whats the house siding??

ken

I winter sowed Hypericum/St. John's wort and planted it either side of my front door. This year it's blooming and 4 ft. tall. The bees love it, it's very airy and sways when there's a breeze. I've never watered or pampered it in any way. I'm in southern New England.

Still under construction. The bed is along a foundation with vinyl above that. About a foot of the concrete is still showing. More soil is being delivered tomorrow.

I have some plants that need dividing next spring, such as Becky daisy, tall sedums, phlox. I already have a hydrangea hiding the composter.

What Mad Gallica said. My beds are at a minimum of 5'-6' and some much deeper. The ones I started at 4' are now deeper - I had to go back and widen them. You want at least a foot of space to get in close to the building for any maintenance and to allow the building to dry rather than being damp all the time. Also, there is a rain shadow created by the building itself, and since you said that this area isn't easy to water, you will find it difficult to get anything to grow there.

So if your bed is only 3' deep you have space for only one rather squashed row of plants which isn't as attractive as a deeper bed. Regardless, plan on running a hose there for the first year or hauling water by hand since pretty much anything benefits from water its first year. Planting this fall may make this less of a chore since they will have a chance to grow roots in warm soil, but with cooler air temperatures, so not as high a need for water as with spring plantings.

If you can make one spot in front of the blank wall 8' deep, plant Quickfire Hydrangea paniculata. Mine grows in all day sun 12+ hours midsummer with no supplemental water after the first couple of years, and it blooms from late June-Early July until frost, starting white for a month and moving through various shades of pink to a deep pink around Labor Day, which it holds for the rest of the fall, so a full 4 months of bloom in my garden. Mine after 8 years is about 7' tall, but is only adding height slowly at this point.

A few other tall plants with relatively small footprints that don't spread via roots are hollyhock (a biennial, so let it go to seed) and I have a tall, airy, lavender meadow rue (Thalictrum) blooming now which I no longer remember the name of. It also seeds some, but can be cut before the seeds ripen, or the seedlings are easily pulled. Both these grow for me in quite sunny spots that almost never get watered - maybe if we have a month without rain.

One more thing - if you are adding soil, make sure the bed still drains away from the building and the soil line is still a good distance down from siding. I wouldn't be planning to raise the bed height near the building.

at least the house wont need painting.. which is a maintenance issue with a shallow bed ...

ken

Tall Sedum, and ground cover type Sedum. and Fairy rose. Fairy rose is not demanding, no bug problems, or normal rose care. I think of it as a rose weed.. Can be cut to any size and blooms June until Frost.

Sunflowers. Echinacea Purpurea. Black--eyed susan. Milkweed. Liatris.

Man, Liatris HATES me!

I think I can add another foot or two along the back end of the bed, since I have that downspout extender sticking out there anyway. But I have only 11 foot in total along that side of the house. I plan to just put in a curving mulch path since this is not a high-traffic area.
I think keeping it simple with a slightly uneven row of peonies or various cultivars might be the way to go - perhaps with some sunflowers or cleome for later in the season and to keep the cottage garden look. I actually rather like the sunflower idea. As will my squirrels :)

3 ft peony (which is a fairly small one) + 1 ft space from the house = 4 ft bed.

I'd skip a mulch path in favor of a grass one, that coincidentally looks a lot like a grass side yard.