I know, it was a lot of words :)

After posting, I realized there was a 4th option - no wall :) - fun plant border and perhaps a winding path through the area with a bench in the middle.

"Does a raised bed in this context make sense?" Not to me. The flat (top) portion of your wall (in the example illustration) would be at the back of the bed ... toward the house? ... such that there would be a walking space between house and raised bed? If that's the case, it seems to me you are forcing a very foreign feeling entity onto the landscape ... a large, weighty "object" raised above grade, right in front of the house. And you will "raise" it even higher by planting in it. To me, this evokes a vision similar to those "waterfalls" that people build in their yard that are raised entirely above the surrounding grade ... a waterfall just sitting on top of the lawn! These are not good and look very fake.

Nothing against a drystack (un-mortared) wall here. A well done one can look good. But a poorly done one looks more like a trail of stones left to help someone find their back to the starting point and is better not done. In order to look good, such a wall must look solid and beefy, as though if bumped into stones are not going to dislodge. It would probably be a couple of feet thick. Its top must be level ... or of a uniformly and gradually descending slope. If there is a change, the change must be uniform and gradual. It cannot undulate left and right, or vary up and down in spite of what the grade does.

In the scene, your house is at the top of the hill. It would make more sense to me if a wall was incorporated into the grade rather than be raised in front of the house. In such a case the top of the wall would appear to die into the grade near the house. But going in the other direction, away from the house, the wall would become every more exposed as the grade would be falling away faster than the wall descends. In theory, the wall could be level. But one must account for what happens at the other end. If you figured out where the wall ended and the elevation of the top of wall at that point, it would tell you the degree of slope of the wall. It could actually stick up above grade so long as you could hide that portion with planting. Or, depending on what the grade is actually doing (as it looks like it's raised at the far left side) it might could tie back into the grade. There are things to figure out about that. Anyway, here's my attempt at trying to give you a visual example of what I'm talking about, the pink thing being the wall. (I am not making any attempt to show what you might have planted in the bed.)

In general, I think the house scene would look better and more inviting if the bed did not project in front of, or so close to, the doorway/entrance area, as the existing bed now does.

On another subject, I really dislike that sucked in loop of lawn that penetrates into the woods. The bed line looks too haphazard to seem cultured. Pulling the bed out some and incorporating a 90* corner would look better. Of course, the advice on layout geometry is dependent on actually carefully laying it out in plan view.

Cannot really see it from here, but it looks like you might not have much foundation bed space directly in front of the house. Quality window boxes might be good for you.

Yardvaark - I'm most grateful for your reply. I take your points about the wall and you've answered my questions about whether the raised bed makes sense. One of my concerns had been how taller plants would look, in the raised bed - glad you pointed that out as well.

The left far side of the yard does slope up.

On another subject, I really dislike that sucked in loop of lawn that penetrates into the woods. The bed line looks too haphazard to seem cultured. Pulling the bed out some and incorporating a 90* corner would look better. Of course, the advice on layout geometry is dependent on actually carefully laying it out in plan view.

Regarding the sucked in loop of lawn, we probably should omit the tree in the middle, as part of our clean-up. Thank you for the mock-up - it was helpful.

Plan view : I assume a site plan with dimensions would be the next suggested step?

Here's a closeup of the loop and wall:

In general, I think the house scene would look better and more inviting if the bed did not project in front of, or so close to, the doorway/entrance area, as the existing bed now does.

This is exactly the kind of input I was hoping for. The surrounding trees are getting taller and the proposed area has both great sun and proximity to a water source - so it seemed optimal. I would like to work towards something which improves the look of the house, so have been aiming for a cottage garden type look to soften the rather rigid lines of the house.

Two years ago I had DH dig a 5' wide bed at the front.

We used to have two benches out front, but as you can see, I really only planted in containers and ran out of room. I felt there was too much 'empty' space showing on the hose.

In the interest of full disclosure, this is a dreadful picture from last year (I think I was fairly pleased most of the time).

View of the 'bed' from the front window, from just now :)

Yardvaark - thank you again. I'll work on the plan. Good idea about enlarging the foundation planting bed - I'm finding it too small.

