The sandbox can be moved

This was the yard many years before we bought it ( for a different perspective). Most of that was gone when we got it.

keep in mind.. foundation plants are planted to hide the foundation ... not ON the foundation ...

i also suggest that you plan to have 2 to 3 bare feet at the house ... which means.. if you plant something that could get 5 feet wide .. ergo 2.5 per side ... that you plant it 4 to 5 feet away from the house ... unless you want to be out there beating it back with a stick and saw every year ... if you plan properly.. you reduce your annual work load ...

as your beds are not very deep ... im thinking at best.. you have room for perennials.. and not really shrubs nor trees ... and if you want a impact shrub or tree at the corner.. you ought to be planning around 8 to 10 feet out .. on the diagonal ...

seems like you have plenty of yard to work with ... so plan it out properly ...

its easy to make plans.. when you can affirmatively state your goals.. your off to a good start by saying impact at corners.. but lets try for the next step ... a tree or a shrub.. or a shrub in tree form .... flowering?? ... it cant be too big or it will dwarf the house.. meaning.. look out of proportion .... do you care about berries to feed birds.. etc ... whittle down your initial thought ...

this MI boy has no clue about plants for your area ... so good luck with that ...

ken

ps: thank god the large tree leans away from the house .. or i would have told you to get rid of it since you are in storm country ....

That oak is leaning from the last storm. Thankfully the wind was blowing the trees away from our house.

I was afraid we needed deeper beds. They come out about 6’ diagonally now. Should I just come out about 2’ everywhere and keep the same shape on the longer side? The smaller bed may not be able to come out because it will block the gate. We’d like to keep as much yard as possible for The kids to play ball etc. The tape measure is marking 8’ here:

The smaller side is Almost to the walkway as is:

As far as tree or shrub: I think a big tree so close would be too much. Crepe myrtles are everywhere here. Maybe a dwarf version, but nothing bigger. I’m not concerned about berries. I‘d mostly just like it to look nicer and be something I can maintain. We still have to fix the front as well so I’d like to keep this simple.

Like this?

I agree with Ken that you don't have much room for shrubs. Annuals, perennials and bulbs would work great. I also like your idea of low, groundcover-type roses.

Don't feel pressured to have shrubs around the house. Often they are planted too close and get too big -- it looks like the house is wearing a green tutu. Plant something low, so it connects the house to the landscape but doesn't hide it.

Your windows are so low that I think I would not plant shrubs. Maybe just a bed of ground cover.

Another thought is that looking at your house I wonder what you see as you sit inside looking out to the yard. That is where I would plant things like roses.

The low windows aren't at the corners - follow the bed width with the plant heights. As in taller where wider and shorter where narrower. As for how far out from the house decide just how much room you need to have between the house and the plants in order to get between them for maintenance activities, and leave it at that - if you plant comparatively small shrubs in particular multiple feet out, with nothing between them and the house it's going to look silly.

And unfinished.

Since the house design on that back side at least is not uniformly symmetric do not plant identical pairs or groupings at each corner. Do plant evergreen plants at the corners and not something like roses that do not have enough meat on them to do the job.