I love your place!! It has so many possibilities!!

You mentioned that things look better when viewed from one side only. I would suggest forcing the perspective. Design your walkway, patio, etc. so that it runs along the good "one side". Unless the shape of the walkway is ridiculous, people usually prefer to walk on established pathway.

Another idea is to use the focal point. If you want people to look "here" but not "there", use plants with brightly colored foliage or interesting form "here". Use plants that catch my attention. In the "there" spot, plant boring things.

You mention that June is the big month for your garden. For other months, add bright color artifically with a brightly painted trellis or other small wood structure.

For example, in my front yard, I want people to look at my door and porch. I don't want people to look at the 4' tall utility box in the corner by the road. So, I introduced contrasting color, form, and texture by the door. The utility box is surrounded by boring indian hawthorne shrubs. (I thought about not planting anything there, but the utter lack of landscaping actually attracted attention.)

I hope this makes sense and helps!

Cute house. First make sure that your path functions well, providing a convenient route to the house, and a surface that's easy to clear from snow. Think about where you're going to put the snow, too.

For a border that's going to look good from both sides, plant the tallest plants in the center, and the medium and shorter ones on each side.

The bed will have to be fairly deep to accomodate this kind of layering. An alternative would be to relocate the flower border off to the left, with a backdrop of flowering and evergreen shrubs, if the sun exposure permits. This way you will be looking at it from one direction, simplifying the arrangement.

Add some spring flowering bulbs, and late summer and fall bloomers like hardy lilies, Sedum, Rudbeckia, Eupatorium.

Thanks for your input. You've given some good ideas that I've used in other sections of my yard. It may be difficult to see from the photos, but these are not borders but beds that will be walked around. That is my whole problem here. I am also turning more to shrubs these days.

In my front yard I have a 70 foot long border backed by a holly hedge. The sides of my property have 10-20 foot deep borders backed by a fence on one side and trees on the other.

I think this area presents a real design challenge.

Saypoint, I am trying to remember that the path is the most important thing here, not what I plant! left of the house is too shady. We do veggies and shade gardens in the far back of the yard, and I keep the middle grass for the kids to play.