You have a lot of colors going on out there already. The red brick, cream house, brown roof, and then theres the gray porch, that goes with nothing. Might just be time, to stop and evaluate a bit, before you do anything else. Its a very cute house. Look for similar houses online and see how others have done things. You may want to think about repainting the porch brown, and even repainting those landscape fences brown.

So sounds like you both hate this edging. Unfortunatey the brick and roof came with the house and are out of budget to replace. We changed the house paint from bright yellow to what it is now. I always like visible edging on lawns. are there other options to consider?

I think something neutral and dark, like how your roof looks in the picture (not necessarily how it looks in real life) would work fine for what you're trying to do.

No, I dont hate your edging. I think in the right color it will be fine. Your roof is fine too, as is the brick and the color of the house. Its the porch, that is throwing everything off. A brown similar to the color of the roof, for the porch and also the edging would look much more cohesive. Right now, its the gray porch that is very wrong.

the grey porch is just concrete. Do I paint it?

My plan was to power wash off all the white paint the last owner left and leave as is, but I can look into making it brown.

The driveway and floor look better the colors they are now than brown. Paint the porch a grey in order to make it look clean and tidy.

Landscape by cutting a bed 36” in front of your foundation, plant boxwood, euonymus, or other shrubs add black mulch and forget the edging. Long term fix. Honestly, you will always be playing with that edging.

And when you try to remove grass that grows between the edging, you will REALLY hate it.

Got to say I don't think the edging is a great idea. The bed needs to be wider than 36 ins imo and would look best with a good sharp cut edge, not wonky shingles, which, as Lacy says, will be a nightmare to keep clear of grass and to maintain straight and upright.

I will be hammering 1 foot stakes into the ground every 2 feet and brad nailing the edging to it to ensure it will stay rigid and straight. The bed is 30 inches, but I’m curious why the bed width would matter? I want to lay mulch and plant bushes there. should I just omit the edging? I also have a tree on my lawn that I would like to lay mulch and plant small flowers around And I feel I need edging there as well.

Unless you are attempting to restrict a movable underlayment for hardscaping (sand or crusher course), you never need edging. It is only a personal choice. The right type of edging can help with the ability to mow well and close to the bedline but flimsy wooden pickets are not it!! Just a clean, sharp edge between lawn and soil is all that is required and that can be done with a good, sharp edged garden tool.

As to the width of the bed, 30" is undersized for virtually all shrubs and many perennials.....36" is scarcely better. You want sufficient bed depth (from foundation to lawn) to accommodate the mature spread of the plant in question without encountering the structure plus room to access behind for maintenance needs. And most folks do not favor a narrow row of shrub soldiers lined out but would prefer a layered look of a mixture of plants of different sizes. And that requires more depth than a skimpy 30". There is also the aesthetic question of the depth of the foundation beds being in scale with the structure, so they should have a depth equal to at least 1/3 the height of the structure. 5-6' at a minimum but deeper is better.

Flower beds, shouldnt be straight, like the house either. You will create a lot more curb appeal and interest if you make it a lot deeper and curve it. To get a pleasing curve, take a garden hose and lay it where you want it to be, and then go around and adjust it to a pleasing curve. Once you get it right, then spray paint that area, and start digging. :-)