Foundation plants

My house is in the woods. We have a very small grass area just around the house and the lawn is sort of a free form shape, with woods all the way around. Very informal, even wild. So my plantings are all that way too, no formal shapes at all. More like a cottage garden except mostly green.
The north side is ivy and holly and looks wonderful and woodsy. The east side is ferns, ivy and hostas. Again so informal. The south side is seldom ever seen. That foundation planting edges the garage and is day lilies and lunaria, and I'd like it to be also black eyed susans and echinacea. They've never done well there, always die.

Now, the front, the west. I have vinca, bulbs and mums when they grow. It gets full west sun and is in a sharp rectangle bed under the livingroom windows and hard edged by the front walk. The front NW is ok with the vinca, mint, columbine etc because it gets so much shade. But today I see the mint and goldenrod have really taken over so maybe I have to start fresh here also.
(see fist pic)

But that rectangle bed is messing me up! Yday I realized that our house is all edges and squares, but especially that front are...it looks almost modern and the walk makes that bed look confined and modern, stark. (see 2nd pic)

Could it need to be a formal bed? Wouldn't that be out of place with the rest of the property? I don't know what to do but I've got to do it.

This is the 2nd pic, the rectangle bed. Yes I know the bulbs look awful!

I know this isn't the answer you're looking for but I'm not a big fan of plantings around the foundation of a house. I used to have lots of flowers and shurbs planted right up next to the house. This is when we lived in the city. We had bugs and mice and lots of moisture problems related to the shade caused by these plantings. Now we live in the country and I vowed not to grow anything on the foundation unless it is in a container. We have grass right up to the house. I plant my flowers off away from the house. I have a row of Knockout roses alongside the driveway up next to the picket fence. Outside the fence in front I have a large raised bed of flowers.

Maintenance is so much easier having grass up to the foundation and no problems with ants or mice. We do have a snake named Scooter Libby and maybe he helps in that regard. As I'm getting older I look for easy care landscaping . I love to use beautiful trees. They require almost no maintenance. I have a couple trellis with honeysuckle planted on them. Nothing along the foundation of the house though. Out front I do have a long bed but it's filled with mulch over old shingles to keep weeding down to zip. I do have a few rose bushes planted in there and a couple containers that I put annuals in. That's it.

I suppose if I were to really want to put plantings up on the foundation area I'd make a formal narrow irregularly shaped bed and put a few dwarf shrubs with some statuary or shepherd's hooks with hanging wind chimes or birdhouses etc. I would have a couple big planters with colorful annuals in them. Lots of mulch! Easy on the eye, neat and no work to maintain. Maybe a birdbath too. Maybe at the end of the house by the corner plant a cascading ornamental cherry tree of something similar. Maybe a nice Japanese Maple if your pocketbook can stand it. I'd rather see a few well placed items than a big bed of a lot of perennials stuck here and there with no method or plan. It's pretty but hard to keep up when it comes time to divide and weed etc. I used to garden like that but it's too hard on my old back now.

Good luck and post pictures when you're done.

You said, " put a few dwarf shrubs with some statuary or shepherd's hooks with hanging wind chimes or birdhouses etc. I would have a couple big planters with colorful annuals in them. Lots of mulch! Easy on the eye, neat and no work"

What a great idea! At first I thought, "Just mulch???" But then I got the picture of the whole setup and I think I like it.

There's spots of vinca in there. I might do the mulch (over something, in my case likely thick newspapers) and leave the vinca but nothing else except the bird feeders and some potted stuff.

I know the bulbs are going. I'll replant them in the front woods where they can "die down" every summer without showing those ugly tops.

Here is what I did. The bed now has the spring bulbs (still there), several pieris japonica and a slow growing arb. Still there - the tradescantia and another ground cover I have no name for.

Looks great! Neat and appealing and very low maintenance. If you put birdseed in the bird feeder they'll spill it and some may grow into plants. You can always do a hummingbird feeder. Much less mess.

I like it. Good job!

Lovely! When I saw the spot by the garage door under the coach light, I immediately thought of what my sister does with a similar spot at her house to add some height and color.

She picked up a wrought iron baker's rack at a garage sale for $5 for that area under the coach light (I am thinking the rack is 36" wide). She placed several paving bricks in front of the space to give the rack a stable surface to sit on. She has three 10" terra cotta pots on each shelf - all the pots are identical. She has planted a variety of annuals in a mixture of colors, but one year she planted all impatents in a coral color in every pot. The effect of a single variety and color in each pot was stunningly simple and very striking. That is all she plants in the pots now, a single variety and color. Sometimes impatents, sometimes wax begonias, sometimes gerums, this year yellow french marigolds. Again, the effect is very striking.

Just something to think about!

Thanks! It's a great idea. We will have to put a hose reel there though.