Those hydangeas are way to big for those space and they will only get bigger When planting any plants you choose ones that you know the final size . That fake pic at the top is no way going to work in real life . In tiny gardens every plant needs real thought beore planting. Go to a good garden center near you and talk to someone who understands your area and what plants will give you the look you want but maybe not the plants you want. For instance those hydrangeas get be 5' wide and 18" tall the height no problem that width no way can your place handle them the 10' bed coud do 2 but it is not deepenough.

your inspo photo is already too full for growth.

you need twice that much space for that to mature.

The hydrangea alone will overtake the area in a year.

Are you able to expand the planting area?

I would want something tall at the end of the porch for privacy. As tall as possible above the porch rail.

LLP grow from 3-5 ft. And I planted the minimum suggested amount. Planning to prune and maintain around 3.5-4 feet around

Consider visiting your local nursery for the right mix of perennials/shrubs. But consider instead of hydrangea shrubs, you can get the hydrangea tree (Limelight). A nursery would typically have them. I had one at the corner of our porch and was able to keep it trimmed at a manageable size, about 3 ft wide by 5.5 ft tall. More stunning as a tree. We've since moved it to our backyard so it can get bigger back there.

If that is a 3' wide bed, you're not going to have room for anything all that big very soon. The hydrangeas will probably be 3' wide at mature size, so that will fill up the bed right there. You'll struggle to find any boxwood smaller than 2' wide, meaning you will have plants with a combined width of 5' in a 3' wide bed. You certainly will never find one smaller than the coral bells, as shown in the AI picture.

You can plant the heuchera at the edge and the astilbe as a middle layer and it will look pretty as the hydrangeas grow. Or, you could fill it in with annuals, which will bloom all summer and are much cheaper.

Never use AI for landscape design. It never gets the proportions or sizing right, so you will never be able to achieve the look in real life.

You don’t have enough room for layers.

Well, I take that back. You might have enough room for layers in Year One. But that’s it.

Hi Carolyn, you haven’t told us where you live & I think climate zone plays a huge role in how large plants get in relation to the size listed on their tags. I looked up your Little Lime Punch & saw them listed as up to 5’ tall & wide. I can tell you with great confidence that the 4 you have will quickly overwhelm their alloted space & no amount of pruning will keep them to a size that fits a bed that’s only 3’ wide & has 3 plants in 10’ of length. I’m sorry to say this because your AI layout looks great & your drawing plan so organized. The astilbe & Hydrangea are perennial / deciduous. There are much smaller hydrangeas that might work in your plan but the ones I’m familiar with are white. Bobo is a 3’ x 3’ white paniculata type. Wee Bit Grumpy is a 2’ x 2.5’ purple / red macrophylla . Your garden bed space might accomdate one LLP at the outside corner but I’d remove the other 3 & replace with much smaller variety. I don’t think there’s room for a row in front of them or between them for boxwood. The astilbe & coral bells would work as the front row but your bed will be bare in winter. If it’s snow covered that won’t matter much but it would in a climate like mine with not much snow. For a front yard and entry, I prefer a back bone of evergreens to balance the deciduous.

Awesome! I will leave additional plants and see how this looks at maturity in a few years. This is only year 2!

I am zone 5B

If I got rid of the 2-3 hydrangeas what would be low maintenance replacement plants

@Carolyn Oliver -To make usable plant suggestions we need to know more info about your location than zone 5B. The planting zones give basic hardiness info but not the whole picture. What’s your nearest large city? Do you want flowering shrubs only or a mix with evergreens?

Why would you get rid of the hydrangeas now? You could add a lot of plants to your garden now and remove some later. Maybe the little line punches will thrive and overgrow your space. Maybe they will take a while to get too big. Maybe they'll struggle and never get big.

If they overgrow your space, it won't be too much work to expand your garden or to keep them pruned into shape. If they take a while, you could plant their replacements now and remove them when the replacements are growing and the current ones are overgrowing. If they never do that well, you'll learns something and the replacements will (hopefully) be overwhelmning them.

I'd plant the planned astilbes and heucheras and maybe some pink coneflowers between the hydrangeas. I'd assess in a year or two. Or, I'd fill the beds with annuals now and consider enlarging the beds if the hydrangeas overflow it.

Ignoring your hoped for boxwood this is almost like a perennial border. Since you hope to prune the Little Lime and keep them small I think you should go ahead with the Astilbe and Heuchera. Do bring your stone border forward as you will need more room.

I probably moved it too far. I think Boxwoods would detract from the beauty of the Hydrangea anyway.