Great information, but if you would just tell us where you are located .... City and state or something similar.

Should I do one of each or two of the same kind.

I think some repetition would be good, so I not do one of each of anything.

Since the bed appears to curve out from the house and is also in front of an exposed foundation you would be better off planting this area with broad-leaved evergreen shrubs - climate permitting - and putting the herbaceous plants in another spot, preferably where you can look out the window at them. A good plan is to have these latter where the lawn curves into the bed, causing it to form a sort of stage upon which your flowers will be the featured players. If there is a fence or hedge behind then evergreen shrubs can sort of bookend the scene on the sides, with deciduous shrubs between these and the flowers to form a transition in visual weight. Climbers (vines) can be trained onto fencing or clipped hedging at the back (yes: flowering vines on clipped hedges can work and look great). Bulbs and annuals can be used among the perennials. What you have then is a mixed border, with more going on than a hedge, shrubbery or bedding plants standing there by themselves or nearly so - and looking incomplete.

The possibilities for color and flower shape combinations are endless.

Sorry, forgot to mention-I am on Long Island, NY-that is Zone 6a/7b.
bboy, your description of how the bed should flow sounds perfect! Unfortunately, the previous owner of our house loved to "example" garden and we are just trying to bring in some cohesion to the layout so that it doesn't look so forlorn. The annuals and the carpet roses we added to the bed was just to provide some summer interest and we can move them.
The way the bed is laid out currently, the only evergreens are the rhodie and the spruce. The PJM and hydrangea section looks rather empty come winter. However, we are not in a position to completely rip out the bed and redo. So I am just trying to work with what we have and maybe in a year or two, we can get to more extensive landscaping.
I would love to hear your suggestions for a broadleaf evergreen in this situation.

Thanks in advance
Vinaya

You have a darling house here. I love the bay window and the siding. If it were mine, I would try to find three more arborvitaes (the cone shaped one at your far right corner) and put one on either side of the porch and one at the other corner beside the driveway. In between the two arborvitaes on the driveway side, it looks like there would be room for an azalea, a boxwood, or some other kind of mounding evergreen that gets no more than 3 to 4 feet high.

IF your rhododendron is a type that's not going to grow up in front of your window, I'd get one more of it (absolutely, positively the same bloom color!) and plant it in the gap. If the rhody is going to get too big, move it, and replace it with some more of whatever mounder you use on the other side of the porch. THEN you've got some "bones". If the rhodys don't work and money permits, I would plant a second staggered row of the smaller mounder like boxwood in the middle, (In front of the first ones in a diamond pattern.) so that you avoid the look of soldiers lined up in a straight line across the front of your house. If you do this, add two more in front of the short row by the driveway, so that you have 3 planted in a triangle between the two arborvitaes. One would be at the wall and the other two in front of that one.

I like bboy's point about being able to see your flowers from your windows. You could extend your bed line out from the house to echo the shape of the bay window (But about 4 feet or so out beyond the edge of the same window.) In that space you could plant small ever blooming roses, perennials and/or annuals, and they'd get plenty of sun and rain AND be visible from the inside of the house.

If you dislike the barren-ness of your hydrangeas in winter, underplant them with bulbs: snowflakes, mini daffodils, arum italicum pictum (if hardy, this would be my first choice because of gorgeous foliage all winter long), ipheion, or even muscari. With the bulbs, you'll hardly notice the bare skeletons of the hydrangeas. Then the hydrangea will camouflage the rotting foliage in late spring.

You can plant the bulbs to within 3-6 inches of the trunks, but don't dig holes. Just take a narrow trowel, "stab" the ground and pull back to make an opening, then put the bulb in, pushing the soil back forward. Don't be shy! Plant the bulbs fairly close together and cover the entire area of the shrubs, and even come out a foot or so from their outer most branches.

