another view:
{{gwi:45198}}

Okay try out this idea - keep your plants for now, but add a backdrop of some sort like a fence or evergreen hedgerow.

A backdrop will help to tie all the plants together, stop your view at the plants (instead of focusing on the tree beyond), and define the space.

In my side-yard, I had plants of various heights and foliage. These plants were not of sufficient depth or amount to block the view beyond them to my neighbors grass and house. They looked very ethereal and lacking substance. Once my neighbor put up a fence and a soldier row of cedars, I was amazed at what it did for my beds.

Some thoughts on what might possibly be causing you to be dissatisfied with your bed:

What colors you choose for your garden is a very personal thing. Some people like certain combinations, others don't. I've heard the saying, when it comes to plant combinations, "yellow and pink make a stink". Or "pink and yellow kill a fellow". Meaning they don't look well together. There is probably a lot of disagreement about this, but I do agree that if you have a plan that uses colors deliberately chosen for their ability to harmonize, you will get more elegant-looking results.

Plantings look best if they are "balanced", meaning that the visual weight of the plantings is distributed in a way that looks stable. Your plantings as they are are dense on the left, skimpy in the middle and far right, and somewhat more dense just right of center. Adding a few more shrubs might help. Making some of your choices evergreen will add winter interest. Also, the tree being smack in the middle makes me want to see symmetry where there is none. I think the tree would look better off center, which can be accomplished by making the bed longer if the tree cannot be moved. All of this depends on whether that side view is your usual viewing angle. If it's not, you need to consider the layout from the angles it will be viewed from most often.

You have used some plants with colorful foliage, but think about foliage shapes and textures, and the overall shapes of plants as well as flower color. Most perennials flower for a relatively short period, but the foliage will be a part of the composition all season, with some persisting into the winter, so its importance is often underestimated.

Plants have more impact when planted in drifts or groupings. I see what looks like a couple of plants repeated more than once, but many of them look like you have one specimen of each kind. This can give a "spotty" look. You can wait until your plants are large enough to divide to give you the massed effect, or buy more and group them together to get faster results.

Last, what is the purpose of your planting? Is it for looking at from the house? Looking at from the street? Is it there to satisfy your need to putter in the garden? Are you a plant collector, or are you after a "look" rather than a hobby area? Does it serve as a screen? Does it need to look good in winter?

Your planting doesn't look bad, but if you are not happy with it, these ideas might help get you thinking about what it is that's bothering you.

I agree with Isabella. It needs unity and what she recommended will do that very quickly and much easier than some other ways.

Isabella...I can see how the fence idea would work but I am not sure I would like it from the otherside, maybe the evergreens. if not some sort of tall but uniform material..do you think a simple shorter fence say 3 feet would do the trick? Or maybe a row of tall miscanthus. Saypoint I totally agree with your suggestion that some people like/dislike certain combinations...I like pink with yellow actually and am using the moonbeam coreopsis to echo the yellow throats of the daylilys (aprox 13)in the bed...unfortunately the dayliys are not big enough to bloom so the coreopsis is yelling not echoing lol...I find I do not like purple and burgandy together and this bed is mainly burgandy,yellow,pink and purple....I think the pink and purple gotta go. I totally see what you mean about the birch making you look for symmetry that is not there...I will lengthen the bed accordingly (not today though)..I do love symmetry but find plants are not alway cooperative and 2 plants the same may grow at different rates and put off the whole thing...the dense to the left is to give privacy from the neighbors so there is a staggered row of shrubs. I also see what you mean with the whole thing going up and down and no real balance...the IDEA was not a specimen garden, there is a group of 5 huskers red penstamen to the left but alas they are only seedlings BUT I find myself very crow like buying plants that I have to make a space FOR instead of buying a plant for a SPECIFIC space ( I still have greenspice huchera and silver scrolls awaiting planting, but where?...also I have been lucky enough to have been given a lot of plants and if someone says "hey do you want this obsidian hucheria" I find it rather difficult to say 'no thanks"lol.I also have difficulty getting rid of it if it doesn't work b/c it was a gift (seems a bit rude eh?)...The main view point is up the driveway (which is the paved bit).Its main focus should probably be daylilys but I wanted other things to break up the sameness of the folage so theres, penstamon and a burgandy tree peony bush, the daylilys in this garden are :daring deception,pandoras box,so lovely,irish elf,ice carnaval,summerwine,newberryfestival,indiangiver,mykonos, narobi nights and 9 that I grew from seed purchased in lily auction.

