Let's see a picture of the entire house, please.

here’s an image of the whole house, the driveway is long and hard to fit it in the picture. leaning towards perennials instead of annuals

here’s a shot looking down from above

I would not put a narrow bed alongside the long walk to the porch. It seems to accentuate the long walk. I'd put a much wider bed in front of the right side of the house, extending to the upper part of the walk. Also, none of the existing small shrubs is helping at all, certainly not at the start of the walk. I'd use a low groundcover for most of the bed, extending under the very low windows, and then something larger at the far right that will draw the eye. As it is, the bed curves the wrong way. Deepen it front to back in front of those low windows and end it at some point along the walk. One large shrub/small tree should replace the several shrubs that are in the existing loop bed.

I can understand why they put the shrubs where they did. I also see what looks like a dog run.

I wouldn't hesitate to plant along that pathway. In z4 and with a northern exposure, I'd go with shade-loving perennials like astilbe, hosta, bleeding heart, primrose, heuchera.... all different colors and textures and sizes/heights. For annuals, you can never go wrong with impatiens for adding pink/white/orange in a setting like that. For baby blues, maybe ageratum.

Put in some tiarella, bleeding heart, Canadian columbine, astilbe and woodland phlox. All should do okay in Z4.

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You have most likely planted by now…but just in case….yes a corner flowering small tree ,set at least 12 feet away from the house. Suggest a Kousa Dogwood. Then forward of your roof drip line.. you could place either 3 holly shrubs (1 male 2 female). Space them apart. They have shiny dark leaves and then have red berries in the fall season. In front and in between the hollies, plant 2 or 3 white Bobo Hydrangea ( a newer small very pretty, fluffy (!) white hydrangea. If you want an even more manicured look., you could plant boxwood shrubs instead of the hollies. I would plant a nice groundcover around the base of the dogwood tree. These plants are all zone 4-5 to zone 7. I like planting dwarf boxwood down your walkway and on the outside of that line scatter a few flowering small perennials . Just some thoughts!

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thank you all for the helpful ideas!! this will give me a good start on what to do. thanks again!

If you take your pictures and a rough drawing to your local nursery, they can help you with a plan and give you some good insight into what will thrive in your area. Kousa dogwood is a Zone 5….Traditional Hollies (ilex x merveae ) are Zone 5….the Bobo Hydrangea (hydrangea paniculata ‘Bobo’) is good to Zone 3. Most boxwoods are Zone 6 and the few cultivars that grow in Zone 4 probably won’t give you the look you’re going for if you like formal boxwood hedges. Plus, boxwood can have an “eau de cat P” which you might not want someone to get hit with as they approach your front door. Pay close attention to the spacing and ultimate size of your shrubs…plants in their nursery pots are like newborn babies…so tiny and innocent…then the next thing you know, you’re tripping over giant, smelly sneakers in your front hall! Do you have deer? Because that adds another whole level of what not to grow! I like to ground a bed with small shrubs and trees, and then use perennials and annuals to fill in the spaces while waiting for the shrubs to grow.
You’ll know if you really enjoy flower gardening by the time the shrubs come into their own.

I agree with the idea of adding an understory dogwood or other flowering tree like redbud. I also agree with some of the shrubs, like hydrangea. As the years pass, I have planted more perennials and put annuals in just a tall, colorful ceramic pot for my porch, which also brings much needed color. Since you have a smaller porch, I would put the large pot at the inside corner next to the porch and closer to the house. I have also slowly replaced my boxwood shrubs with other perennials that do not require much pruning, such as creeping juniper. I use groundcover which is slowly taking over the small rocks in my landscaping and it takes the weed maintenance away. I would suggest a couple large boulders for symmetry and balance.

I like many of the comments already made. The front of our house is north facing. We hired a nursery to assist us with landscaping about 5 years ago and have been happy with the results. One of the perennial flowers suggested to us was to plant coral bells. We did so and picked coral bells with the deep maroon leaves. They are beautiful, easy to care for and I love them.

Consider yourself lucky to have a blank slate to start with. Native plants include dogwoods, perennials, groundcovers. Everything you need. Plus you get butterflies and bees. Google Benjamin Vogt--you will find explicit instructions down to layouts to get you started. He is a god of native plantings. Help our planet!

Natives are the way to go - less need for supplemental watering once they are established. As others have said, you will need some low growing groundcover plants along the walk and under the front windows. One of my favorites in a shady spot is Wild Ginger (Asarum canadense) -beautiful heart shaped leaves, and it will form a dense groundcover. You could use a variety of native sedge (Carex) to contrast with the wild ginger leaves - planting those in waves throughout the bed will provide a good base around some flowering perennials, compact shrubs and an accent tree such as a redbud or dogwood at the corner of the house. Because you are zone 4 an evergreen shrub or two might be good for winter interest, or red twigged dogwood (there are a number of compact cultivars available). Placing a couple pots in the bed would be another way to build some contrast and height - especially along the walkway where large shrubs would overwhelm - and they could be planted with annuals for a pop if color.

Benjamin Vogt is in Nebraska so a slightly warmer zone, but a great Instagram follow!

The main issue I see is that the entry walk and door feel squished against the garage wall. Planting alone isn't going to solve that squished feeling. Would the interior space allow widening the door opening to accommodate one with a sidelight, so the door itself isn't right in the corner? Could the stoop be widened and the post moved to the end of the covering roof? Could the entry walk be rebuilt, perhaps with large, staggered rectangular slabs, leaving an irregular space between it and the garage wall for planting? Then perhaps an attractive trellis (with or without a climber) could be installed in that space against the now-blank garage wall? Here's an edited photo showing those changes, with some added planting. I used a serviceberry for the white-flowering tree, golden false cypress, mugo pine, and arborvitae for shrubs, foxgloves and heuchera for perennials, and a New Dawn climbing rose on the trellis, all shade tolerant and hardy in zone 4, but there are many possibilities.

Simplynatural....good idea, but major undertaking. Not sure if the OP was considering such a large, expensive redo. It would be great if they would consider widening the door and porch. There would be much more light coming into the entry space with either a wider door with some glass, or a sidelight. Also a wider porch would help navigate the space when entering. I would probably also move the door knob opening from right to left so the people are not pushed up against the left side when the door opens