Japanese Yews, although somewhat overused, would be the best bet as per your specific request of a fast grower, easy pruner. I will add that Japanese Yew will grow fairly well on the shady side of the house, better than almost any other evergreen. They grow nicely in even very poor soil, which is often encountered near a house's foundation. Also, once well established, they are the most drought tolerant of all evergreens I know of. J. Yews come in a variety of forms...upright, for columnar or cone shaped bushes, spreading, for mounded shaped bushes, and even spreading/creeping for use as groundcovers. One has to content oneself with dark green foliage if J. Yews are chosen. The varieties of foliage form and colors of Junipers and Chamaecyparis, which are also possibilities for you, but they for the most part are not good pruning candidates and should be left to reach the size potential the reach, often a bit too tall for any but very large houses. All hollies are rather slow growing, about a foot or less a year. A male pollinator is needed if berries are wanted. Good soil is needed, certainly they wil not thrive in anything but good soil, unlike J. Yews. The best designed foundation plantings I have seen are predominantly the various J. Yew forms (all pruned), interpsersed with: Junipers, Hollies, Rhododendrons and Azaleas, Chamaecylaris, and perhaps even Euonymous (all unpruned, growing free form as the plant is programmed to grow). Rootman

hi the bed you have there now.. is not even big enough to put a ladder in there to wash windows or do anything else .... i would suggest you triple the size of the bed.. so that 1/3 is left blank..AFTER the plants mature ... we have not seen the whole house.. but it looks multi-story.. and your bed.. as it is.. is not in proportion to the height of the house ... and that might be why you are struggling to conceptualize .... do grasp.. that foundation plantings.. are planted to HIDE the foundation.. NOT ON THE FOUNDATION ... it is one of the greatest errors made by the homeowner ... with that simply thought in mind.. just walk the 'hood'.. and see if you can start spotting.. who has done it right.. and who put all those cute little potted plants 2 feet from the brick.. and now have problematic monster ... the solution to that corner .. is either back in that triangle behind.. unless there is a gate there ... or about 10 feet towards the camera .. in the lawn ... again.. you are focusing at the foundation of the corner... to make the corner disappear.. from where you took the pic.. does NOT mean ... you plant ON THE CORNER ... get out of the box you have placed yourself in ... good luck ken

Cottage gardens also often include sheared hedges and sometimes even topiary. These form a contrast to the masses of cottage flowers. What you are talking about is sheared versus unsheared. I wonder if Minneapolis Cooperative Extension would have web pages listing suitable small shrubs for your climate and soils.

Fragrant Pathways is a sport of Gardenia jasminoides 'Radicans' that I found while I was propagator at Gilbert's Nursery, Chesnee, S.C. in the mid 1990's. It has thicker foliage and set itself apart from the parent plant when side by side in a cold frame one winter the block of what would become 'Fragrant Pathways' survived, while typical 'Radicans' died from bark split injury. Should be a great groundcover/ low foundation shrub with proprtions slightly smaller than 'Radicans' Like most gardenia the foliage can discolor a bit in full winter exposure in upstate SC, but I have seen no burning or defoliation occur. I am excited the plant has caught on and is becoming known by gardeners.