I hope this will give you some ideas! Remember, you can easily divide this project into stages: evergreens first, bulbs this fall, then next spring work on the flower area.
Have fun! :)

donnabaskets, thank you so much-for the compliments on the house and all the ideas! You have given me so many ideas! I hadn't even considered taking up the lawn in the small section next to the driveway and making the bed bigger! I like the idea of three pronged symmetry on both sides of the porch. Also, thanks for correcting my impression on what the shrubs in the bed are. Forgive the ignorance of this novice gardener :-)
Maybe this is a stupid question, but am I right in thinking that the huge monster taking over our house on the left is also an arborvitae? It looks to be a different species than the one on the right. To my untrained eyes, it looked like the one on the right was a dwarf alberta spruce but now I see I was wrong.
The rhodie is unfortunately the type that grows too big. What you see in the pics is the after it had been hacked down by one-third! I wanted to get it smaller but was afraid I would affect the viability of the plant if I took off too much at one go.
I also like ur and bboy's idea about increasing the size of the bed under the window so that we can see it from inside. As it is now, we have to lean on the window to see it!

I also have one other general question-would now be a good time to buy and plant shrubs? I was wondering if I should wait till the weather cools a little bit-we are just hitting 80-90s this week and it will only get hotter from now till late aug.
Sorry for so many questions- but i really appreciate all the time you all put into this forum helping new gardeners like me get started up! I can see how gardening can get addictive!
I would love more suggestions too!
Thanks
Vinaya

think outside the box ....

which to me means... make the bed twice as deep ....

make the whole little part on the left of the pic a garden bed .. its a useless piece of grass anyway .... and you can do so much better than the bush on the left side of the house ....

and extend the bed on the right .. twice as deep ... and sweeping around to include the walkway ....

foundation plantings are planted to hide the foundation ... NOT to be planted on the foundation ....

all the shrubs you are considering ... if they get 5 feet tall .. will be 5 to 10 feet wide... they should be planted 5 to 7 feet from the house ....

if you start building the bed now.. you ought to be ready to plant in october .. when you have cool days and cooler nights .... just do NOT buy stock that has been tortured in the parking lot of the bigboxstore all summer ....

buy from a good nursery.. that will give you a warranty ...

in the garden .. NEVER BE LIMITED BY WHAT WAS THERE BEFORE.... its time to let the prior owners dreams fade away .. and make your mark on the front of the house ....

you might even want to consider a retaining wall .. since the brick on the house starts 2 feet above the basement wall ... below is a pic of the front of my house.. it seemed to float on top of a hill .. and the brickwall seems to secure it to the ground.. giving me large beds.. for nice stock .. that isnt all that close to the house... but from the vantage point.. hides the foundation ....

revamping the front of your house should not be a one day.. one weekend deal ... you have all summer and early fall to develop a plan ... and start building.. what will hopefully become the standout house on the block ....

good luck whatever you decide ..

ken
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I cannot tell from your picture exactly what the "monster" shrub is. It is possible it is some kind of arborvitae, there are so many kinds. However, it is too large for the area, and I really think getting some vertical interest (which is what the cone shaped arborvitaes will do for you) will work wonders. I would either move it somewhere else or just get rid of it altogether. I am pretty certain that the one on the far right corner is not an Alberta Spruce. If it were, it's a lovely shrub and you would want three more of that, but that would cost a pretty penny!

As far as buying and planting shrubs now. If they are plants that have been growing in a container, there is no reason they can't be planted now. Whenever you plant them, and most especially in the dead of summer, you want them to go into well prepared, amended soil with lots of mulch over them, and a thorough job of watering them at planting time. If you provide these conditions, they shouldn't need rain or water more than once or, at the most, twice a week for the rest of the summer. The good thing about planting them now is they have that much longer to get their roots established before winter. If, however, it is too hot to do a good job of soil preparation, I would encourage you to wait until cooler weather.

I have one "on second thought" to share with you. I suggested ever blooming roses for in front of the bay window. You need to watch the light conditions there carefully. Since you are on the northeast side of the house, you may, or may not have enough sun. Roses need direct sunlight a bare minimum of 6 hours a day, and more is better. If they won't get that, there are plenty of other lovely plants that will. :)

One more note: When you get ready to plant, use a tape measure. You want to leave one full foot of empty space along the foundation of your house so that you can get back there for maintenance, window washing, etc. AND you want your plants to have enough space to grow into their spots without becoming pruning nightmares. SO, let's say you choose a boxwood that says it will get three feet high by three feet wide. (This would be a Korean Box. Very good shrub here, and probably very good there. ASK.) You would plant the center of the trunk exactly 2 1/2 feet from the foundation wall. (1 foot of empty space, plus half the mature spread of the shrub: 1 1/2 feet, to equal 2 1/2 feet). Then you measure 3 feet over from the center of that shrub to the center of the next box and plant the next one 2 1/2 feet from the wall and 3 feet from the other box. (They spread 3 feet, so they need 3 feet between themselves: 1 1/2 feet for each bush.) If your arborvitae gets 3 feet wide at maturity (Emerald would.), it would get the same spacing as the boxwoods: 1 1/2 feet of spread for the Arborvitae, plus 1 1/2 feet of spread for a boxwood equals 3 feet apart. You know how neat and professional landscaper's plants always look? They measure to get those night straight rows and even spacings. You can do that too!

