Does the bed have to be rectangular? Can you carry it over to the curving walk? I would take a flexible hose and play around with different alignments to find a shape that will unify the path and bed.

It looks square because you kind of made it that way. Good advice above to soften the edge of the bed by using a garden hose to lay out a more relaxed, curving planting boundary. Also, your plants appear to be planted in rows. You might want to consider staggering and clustering some of the plants for a more natural look.

After rounding the corners, you can plant fluffy, billowing plants like daylilies or Walker's Low nepeta to soften the edges.

Connect it with a curved bed from the front to the side and also along the walk, all connected. You can add some stepping stones in a few Joey areas to get in for maintenance.

As others have posted the rectangular shape looks like it was just plopped down on the site and has no connection to anything. Would suggest reshaping the bed into a more organic form with curved edges. The plants in the bed seem to be equidistantly spaced. This isn't usually the way to space out plantings. Much better to start out with taller plants in the back near the house and gradually decrease other plants in size toward the front. A border of lirope would be nice to provide a demarcation between bed and lawn. Good luck!

in every post.. include location. big city name ...

is snow an issue.. and do you need somewhere to pile it ...

if not ... incorporate the curve of the sidewalk into the bed ..

dont fight it.. use is ..

what at the huge shrubs that were massacred between you and the new house??? ... depending what those are might impact the design.. or planning their ultimate replacement or some such .... make the whole front scape a 5 year plan/project.. dont break it into individual parts that might not end up working together ...

how about a pic of the whole front of the house. .. you are handicapping us by not presenting the whole facade ..

you should probably get a tree in the middle of the lawn out there .... in the next proper tree planting time .. again. if i knew where you were.. i might suggest when .. note section one at the link below

ken

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

Remove the black mulch. Use natural cypress mulch instead. It repels insects, bio-degrades well and looks great.

Lots of mulch is black that is not made of rubber. If a wood based mulch - or compost - it is perfectly fine and does not need to be replaced. btw, cypress mulch is very regional in its availability and is also an ecologically unsound product due to the harvesting of bald cypress trees from natural stands. It is even prohibited in some areas.

The mulch is the very least of your worries. It is the angularity of the bed, the lack of relationship with its surroundings and the awkward plant placement that is of concern.

Remove the black mulch. Use natural cypress mulch instead. It repels insects, bio-degrades well and looks great.

Your article refers to rubber mulch. No where does the OP state they have rubber mulch.

I’d curve this corner to help everything blend. It will also make it easier to mow.

Jinx posted the same idea, but it wasn’t showing.

Hi all - I added some additional info in the original post, as suggested by your responses. Thank you!! I know it's not great right now, but I keep getting excited to make it better. I added some little stepping stones and little things to start.

Everyone has to start somewhere! I've been in my house for 10 years and I'm always tweaking or changing things in my landscaping.

No to the stepping stones. They give you that same straight line that you are trying to get rid of. Do you even need stepping stones? You’ve got great advice here already: curve the edges of the bed, plant taller bushes in back, and don’t line everything else up-just stagger, cluster, etc.

Swoop the bed out on the right side to include the tree, and on the left side to curve into the walkway as pictured by others.

Remove the row of stepping stones. As @lkloes said, it just adds another angular element and it also isn't necessary (it leads to nowhere). The only place you actually need access to is the hose, so put a small curved path of stepping leading from the walkway to the hose.

The area under the tree should be mulch as well.