Where are you located and which direction does the house face?

the beds needs to be deepened.. beyond the walkway in front... to give a better balance of height to depth ... boy sometimes i wonder if i have been talking english my whole life... i hope you understand that .. lol .. [height to width ratio]

imo.. no on planters ...

you are having problems.. because you have no goal .. once we get you going on that ... the rest will fall in place ...

for me.. i start with the backbones .. usually called trees ... do you have any use for the lawn.. other than mowing it .. do you want trees out there ...

moving in across the lawn .... then we proceed to shrubs ... none of which will fit in those tiny beds.. and i suspect you learned that by what you ripped out.. how about a before pic.. and we can point out the mistakes .. that made you hate it ...

then do you want undulating beds.. or do you like the straight across .. just reinforcing the horizontals of the house ??? ... which i dont recommend ...

also.. walk around the neighborhood.. and just look at what others have done .. maybe snap a pic... etc ..

also.. how involved do you want to be with gardening ...

soooooo..... just on all that.. what do you want ????

nice primer on planting below .... and.. btw .. july/august is not a great planting time for most of the US ... just too hot .. so that gives you a month or two to plan.. build the beds.. and be ready for fall planting ... you can still buy things .. and hold them until better weather ...

that might all change when you tell us where you are ...

ken

https://sites.google.com/site/tnarboretum/Home/planting-a-tree-or-shrub

No liner!!! It won't stop weeds, it's bad for the soil and when it begins to degrade it's a real nightmare. Just use mulch and weed a little as necessary. And, yes, the beds are too shallow front to back.

Though we can't see the entire house and what's on either side, it appears that a small tree to the left corner in a bed pulled out from the house might work well.

Was just going to say “no weed barrier” they’re useless. Most weeds come from above anyway via birds. Use regular brown mulch please not the dyed garbage. Once you address some of ken’s questions, people can help you.

Also answer location and direction questions.

Can you show what flanks the house, using pictures that would overlap with the lead picture and from the same point of view?

So to answer some questions:

I am located in NY so we have 4 distinct seasons

I do not want to be overly involved in gardening since I’m a mom of 2 under 2, but I do want color and willing to some maintenance. This is going to be a passion that evolves as my kids grow.

I am not opposed to deepening the beds but it can only happen on the left side- the right has a walkway.

I do not want trees on the lawn

Here is a before picture of the last owners bushes she had

I'll take the answer to my last question as a "no" then.

My apologies Yaardvark I did not see your comment before I replied... there is the driveway to the right as seen in the picture above and to the left is the gate that leads to our backyard. It’s a functional 10 ft gate so I cannot plant in front of it

I am not opposed to deepening the beds but it can only happen on the left side- the right has a walkway.

==>>> i would put a bed on the outside of the walkway .. so you walk thru the garden to the door ... the cement guy should have put it further out ...

yep.. those are the HUGE conifers i was thinking you ripped out ... someone with no concept of future potential .. planted a few nice babes in there.. and then sheared them without mercy.. for decades .... after they quickly outgrew the bed ... lets try to avoid that mistake ...

contrary to what she who will not be named keeps telling me [lol] .. i will say .... NEVER ... use landscape fabric ... it interferes with proper watering as it gets clogged ... and as noted ... most weed seed is air borne ... either wind.. or those rats with wings .. so minutes after it is installed.. weed seed is accumulating on top .. and once they root thru .. you cant pull them up due to the fabric ... just dont use it ...

ken

Regardless off what the things are, and whether or not they "can be planted in front of" anyone designing landscape or give suggestions for same, needs to see the surroundings/backdrops of the house.

Thanks Ken, I like the idea of flowers on the walkway. The woman that lived here before us planted those and they were here for 20+ years and a nightmare to pull out! **We’re going to skip the liner ** thanks for the recommendation. YAARDVARK I will take pictures shortly

ideas:

I love the design, thank you! We have Inground sprinklers, I don’t know If deepening the bed on the left is possible since it’ll run into the sprinkler head.

Sprinkler heads can be moved.

I’ll have to take a look to see exactly where it is. I love the idea of what you did. Thank you.

Some option

Since you don't want to spend much time on it make sure any flowering plants you use do not require dead heading.

The undulating flower bed designs are great, because they soften the otherwise harsh square lines of the house. Also, the smaller species of evergreen are not as likely to growth up past the windows and provide cover for potential burglars.

The squiggly beds are not attractive and do nothing to enhance the house.

your cute cottage deserves window boxes full of bright and colorful flowers

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I like the flower boxes, I’m not sure how they would look on our houE

We can only do an extended bed on the left side- the right has a walkway

IMO your house is the perfect style for planter boxes, you have great windows for them and they would add dimension to the front. I unfortunately do not have the tools to provide a mock up, but maybe someone else could.

Thanks Theresa, I was able to put them in a photo. They do look very nice! Thanks for the suggestion