That is a fine old house! What about making the path as wide as the steps and giving it a slight curve? Even if you can't or don't want to make it meander, I think it would make a better impression if it were wider.

As far as plants, what do you think about dwarf flowering shrubs? Weigela "Polka", Itea "Henry's Garnet", Clethra "Sixteen Candles" come to mind (because I've planted those myself), but there are plenty of others that have flowers and nice fall foliage that would set off the color of the roof. There are some neat dwarf Hydrangeas too, where even the faded flowers age to a tawny color. If you wanted something the neighbors *don't* have, there's Clove Currant; a 4X5 foot shrub covered with intensely fragrant yellow flowers the first few weeks of spring.

Except for the Currant, I'm pretty sure none of the ones I mentioned get much over 3 feet tall, maybe 5 feet tops. I realize that's larger than you were asking about, but if they were planted alternately in the "bends" along a curving path, you'd get a sense of "discovering" the house as you walk up the path, rather than having it all laid out in front. I'm picturing the Henry's Garnet closest to the house on the opposite side of the mailbox, but out from the existing shrub, then the Polka in a bend on the right, another slight curve, with the Summersweet or a Clove Currant back on the left out near the street. Anyway, I'm not a real Landscaper (I don't even play one on the internet), so take all suggestions with a grain of salt.

Some daphadill's would look great blooming along your walkway, you'd of course have to have something else for the year round green...

I agree with little dog, it is a nice old house! I also think the side walk would be better a bit wider, at the very least widen it where it meets the steps.
I wouldn't just line the walk with plants. I would widen the planting bed to come up each side of the walk and then flair out on the left side (as you look at the house). I see you have some seating on the porch and you may want to keep your planting low to keep the view, but a nice Japanese Maple or some thing showy would be nice on the corner there.
BTW what's wrong with hosta?

Beautiful house! I can't help but I agree with the above, a nice wide walkway would be good.

Thanks for the compliments on the house! We certainly fell in love with it the moment we saw it last year.

We have definite plans for a wider walkway, but that's in the 5+ year plan, mostly because of cost (this years new HVAC system to replace baseboard electric is putting anything that costs more than a couple of hundred into the five year plan so that we can rebuild our savings!).

Also, if a "street improvements" plan gets approved (which is almost certain that it will), within a few years our street will be very slightly widened by a couple of feet (which is a very good thing despite our losing a bit of front yard) with new front sidewalks put in place even further from the new curb than they are now, so the start of our walk could be as much as 3-4' in from where it is now. So we don't want to invest time/$$ in a new front walk until that project is done or canned.

Whatever plants we border it with for now will be moved when we widen it, which we plan to do with brick or some kind of period-appropriate pavers.

And why no hostas? Because my partner is sick of them - I think they'd be fine, but I definitely tended to overuse them at our old house. So "no hostas along the walk" got put into the "not negotiable" category, so I'm searching for other options.

ilikemud wrote "I wouldn't just line the walk with plants. I would widen the planting bed to come up each side of the walk and then flair out on the left side (as you look at the house" -- I like this idea!! Thanks!

What a charming house!

IÂm taking off on a tangent away from your walkway question, but IÂd like to argue against lining a walkway with flowers as it just draws attention to the cement walkway rather than the beautiful house (and donÂt get me started on lining a walk with landscape lights leading to the nighttime Âairport landing strip effect *grin*).

I see a nice big circular bed with a groundcover (Vinca?) and perennials, or annual begonias and impatiens for color, around the tree base. (I know other hosta-haters too, and I donÂt get it - some hosta flowers are the most fragrant I have ever known!)
Maybe deeper/wider bed in front of the house too?

Using my limited skills with the magic of Photoshop here:

1) Azalea gone somewhere else.

2) A little more substantial front posts, painted white. I could see painting the other wood
work white too - IÂm not sure if the unstained rustic look goes with the farmhouse feel of the house over all.

3) Add thicker trim (shutters?) around the windows, make them look more substantial.

4) Widen front walk. (Maybe add a course of bricks or stone on either side?) This could be a DIY weekend project.

hth, VW

{{gwi:26712}}

View_west, that was a beautiful mockup!!!

Actually now you're forcing me to admit that the picture I posted was taken before we even bought the house, and since then we have painted all the porch woodwork white, just as you showed in your mockup (the peeling paint that you see up high is taken care of as well). The tiny window trim is courtesy of the previous owners throwing up vinyl siding and putting in all vinyl windows, which of course have their benefits but the PO's took NO effort to make it retain some period-appropriate qualities. Shutters (color to be determined) and possibly wider exterior window trim are definitely in our next-few-years goal.

As I mentioned before, doing a complete re-do of the front walk is just not going to happen for a while, but the idea of widening it with pavers or bricks is intriguing. My only concern is how it would look to do that around a sidewalk that isn't in the very best of shape.

re: the hostas, I can and am certainly using them generously elsewhere in the shady areas of our front yard, they were just nixed for the walkway border.

And I'll fill in another gap on why I'm searching for an option for this. See, I make about 98% of the design decisions on the house and garden while Partner mostly just sits back and says "yes dear, whatever you want" and splits the work for putting my vision in place, which of course is perfectly fine with me. :::sheepish grin::: However, every once in a while something will come up that Partner absolutely loves and seriously wants. Now, a few of those I've put my foot down and said noooooo no no, no way. But since Parter really wanting something happens so rarely, when it does come up, I try hard to say "yes" even if it's not what I would choose to do - and lining this long walk with a single low plant is NOT what I would choose. However, there are several houses in our neighborhood who have done that, and Partner absolutely LOVES the look, I mean LOVES LOVES LOVES the look, to the point of stopping every time we take the dogs for a walk and admiring it, and so I just can't say no.

But airport lights lining the front walk?!? You'd better believe I would have said NOOOOOOO no way to that.

HOWEVER, you can bet'cher bippy that my long term plan is for those border plants to kind of get lost in the bigger design as I gradually fill the front yard with nothing but curved, informal garden beds separated by paths with a huge variety of plants... get my drift on this?

So anyway, that's where I'm going with this, and why.

Anyone know anything about creeping wintergreen?

since then we have painted all the porch woodwork white, just as you showed in your mockup...

Great minds do indeed think alike :-) ! I understand the DH compromises too, and I completely agree with the underlying plot to make the lined paths disappear amongst the mass of planting.

You might cut the lower branches (i.e. limb up) the trees in the yard to let in a little more light. Rock cress might work for you if it is not too shady - it is covered in white flowers in the spring. Or maybe creeping phlox?

best, VW

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:26707}}

I go by Lena M in the Home forums.
(I heard rumors that Landscape Design was a rough forum - but it seems pretty well behaved so far!)

Lena/View