is very bad - it harbors moisture, encourages rot and mildew, and enables insect and rodent pests. Not to mention, the homeowner is locked into mortal pruning combat with the shrubbery, lol!

There are a few large shrubs still growing near the perimeter of my house, however I have removed most of it. The previous owner allowed vegetation to grow close, and almost every corner board around the house was rotted and needed to be replaced.

I have planted only dwarf shrubbery, perennials and bulbs near the foundation.

Azaleas have the same cultural requirements as rhodies so they should do fine. Any of the evergreen varieties would stay within your size restriction and you can pick a bloom color that goes well with your house. Keep in mind that not all rhodies grow into giants. You probably had one of the old ironclad varieties. The Yak rhodies stay small. The PJM rhododendrons stay roughly in your size range. They take pruning well so they are easily kept in bounds if they start to get out of hand. Hollies will do well. So will Yews. Hydrangeas are another possibility. So are the shrub dogwoods. Several viburnums will also fit the bill.

Thanks all!

To clarify, *we* didn't put them next to the foundation, one of the previous owners did. We ripped them out because they were just *way* too close to the house, and were growing like crazy. When we put plants back in, we want to fix it so that the "planter box" is moved away from the house (level with the front of the steps) by about 3-4 feet, and cover that "path" with gravel. This will provide a nice "walkway" to get behind the plants/bushes so we can access the water, and maybe store some other stuff back there. It'll also prevent the stuff from being up against the house, and allow some light to come in through the basement. So we aren't looking to put anything up against the house or foundation but gravel - that's the whole reason we ripped the other stuff out, because it *was* right up against the foundation. (now it's just dirt and weeds - I'm sure our neighbors love us right now! LOL!) We also want a "box" because the soil here is really, really sandy, and I think we could get a better soil mixture by putting them in a box.

And yes, I am sad they didn't survive the move. They *were* really, really pretty. We had several colors too - red, white, purple, and pink. (the one that was growing up over the roof was vibrantly purple, and bloomed for 2 weeks straight. It was really pretty, but wow, it was literally over the roof and up against the house.)

Thanks for the suggestions on what plants we *can* grow there. I don't mind getting rhododendrons again, I just didn't want any that would grow so HUGE like the others did - so good to know they make some that don't. I'll definitely look into those. And it's funny you should mention evergreens - when we ripped out the rhododendrons, we actually found about 5 small evergreen bushes. Apparently when they planted the rhododendrons, they alternated them with these little shrubs. We didn't even know they were there, they were so covered over by the rhododendrons! (unfortunately, I think this also killed them - they were in *terrible* shape from the lack of light, so we removed those, too.) Clean slate, I guess!

Thanks so much! I appreciate it :)

If you like rhododendrons, just not huge ones, there are small-statured ones. I agree with tree oracle that many of the Yak rhododendrons(like Yaku prince & Yaku princess) will stay small, but in my experience many of the PJM rhodies will get bigger than your 4-5 feet tall. If you can find 'Checkmate', one of the PJM series, mine has stayed at about 3 feet for probably 6 or more years, and I don't expect it will get much larger. You can look on the Rhododendron Society's database search page to look for others as well since one of the attributes you can search for is height.

Hydrangeas will do well in that amount of sun, and many types prefer some shade. My Annabelle stays at about 4 or maybe 5 feet, though it can be floppy in the rain and it does spread through suckering. My 'Endless Summer' has stayed about 4 feet tall, but doesn't sucker. Some other shorter hydrangeas include Little Lamb, Little Lime, and the Cityline series.

I have a couple of spirea that get about 5 hours of sun while still blooming and growing well. I'm not sure if all spireas will do as well in part shade, but these look fine. I'll see if I can find the variety name, but there are lots of spirea that stay short, some with gold or variegated leaves.

In half shade I also have a Daphne x transatlantica 'Summer Ice' which is long-blooming and has delicately variegated leaves, but is never a bold showstopper, just a lovely plant IMO. Mine hasn't gotten much bigger than 3 feet in several years, but that may be due to it being at the northern edge of its range. I'd check its ultimate height for your area.

Here is a link that might be useful: Rododendron database search

doodlebee - I'm with terrene in that I don't like shrubs in front of my house. I'm lucky in that I only have 12-18" of foundation showing below the bricks. So I don't feel like I have something "unsightly" to hide.

I use heliotrope and lillies at the back of my gardens to give the garden height. Kind of in the way people plant the shrubs to give height. As you can see in the attached photos, I use heliotrope on both sides of the window - it gets about 5' high. Then I use the lillies in front of the window - these one get 3-4 feet high. I plant shorter perennials in the front.

Granted both of these die back in winter, so I don't have much for visual interest in the winter. But since this garden is between my front walk way and the house, it usually get piled with snow in the winter

Oops - I forgot to add my photo