what about the blue star.. on the far side of the sidewalk .... lets think outside the box for a moment.. why are you limiting yourself to those little spots ... and why straight across the house ... its.. well... boring ... second pix.. start on the far left side.. about 4 feet down the side we cant see.. and make a large 10 foot circle.. then dip back in toward where the rhodie is.. then back out toward the outside of the sidewalk ... at least 3 feet.. i could Photoshop it if you had a pic of the whole front .... instead of all the individual pix ... does any of that make sense???? its not really the best planting time.... w/o supreme TLC ... get all those pots out of direct sun.. we dont want to cook the roots ... the north side of the house would be best.. keep them damp.. but not dripping wet .... if you took a few weeks to define and build some great beds.. you will have enough space for all you have.. plus have the space to set them properly .... and then you will be more in line with a proper planting time in sept [depending where you are] .. when cool nights offset the warm days... that is root growing time .. i am not reading where you are.. or what zone you are ... and.. what is your soil type .... unless i missed it on review ... ken

I'd match the siding if you opt to paint (I did both, but we only have less than a foot of foundation showing on one side, which I painted, because I have foundation plantings on that side. The back side walkout I left bare concrete. It's shady there, tends to be mildewing by spring, so annual pressure washing of the walkout area is a must. If I had painted it I'd be blasting paint off with every pressure wash ;) Here are a few quick doodles I did: one to match the siding, one that matches the window trim and the other a deeper version of the siding (too much contract imho). Of the three painted option, I personally like it painted to match. Eliminates that band of color around the base and therefore makes your home appear much larger ;) Keep in mind once you get landscaping in around the foundation (if you're opting for that) it will hide a lot of that concrete area. Siding match: Window trim match: Darker shade of putty:

I think that walkway looks hideous. It also looks like a tremendous amount of prep and expense for something which should be simple. Good luck with maintenance. If you had done conventional interlock, which looks much better in my opinion, it would be trivial to pick it up and re-level if the base settled.

In looking at the first photo I was wondering how one gains access to the door. I prefer when there is a clear path to the entrance. I also notice in later pictures that shrubs were planted much too close to the house. My suggestion would be to reshape the border to eliminate the bed on the street side of the path. New shrubs should not be planted so close to the house. The remainder of the beds could be filled with low perennials/ground cover. I do not live in your zone so I can't recommend specific plants. Black or navy blue would be nice for the door.