A small bed under the eaves is unlikely to have anything that will grow well. It will be in the rain shadow of the eaves. Not sure what you mean by horizontal cutaways.

You are right about planting under the eave, which means avoiding any cut outs of a bed (cutaways). It sounds like the easiest option is to use concrete over the entire walkway section. I thought about having 10" concrete border all around the front walkway with a stamped concrete path in the middle.... using straight/angled lines. Other thoughts?

The concrete square stepping stones are economical..can be laid with space between …filled with pea gravel …looks pretty and an easy diy and easier to repair or change if needed …what do you plan for the huge area in front of the garage?…it looks like material will gravitate if you have any weather extremes

As to plantings ,consult a local nursery as to what will be evergreen…perhaps interesting shapes…need little pruning..infrequent watering….low maintenance…unless you love doing gardening while you are there ..keeping it simple but striking will be best….

Do you need to shovel in the winter? Think about where the snow will go and if the shovel will dig up any of the surface.

Yes the huge gravel area makes it look like a parking lot. What you don’t see are the other 30x40 garages that hold all the snowmobiles, 4 wheelers, side x sides, etc. And we use more than a shovel to plow the snow, but changing that is beyond the scope right now. So....for the front entrance I am leaning to designing a 10-12 inch border of regular cement and using a stamped and perhaps color cement for the walkway inside of the border. I have only seen pavers used as a border and worry about my idea.

I don’t know if I would go to the trouble of stamped or colored concrete. Seems as though snow and salt are problems for those treatment: https://randmconcrete.com/4-winter-maintenance-tips-stamped-concrete/. Why not just plain concrete or an aggregate?

thanks N Johnson. What’s an aggregate?

I would alter the footprint of the walkway to get rid of that sliver of lawn, so it flows right into the gravel drive. People who park in the driveway will walk straight to the door, cutting across it. You know, those pesky Amazon deliverers, food delivery drivers, etc.

IMO first make the driveway narrower to just access the garages not 1/2 way across the front of the house so noly driveway to the place where you have the jut out and not one inch past that . Then take a pic of the house from the street please

Exposed aggregate is concrete with embedded pebbles revealed: https://www.everything-about-concrete.com/exposed-aggregate-concrete.html

Some option for front steps

The advantage to using separated squares..rather than solid surfaces..is that they will not crack or break as the extreme temperatures go from freezing to sunny …when the soil moves up and down due to moisture changes..having lived in Aspen for years…in a country setting …this method worked well over time with no un-repairable mishaps..solid concrete and blacktop will both tend to crack under these conditions

The squares come with aggregate finish that is less slippery when icy as well…

I like how the slate picks up the blue from the house and adding a border softens the angles-both are good ideas. I am leaning toward something more permanent like the slate or using cement aggregate for inside path with 12" plain white cement border. I am attaching a drone picture of the house (before we remodeled the front) but you can see how challenging it would be to straighten the driveway coming out of the garage attached to the house. I agree about that extra sliver of grass. Should I omit the border on that side or add gravel up to the walkway? My mason contractor is coming in July to do the front and add a back patio, fire pit etc (bigger challenge in my mind!). I will submit pictures for advice, stay tuned! Thanks to all - this discussion board is a great resource.