I think what you're mostly lacking is scale. Unfortunately scale takes either time or money. :-) If you want any trees in front, I'd do that first - well, this fall, anyway. Shrubs would be a main consideration, too. Though do check and see how big they get and plant for their mature size! It'll take a few years for your plants to mature, but it's worth the wait. If it were me, I'd put something tall at that corner to soften that edge; maybe a juniper? Though that close to the house, I'd check and make sure their roots won't become a problem. Other than that a twining vine on a trellis might be a good choice.

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

I like your selection of plants, but your drawing indicates that everything is going to be planted like a skirt around the house. I'm wondering if they are so packed in that some of the beauty of the plantings may be lost, and that you might not be able to even see the house. This format may be de rigeur for foundation plantings, but I am not a fan of them, and would like to elaborate on what Ken was saying. I manage property for a living, and over time, have removed many of the foundation plantings from the properties I manage. People plant shrubs and trees that are cute little things from the nursery with no regard to the fact that they can grow huge at mature size. Over the years they become difficult to maintain and the homeowner is enslaved in a battle of hedge clippers vs. foundation plantings. Inevitably, they have to be removed. Foundation plantings also encourage rodent and insect pests, harbor moisture against the house, encourage the growth of mildew, and rot out trim and siding. Houses need to breathe. The homeowner needs room around the house for misc. maintenance and a place to put the hose. When the house needs a new roof or paint job, workers need places set up their equipment, throw the shingles, and tromp around the house. General rules of thumb: no vegetation should be touching the house. No vines growing on house. 2 feet minimum between side of house and branches at mature size. 10 feet between roof and tree branches. Personally I don't care if you can see my foundation. There are a few standard shrubs around the house, but mostly I use dwarf shrubbery, perennials and bulbs. Have you considered easing up on some of the foundation plantings and creating an ornamental border for some of the plants? Perhaps planting the specimen trees in the yard instead?

Thank you to everyone and especially to Worthy for posting my pics on the "builder's only" site. That was really helpful. After reading all the comments here and on the site Worthy posted on, plus everything else I can find about foundations and foundation repair and after talking to an engineer (from another state unfortunately) who has the expertise to actually do non-destructive foundation testing, we've finally decided that our best option at this point is to go ahead and allow the builder to do the "cosmetic fix" with high-strength, non-shrinking grout and then keep our fingers crossed that no structural effects show up down the road. Turns out that appropriate non-destructive testing of the foundation is pretty much cost prohibitive for a residential project. Plus, such testing can only result in one of two outcomes: 1) A finding that there are no structural problems which means we've bought "peace of mind" at the cost of not having enough money to finish the build unless we scale back to the very most basic of finishes and leave out pretty much every detail that made this our "dream home" to start with. - ergo, we wind up with a basic tract-home quality house that was built for a high-end custom-home price and which we would never ever be able to sell for what it cost to build; or 2) A finding that there are structural problems which will cost who knows what amounts to fix and which, in theory, our builder should be liable for. Unfortunately, in the past two weeks, I have also discovered that our builder lied to us and to our bank about having appropriate insurance in place before the foundation was poured. That in itself was a total breach of our contract and fraud but no insurance company will now insure the foundation because the work done prior to coverage! Plus, it has become clear to me that despite my having checked his references - including his financial status with his bank - he is actually on very thin ice financially. I suspect his bank is actually aware of this but was less than forthcoming to me about his status. All of which means, if we found out we actually do have foundation problems, he would probably bail from the whole contract and possibly even split town! My lawyer tells me a lawsuit in that event would be throwing good money after bad because if the builder is essentially broke and had no insurance then he is pretty much judgment proof which means even if I win there would be no way to ever collect from him. So, if there are foundation problems, we would have to pay to have them fixed or sell the property - with a known bad foundation sitting on it but no house - to someone who could afford to either fix the foundation and finish the house or have it jackhammered out and start over fresh. (Can't even imagine what it would cost to jack-hammer out nearly 2000 sq ft of rebar reinforced concrete slab!) So, we have fingers crossed that there are no real structural problems and are going ahead with the build on the CHANCE that the foundation is "good enough" and we'll wind up with our dream home without losing our shirts in the process. I'm not usually a head-in-the-sand kind of person but, at this point, I don't feel I have any other viable choice. Needless to say, I am livid especially because I DID check this guy's references every which way from Sunday including checking the website of our state agency that is supposed to register and police builders. They showed him as having a clean slate but it turns out that their on-line records appear to be at least 18 months out of date because in the last two weeks I've found out about 2 major lawsuits that have been pending against him for well over a year - both of which include claims of fraud as well as whole strings of construction defects. Plus, I've found out that the county D.A. is considering bringing a grand jury on him and indicting him for criminal fraud! At this point, I'm hoping he manages to stay out of jail and not declare bankruptcy long enough to even finish my house. And in the meantime, I'm at the site every single afternoon checking every single thing that has been done that day for myself and spending half the night researching what each stage of the build SHOULD look like. Builder is still scheduling subs and directing the build but, after confronting him about his lack of insurance and the two lawsuits, he agreed that from this point on, all financial matters will be routed through me and I made d--n certain he got the requisite coverage. I have also contracted for an independent third party inspector (not ATS) to come out an do several "phase inspections" at key points in the build - although I can't imagine any other problems/defects that could be quite so potentially expensive to correct. Hopefully this nightmare won't get any worse but with all of this going on, I probably won't have much time for visiting this forum so again, thank you to everyone and I would deeply appreciate prayers, blessings, good thoughts, and/or the sending of positive karma my way.