Good luck!

donna said : When you get ready to plant, use a tape measure. You want to leave one full foot of empty space along the foundation of your house

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one full foot on the mature size .... ken

One more "on second thought". :) The more I look at your picture, the less space there appears to be between your porch and driveway. If there is less than five feet, just use one arborvitae centered on the wall between the door and the corner, and you may not need the lower shrubs there, especially if you fill in that area with perennials. If there's five feet, use one arborvitae and the lower mounders. It doesn't look to me like you have more than five feet.

ken, thanks for sharing pics of ur house..it looks really nice with the retaining wall. Our next door neighbors just did that and we were thinking of doing the same too. One q I had with it was are there drain pipes/holes built in at the bottom. I am wondering if all the water from the watering is supposed to go through the ground or will it end up seeping next to the foundation?
you are right about having a long term plan in mind. I do have an idea of what I want for the hardscapes. Its the filling the beds with the plants that I am having trouble with. If i get some time this weekend or whenever, I will come back to u guys with a rough plan that you could critique.
donna, thanks for the detailed instructions on measuring and spacing plants. Its this kind of detail that is hard to find in books and were you experts on GW save the day!
I understand about the need to leave space next to the foundation. What do you do hide the gaps visible from the porch while you are opening the door etc?
You are right, I don't think I have five feet next to the driveway, probably about four feet at the widest but it will still be fun to plan a bed in that spot.
I will have to go back to the drawing board and plan the full thing-something I have been dreading to do as then it would involve big $$$ at one shot..
anyway, thank you so much for the input. I will come back with a full scale plan after some research and "talk" with DH :-)
Vinaya

Do some searching online for the size and dimentions of plants first. In fall there are terrific sales at local nurseries, that is when I get the real bones for my yard. A lovely small japanese maple would look great, but they are pricey, even on sale. There is the Itea, Little Henry, and Garnet, different sizes. Blooms white in spring, then in fall turn a lovely red foliage color, so you have flowers, then greenery, then red foliage, so I call that money well spent. There are short vibrums that bloom in spring, or late winter. Research if the plant will become a "thug", which I have become more aware of. A weigelia is always lovely, they bloom and the one, wine and roses, has lovely red foliage all summer. You must have acid soil from the color of your hydrangea, unless you gave it something to make it blue. That would be taken into account for a plant, does it like that type soil. Then there are the lovely grasses that stay all winter with the feather heads on them. I don't mean pampas grass, just decorative grass. For under some of the other shrubs, there are nice sedums that grow well under shrubs, and I have one that is blooming pink flowers now, but I do not know the name of it, it was a gift without a tag. You have a great place there to work with, and don't buy until you are positive that that is what you want to look at for a long time.
Darlene

drainage ....

first... downspouts.. 4 inch black plastic piping run about 4 feet past the wall .. buried an extra foot deep [dont forget.. i am on a hill which allows them to surface naturally ] ... allows roof water to run out from the beds ... but you have them on the sides.. and there is a bit of slope to the right of the pic .... so you should be all set... once a year.. make sure they are cleaned ....

the wall should be shorter than where the brick starts... and the bed is 6 inches .. or so ... higher at the house... than at the brick ... in other words .... the soil should start about 3 or 4 inches down from the house brick .. then taper down to the wall height .... foundation/basement cement can handle dampness .... that is what it is made for .. but you are correct.. we dont want to create pooling .... hence the angling

fortunately for me.. i have pure mineral sand .... we got 3.5 inches of rain the other day .. and i could have driven a truck over it the next day barely leaving a tire print... the ultimate in drainage ... if you are working in god-forsaken clay .. make sure to ask an expert about how to deal with it regarding your ???'s

good luck

ken