Some random thoughts.

I think Daylilies never look good from a distance - they are best admired up close where you can really see the intricacy of the bloom - they also have a relatively short bloom period compared to a 12 month cycle. To me they are fillers rather than focal points and where I have them next to a path I always think they are the most effective.
From a distance I'm always straining to see which one it is and things like the color of the eye are lost from more than a few feet away.

I like the burgundy foliage you chose and it looks healthy. I could see where that might be a repeated theme for you considering the color of your house. I don't recall the name of it but there is a beautiful evergreen tree that tends to remain small, with very blue needles and burgundy cones - there is one at the Toronto Botanical Garden. Its a real specimen tree and focal point.

Instead of echoing daylily throats with Moonbeam coreopsis, try a yellow leaved evergreen - it will have more impact. Your daylilies are only around for such a short time and the coreopsis will be there for 2 mos about.

Well this is hard to say to you, but take comfort in the fact that when we bought our house the driveway was a disaster and we were forced to do a lot of work on it so I have the badge from been there, done that. I would kill those driveway weeds with vinegar and at the minimum have the driveway sealed before winter to slow further damage. Better to have it assessed and maybe have some hot patching done to delay having to have more expensive replacement done. In terms of a visual backdrop - the driveway is one also and having a nice clean black surface will actually highlight what is in the garden bed. It should cost a couple hundred dollars to do that and I think those maintenance dollars are well spent.

It looks like your bed is a straight sided long rectangle from your picture. Go get out the hose and lay out curved lines on the lawn side so you have the space to have shrub plantings of depth. Maybe you can curve the bed to lead to the front walkway or all the way to the front door.

Do you want the eye to be led to the house? You have created a focal point right in the middle of the bed with the V effect of the plant height. And in the middle of the V is that tree. It's not bad, it just doesn't really do anything in particular.

As hard as it is, I think you need to either train yourself to view things like a designer in this particular bed, or maybe hire someone for an hour or so to give some suggestions for hardscaping and evergreens. I think you are dissatisfied with your perennial border because it is a beautiful collection of well grown plants, but they are not tied to anything so the effect is more or less like a line up of plants. Please don't take this as criticism. Its obvious your plants are happy - now you need to work on re-arranging the furniture so to speak so that the overall effect is harmonious, rather than on the individual plant. On a driveway people see a view or an effect, they aren't wandering through the paths of a garden to look at individual specimens. Even you - are you walking your perennial border with a coffee or glass of wine along the driveway to enjoy it? More likely from the lawn side.

If you choose to keep working on this yourself, I would try the following to help you. Go to the library and read some books on design. 2nd, take some photos and blow them up to 8x10 and print them in a light black and white on 8 x 10 paper. You will then be able to see the shapes of the plants you have in place. Take a pencil and trace the outline of the plants in place. I think you will find that many of your plants are very 'leafy'. The effect ends up being messy. Again, please don't take this as criticism, I'm hoping to offer a critique you can use to your advantage. You have this hard line of the edge of the drive, and you need to echo that geometric to a certain extent. Think of how odd a yucca or tightly formed plant looks next to the trees in the woods - they don't fit together. Same with putting free form plants next to the hardness of pavement. You either need to back the plants away from the pavement, so that the mulch creates a transition to the shape of the perennial, or use more plants like the Sedum Autumn Joy, which always looks quite nice next to hard objects because of the shape of the plant. Another transition could be groundcover sedums that spill down here and there. The range of sedums with nice colored foliage is pretty good even for a zone 5 garden.

Colored grasses - small and large would help tie some things together and offer a backdrop to flowers. Things like lilies - ranging from tiger to asiatic - oriental-species lilies to martagons would give you narrow height - they don't take up a lot of room. Alliums do the same.
Thats all I can think of for now. Good luck!

I think the three foot fence would add instant unity and justification. That will let you get away with a lot and still hold it together.

Right now that garden just hangs out by the street and seems to look odd because in the back of our minds there is no "reason for being". The fence will mitigate that to some degree as well.

alyrics...I do take critism well when I ask for it and I did so do not worry about hurting my feelings....If I loved this garden then yes I might feel trampled by someone saying something...but I don't....It doesn't have the feel I want and I truely wanted to know why. So basically thank you for your thoughts :) I don't think the driveway is in the budget right now as there is much more damage then is in the picture. I see what you mean about the yellow leafed evergreens....and I think I have one in a inappropriate place in another garden...