I wrote this out yesterday before I read Yardvaark's response, so some of what I have written may repeat or contradict what he said.

Though you may not want to hear this, I have a few concerns, some practical and one aesthetic. I live in an area that looks fairly similar to yours. I don't know how long you have worked on gardening here, so forgive me if I bring up things you have already considered. For the aesthetic, you want to remember that this is the front of your home, and while the flowers pictured will give you summer interest, you will want some evergreens or other plants with winter, spring and fall interest such as interesting branches, colored bark, etc. to help provide structure and form to the bed in the 7 or so months of the year that your flowers aren't blooming. An evergreen groundcover could also work. You can most likely have flowers but you will also want some year-round plants; otherwise you will have an empty bed for about 2/3 of the year, and while some of the time that is under snow, something like 4 months of the year in my garden are both cold and snowless. Plants that need to be dug up like most of the bulbs pictured (not the lilies in the last photo) need to be planted in a separate part of the bed from shrubs or plants like the lilies that are true perennials in zone 5 so you aren't creating root disturbance.

Most of the plants you pictured really like all day sun and good soil, and I am not sure that even having taken down the marked trees and improved the soil you will find they grow well due to the conditions. Some of your trees may be species which don't share space well, so I would take good photos of buds and branching to get them IDed if you don't know what they are. That will allow you to judge how likely you are to get a fair amount of roots growing into the bed from nearby trees (whether the bed is raised or left at grade.) I think that while the trees currently may not shade much of the bed once the marked ones are down, the remaining trees will extend their branches to some extent to take advantage of the newly available sun. In a bed alongside a treed area like this, I might focus on plants that I know will do well with a mix of sun and shade and are relatively tolerant of dry conditions and are hardy enough to not need to be dug up annually. They also will look more natural against the tree line to my eye as the transition from a mass of flowers to native woodland might well look quite abrupt. Dogwood trees (Cornus kousa or Cornus florida), mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia), hardy rhododendrons, silverbell (Halesia), Epimediums (there's a world-class Epimedium nursery in MA) are some flowering plants that do well along wooded edges for me, but none of them will bloom all summer like those pictured above.

I think I would put the flowers in your photos up closer to the house, pehaps enlarging the current bed and replacing part of the lawn (which likes similar growing conditions), including something similar to what I mentioned above for winter interest. I think having a bed at least 8' deep and with at least a foot between plants and the house for maintenance would look better. If you have deer, you might want to consider a high fence or a regular spray program to keep them from eating your flowers since many flowers are quite attractive to deer.

NHBabs - we're 15 minutes south of the NH line so think we're in a similar zone/area. I inherited an established garden and working greenhouse 20 years ago - and the trees have been growing in the meantime, affecting both. Time to get rid of some trees! This will help the lawn, greenhouse and - as you say - remaining trees.

Points definitely taken about different seasons (I have a history of ordering the pretty plant or seed vs. creating a 4 season plan). This time, I'm commited to a plan, so hope to get all seasons considered.

Thank you for the pointer regarding root disturbance - I had not considered this.

We have so many trees - I do feel that taking down the larger ones will yield improvements. Admittedly, I hadn't thought that the remaining trees would step up. Food for thought:) My next step is to prepare a site plan. Your suggestions about plants that do well in sun and shade and dry conditions are well taken (how did you know I'm not good at watering?). I LOVED looking up the epimediums - thank you for including them. (I don't think I've seen them before). I do love the idea of more dogwoods sprinkled along the border but again - site plan, first. I'm from NC so am a huge fan of mountain laurel and rhododendrons. I do like the idea of enlarging the existing flower bed - 6' is better but 8' might be even better.

Deer are a known nuisance - I'll plant 1000+ bulbs every other year and have cursed the times I'm not out early enough with Deer-Off. (Great stuff). Sometimes the current dog helps, sometimes not :) Thanks again for your most helpful suggestions.

I have found both daffodils and Alliums to be resistant to munching by critters. If you want other specific plant suggestions once your plan is done, feel free to ask.