You’re in the right place!

Can you back up and give us a picture straight-on with the house? Far enough back so we can see the whole house and a bit extra on each side so we can see what’s going on in the yard in front of the house. Maybe even from the street, if the street isn’t too far away.

And which direction does your house face?

You’re amazing! Posting now!

Here is a full visual of the front. The front faces north.

Love hostas, hydrangeas, and peonies.

I’d aim for some evergreens! That way you have some winter interest. Boxwoods like partial shade!

Also agree with little bug. No black rocks as mulch…. especially with shallow rooted plants like hydrangeas

Thank you so much for your thoughtful inputs! I guess the rocks aren’t black, more of a mixture of grays, varying shades. You can see them to the right on the first picture- we just didn’t finish laying them as we ran out of time last season. I’ve already planted various Incrediball hydrangeas around the home and in the rock last year- would it be worth it to move the rock away from the plant and add some wood chips around the base, or maybe wait and see what happens this summer, is there a chance they would be okay? I never gave rock mulch a second thought as I see it everywhere in Wisconsin.

I’m now nervous about everything I planted last spring. Peonies, hostas and the hydrangeas. I wish I had known better.

Well you’ve already done a lot of work with your dark colored rocks, so just drag them back off the base of your plants. Rocks absorb sun and reflect it onto your plants, a really bad idea in the summer. They also promote quick evaporation and runoff of rainwater, also a bad idea especially for water-loving plants like hosta and hydrangea.

Cover the ground at the base with natural wood mulch or even pine needles.

I second that^ however it can still be of use elsewhere. The incrediballs would look great with a boxwood border. If it’s in your budget check out “instant hedge”. I’d definitely make the effort to pull the rock out from the base of your hydrangeas. As littlebug mentioned, it will not only cause the soil to dry out quicker, but it can scorch the shallow roots of a shallow rooted plant.

And it’s all part of the process! Don’t beat yourself up- I’ve had to move things more times than I can count. For best practice and the health of your plants, i wouldn’t recommend waiting until summer to find out!

If boxwoods aren’t your thing, there are many other evergreens that you could look into. They’ll not only help hold up the weight of the blooms, but when they’re established you can hard prune and the evergreen border will hide the sticks in the winter

Do you have a picture of when things were in bloom so I can have an idea of what you’ve already placed? I can see the dormant placement but would love to see what you’re working with in sense of mature spacing

For reference- an evergreen border is a great option to not only hide your deciduous shrubs but it also does a great job of assisting with the weight of the massive blooms

Here are a few suggestions :

My mockups are nowhere near Doug’s professional designs, but maybe look into some cold hardy grasses and ferns like Japanese silver grass, Christmas ferns, or cinnamon ferns. Depending on how much care you plan on putting into your entryway, some annuals like supertunia vista are easy and fill in a space from spring til frost. But there are easy options like a native groundcover as well.

Also take into consideration your shrubs mature size/windows/spacing especially since you have a more permanent border

I'm a peony lover also but mine bloom for about a week. During that week they're gorgeous and then they're green shrubs for the rest of the growing season. At the entry way you could use plants with a very long bloom period (like hydrangeas) and/or great foliage (evergreens hopefully) because it's such a high visibility area.

In a snowy climate I'd stick with mostly perennials in areas immediately adjacent to the sidewalk for snow removal. Or select compact, deciduous shrubs that can handle the snow load. Along the walkway, mIx in some perennials that are evergreen or nearly evergreen such as Heuchera, select Carex, Bergenia, select sesleria or sprout early for longer color in those area.

Away from the sidewalk, I agree some evergreens for all season interest. In zone 4b you and part shade you might be better off with yew than boxwood depending on the winter exposure.

Thank you so much, I love these examples, this is a look I truly love! What kind of app/program do you use to make this? Can you also share with me the plants visible in the last photo? I can see the hostas, possibly a peony, hydrangea but I love the look of the white blooms in front and the grasses (are these the supertunia vista?) - I just don't know what they are. Thank you so much, everyone, for taking the time to help me visualize this so well.

Mock ups are rarely connected to reality. You are dealing with a lot of shade in a cold climate, and that rules out a lot of plants. It also doesn't help that you have already marked off an extremely narrow bed.

Unless you get some evergreens in there, the landscaping is going to spend at least half the year looking like it does now. If you don't have deer, I'd strongly second the idea of yews across the house away from the sidewalk. I'd also think of a specimen conifer in the lawn somewhere. The hydrangeas might get enough sun planted in front of the yews, depending on the exact placement.

Peonies want sun. Hopefully, they are somewhere they get that. Most showy flowering plants do want sun, and will dwindle away if they don't get it. Plant tags almost always give how much sun a plant wants. Since the house faces north, and the garage blocks the sun on the east side, and trees block the sun on the west side, this area is going to get very little sun. The plant choices have to be able to handle that.

I think ultimately it comes down to maintenance. Pennlake made a fabulous point about snow and that inner bed. I’d have to agree that perennials might be your best bet on that side for the sake of clean up. As for the white flowers, yes those are supertunia vista snowdrift which are annuals meaning that you would have to purchase and plant once threat of frost has passed. If that’s something you would look forward to, they are a staple and my go to for their proven ability to add value to the landscape and they can handle part sun. They are self cleaning meaning you do not have to dead head and they fill in a space quite nicely. The reason i recommend an annual for that front curve is because you’re still figuring out the flow of the rest of the space. It might be a couple seasons of trial and error regarding perennials- but I’d strongly recommend getting evergreen shrubs in the ground. The reason i recommended a variety of boxwoods is because you can prune them to keep them small… the downside of having a permanent border is not being able to expand with mature plants.

Mad_gallica makes a great point regarding sun. Yews are a fabulous choice for an evergreen. Especially if you are looking for something low maintenance.

You can copy/paste images from your photo album and paste using Freeform if you have apple iPhone.