{{gwi:45199}}
Here is a quick mock up of how it is presently...it actually does curve arround to the front of the house and you can see the dense planting,(to block the neighbors)...do you think it would work if I cut the garden on the red lines to that the dense part is not longer connected to the other longer bed and make the longer bed into a more "Island" bed that would include the birch in the centre?....(and maybe a weeping larch, hubby wants one lol) It would be hard to do the fence as it would have to stop abruptly

Sort of like this....Is this better?....
{{gwi:45200}}

I think you are moving in a good direction just by thinking about things from a new perspective. Mine, from the outset, would have been that this bed needs at least a frame and at least one focal point of interest. My inclination is to do that sort of thing with hardscape but others do it with sharp shovelled edges, and the fence and driveway repair ideas have the same effect. What you're now proposing by adding grass is in effect also a frame.

Have you cruised some old threads on this forum? I know there's a lot of junk to sort through, but there is some valuable stuff on making bones of evergreen material that are dressed up with herbaceous and deciduous stuff for spring and summer, and so on.

KarinL

I have researched 'daylily border, shrub border,evergreen border' and many more in google and here. I can't seem to find just what I want..or a bed that is similar to what I want...I want a evergreen but which and where?...I think I will do above but put a strip of grass along the drive way...then add a evergreen in centre of new bed(maybe blue spruce...or a drooping one), maybe a birds nest spruce as well so the silouette would be columnar birch...triangle evergreen slightly right and rounded shape to right...then surround with the daylilys...I may move the purple smoke bush altogeher..I think it may be too busy or there is the possibility of cutting the birch (did I say that out loud?)

Fence or no, you're missing a 'middle layer'. The birch is lonely, it needs some company! By nature (bad pun here) it's a tall, slender shape. It needs bushy mid-height shrubs to connect it to the many low-growing plants you have.

Notice how much better your bed looks in the second, angled photo as opposed to straight-on? That's because the side angle makes it look denser in a mid-layering. You need to replicate that effect with evergreens or more long-season-interest plants, when looking straight on.

A single birch always looks spindly by itself. It's one of the reasons they're much more effective planted in clumps.

Here is my problem with your problem--is the view in the picture really the perspective from which you value the view of this garden? Or is it just the view that your neighbors have (and if you're worried about that, ok, but if not....)? Where do you view this garden from (other than a quick drive-by? Or how does it look from the street in either direction?

I'm not sure that this view is really the critical one...

I'm with BusyD in that I have a problem with how you view your problem, and you've nailed what your view is in saying what search terms you're using. Whether you're designing a daylily bed or the front yard of a mansion, design principles are design principles. That's where words like "unity" come from - the design principles. You shouldn't be looking for directions to daylily bed design.

So you're looking for the wrong information. I can't remember the thread titles just now, but there have been some fairly recent threads with good general discussions and some good links. Those are the ones that will help you pin down what you don't like in this bed.

In landscape design, plant selection comes last - form, frame, hardscape, focal point... all come before. Because you came asking about plants, the answers you've gotten have tried to advise about plants according to principles. But it is really just discussion about principles disguised in a discussion about plants.

KarinL

The 'view' or purpose for the garden is for me to like it when I am walking in it...I am not concerned with the neighbors view and or opinions. I would like it to look nice from the road but then again I can not ever recall standing on the road to look at my garden...generally I do go up and down the drive way to view..therefore that was the view I was unsatisfied with. I guess I will do more research and see if I can figure out what it is that I want and what it is that I dislike.

I don't think that adding another deciduous purple shrub makes an appreciable change in your design. I'm back to the permanent items. Kill the grass in the driveway with vinegar - $1.50 for a gallon at the Dollar Store, effect - priceless. The weeds are ruining the view. Just a note - even if you get the brush and a bucket of sealant and spread it yourself you will save a lot of future dollars by delaying patching or replacement. When water freezes in the cracks made by that grass, it heaves the pavement.(P.S. been there - still there - 350 ft, 25 yo driveway. Maintenance is cheaper than replacement.

