Be careful about putting a raised bed next to the foundation. It could cause water to seep in by the rim joists.

Make sure your plants are no closer than one foot from the side of the house when they are mature. Look for a variety of textures, color and height. Add some perennials for seasonal bloom. Put an ornamental tree like a redbud or a crapapple out in the yard to the left of the entry.

Good luck!

I was going to say the same thing about a raised bed. I have a sort of raised area off the corner of my house with a Japanese maple, but not near the foundation.

Your house has a very low roof. I think a raised bed would add to the squat look.

No need for a raised bed. And a small tree or large shrub pruned like a tree would look great just off the left corner. Just don't plant it too close to the house. The bed on that side should swing out to include it.

Your house would look best grounded in a midcentury modern landscape. I’d get rid of the window box, forget a raised bed. Choose a low, naturalistic groundcover to unify a broad area sweeping around the front and sides. Choose trees with architectural value that are in scale with the house. Design the plantings to be views from all sides (and inside), not just a flat stage set from center orchestra. Most people see a house from a moving position, either driving or walking. A clump or more of birches grounded in sedge jumps to mind, but I’d want to see the larger context. What grows naturally in your area? What do the best looking properties look like?

The squattiness of my house has always been something I don’t like about it. If I was going to be in this house longer than a few years. I definitely would change the roof line and the siding color (we joke that it is “fair-skinned flesh”). I do see how a raised bed could make things look even squattier. Even if I don’t do the raised bed, I definitely need to bring in a good amount of fill dirt and grade it away from the house because water currently pools near my foundation. My fiancé will probably disagree with nixing the raised bed— we spent hours looking at landscaping block this weekend 😂. I think I had the raised bed in mind because that is what the best landscaped houses around me have. I will take some photos of those houses and post them!

Here are some of the better landscaped homes around me. Sorry the picture quality isn’t the greatest, I took these while walking my dog.

You can definitely use the landscape blocks, just don't pile the dirt up against the foundation. I can't really explain it correctly, but you can mound the dirt more towards the outer rim of the beds.

I have a 1968 Ranch with the overhang like yours. I don't think it looks squatty, its just the look of that house style. We can't all live in super modern homes, lol.

I am in Michigan, sorry! Thanks so much for your recommendations.

You can do better than your examples! You're in Michigan where examples of Frank Lloyd Wright type mid-century modern houses abound. It's worth finding them for inspiration.

Yardvaark comes through as usual. His designs are well thought out and practical. Some designers cram many plants in too small spaces with disasterous results in a few years as the plants grow.

I live in z5B also, but I’m in Missouri. What’s the sun exposure of your house - as you look out the front door, which direction are you facing? If you have some shade, a fat limelight hydrangea at the left corner would be awesome.

The sample beds you posted with landscape blocks are nice and would look good at your house. But they’re not RAISED BEDS as is typically thought of in gardening terms. You don’t want a raised bed for the reasons everyone has mentioned. I think you’re on the right track, but raised is not the correct term for what you want.

The house faces north. The front yard is full sun, aside from 4-5ft right up next to the house. The east side of the house is full sun, the west side is shaded. Would the limelight hydrenga do okay in full sun if I kept it watered?

*hydrangea

The hydrangea might do ok there - if the house faces north the hydrangea would get the most sun in the morning, which is obviously better than full sun in the afternoon. Yes, water, especially in its first year.

The east side of your house would be an awesome spot for hostas with morning sun and afternoon shade. Michigan is a Hosta Wonderland!

Zone 5b huh? Right now you have a nice wide termite-free gap between the ground and your rim joist. I know they aren't terribly common in most of Michigan though although you technically do have them in that zone, I don't know how much of an issue you have in town with them.

Also, poured concrete foundations rely on outward drying to keep from pumping lots of moisture into your basement or crawl space. If you fill up the outside face with dirt all the way up, you may start having moisture drying inward too much.

Your examples are not well landscaped. They have the same problems most people do: they put stuff too close to the house, or things that are far too big so they have to constantly trim them back. Like with your first example home, those look like Yews on the left. Those bushes are naturally much larger than that. They have them too close to the foundation.

You can do a nice stone border for your shrub area without actually raising it if it is the enclosed look you are after.

We’ve got some topsoil brought in and things are already looking better. We’ve nixed the landscaping block and are going to do a ground level bed in the shape suggested by Yardvaark. Yardvaark, do you have any suggestions for the bushes/perennials in your mock up to help it look cohesive? I am leaning toward the PG Hydrangea for the tree.

We’re also going to take down the window box planter

Where I work, they have hydrangea trees planted in full sun and they look amazing!