Seen from the view you provided on your photo, I would do the following.
1. prune some shape into that burgundy leaved shrub on the left - it's starting to block the house. Peak of it should be no higher than the upper line of the garage door.
2. The birch could be highlighted with evergreen shrubs planted underneath - its ordinary, but a very nice low soft look - Taxus baccata repandens - the effect is weeping. If you want blue or yellow as a highlight color, then choose a variety of other junipers, chamaecyparis, etc. but I like dark green against birch bark. This would also add some of the depth and bulk that you need to backdrop your flowers.
http://oregonstate.edu/dept/ldplants/tabar1.htm

3. I would not plant another statement plant like a weeping larch until you solve the overall design.

2. Curve the grass path between the 2 flower beds and define the path - and curve it toward the house. Currently it more or less goes straight up but slightly pointing away from the house - very confusing to the eye. You can define it with pavers, steps, or digging the sod away on the edges to give the effect of a raised grassy path. If you have the time, make your own shaped pavers from hypertufa. The path is too straight, too wide and looks like a chute.
Where there is a change of levels, steps add drama to paths. a few steps is more noticeable than 1 step. You could space them out instead of putting them together - but think about grass maintenance when you decide. Stone or brick would be attractive with your house and make that hillside useful during all months.

Here are a bunch of pictures I looked up: A few trips to the library and browsing this forum should give you lots to look at to find something that strikes your fancy. A search on shrub borders might be useful.

http://redwoodbarn.com/DE_paths.html

http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A0oGkj4VhrRGs34BmYBXNyoA?ei=UTF-8&p=garden%20paths&fr2=tab-web&fr=slv8-wave

http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A0Je5xUrh7RG2HgA.CGJzbkF?p=garden+path&ei=UTF-8&fr=slv8-wave&x=wrt

http://www.flickr.com/photos/suesue2/201704570/

http://www.sunset.com/sunset/garden/article/0,20633,673626,00.html

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bridgeimages/8811381/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/shanni/76428445/

http://www.corribrealestate.com/htmlsite/productdetails.asp?id=128

http://www.cincinnati.com/homestyle/052904/inthegarden.html

http://www.lotuslawn.com/gallery/gallery5/pages/photo6.htm

You've heard it in several ways above, you're focusing on plant selection to solve your design, but it doesn't work that way. The plant choices are an outcome of the design, not the other way around. You wouldn't design a house by starting with picture of something that doesn't fit on your lot - you start with the lot and setting and place a structure there that fits. If you are having a hard time visualizing, wait till this winter and take lots of photos with the leaves down. If you are really in Nova Scotia zone 5, I think you have at least 6 months with no leaves or flowers - that should be guiding a lot of your hardscape.

Thank you Alyrics!...that was helpfull...I will look up the information you suggested and start a 'beginner' plan...I agree with the bit about not adding another focus plant...I think I should rearrange what I have and then review...I do like the hemlock idea...and the idea about steps...the width of the path was to be slightly wider then mower and there is a slight incline...I will prune the shrubs today...I think this was their 'leap year'. Thanks again

My opinion is that, for the moment, you have things to work with and around. (I personally am very fond of incorporating daylilies; groupings, accents, bold color as a punctuation.) With no backdrop, the side garden is oriented to whatever is to the left of your driveway. That could be rethought by widening the side bed to incorporate the birch - which would also serve to bring your taller plants into the middle of the bed without actually having to move them and provide a spot for any future addition of tall plants. Then I would mirror the bed on the side facing your front lawn - mid heights with varieties of shapes, textures and colors you like, and low border plants, again with shapes, textures and colors... right now your eye sort of jumps from mound to mound. Widened bed and graduated planting on both sides would give it substance without installing fencing or soldier row tree planting. And the lone birch would get companion planting almost by default.

I have been meaning to reply to this thread for a couple reasons. First off we are neighbors...okay Northern Virginia and Nova Scotia are a few miles apart. Secondly I can relate. I have a bed out in the front corner of my property that in theory has a lot of things going for it but it just does not click. Also, I just wanted to say that there is a lot of good information in this thread.

I was going to point out that the biggest thing that I see lacking is a reason...but I see that laag has already mentioned this. I would suggest that you take the sketch that you have done and enlarge it to include your entire front yard. How does this bed fit into your overall plan? Does it make your house more inviting or does it just hide your entrance?

Ask yourself why this bed even exists. At my previous house I had a perennial bed along my driveway. Why? Because a previous owner or the builder lined the driveway with junipers, I removed the junipers and I stuck perennials in the open dirt. Later I realized that I would have been mush better off if I had planted grass and focused my efforts elsewhere.

- Brent

Sue in NS:

Here's a link to lots of pictures of borders.

Here is a link that might be useful: Borders

This is a challenging thread. Change the color of your house, move the birch in between the tall windows. Your problem is more than color of plants.