Here’s another angle.

Please give us a hint where you're located (nearest big city & state).

Your home is lovely! Please keep plantings low. Taller plantings would obscure your pretty house. My neighborhood has mosquitos from hell so around here taller plantings would also harbor mosquitos and ruin your time on the front porch. .

The beds look narrow in these pictures. How big are they, measured from the ”new, curvy edging” to the house?

Don’t know where your located but it seems like you have quite a bit of height to window. Which is great i think it depends on your zone and what direction the house faces

Here are a few ideas:

Trees that will clear the roof line will also keep the house visible. I’d go high and low! I can’t make out the curvy lines of the beds but hopefully theyre not too curvy. Broad sweeps are what you need.

Wow, thank you for such a detailed reply, Dig Doug! That design made me gasp!

This is a more current look at our beds. A major question I have is what do I do in front of the windows and house… Doug, your thoughts were beautiful.

The beds are 5-6 feet I believe!

Please tell us there isn’t landscape fabric under the shingle......

What was the reasoning of installing all the rock?? Honestly, that will be a nightmare to maintain and plant in

If you want to be discouraging of our choices, I’m not interested. Thanks!

In front of the porch area …I would suggest an extended planter ..same height as the porch….and wide enough for the plantings that you have there…plus can be filled in with annuals …spring through fall…on the left…under the windows install alternate evergreen shrubs with what you have…that will be taller but not grow above the windows..just for aesthetics i would consider removing the gravel areas beside the walkway….and widen the walkway with a row of cement squares on each side…of the walkway….this will widen the path enough…without the mess and maintenance of all that gravel…at the least i would explore year round low ground cover options for the grass areas…to avoid the lawn mowing chore and add a prettier show of green year round

Stone mulch? Is this a xeriscaping project? Are you in Arizona or Nevada? It’s impossible to offer design advice without knowing the physical and aesthetic context!

I’m in South West Missouri… zone 6! Thanks for asking. :)

Shelby, csn you describe soithwest Missouri for those of us who arent familiar with It? Is it low rainfall? Are you planning to rake the gravel regularly to prevent the weeds that weeds that wlll arrive, or is the plsn to shade the ground enough to smother them? Have you thought about groundcover options? Im urgibg you to think of the overall design.

Heavy red clay, hot & dry summers (with occasional severe thunderstorms), cold winters. Similar to Oklahoma or north Texas. She needs xeriscape plants like perovskia, yucca, grasses -- soft, billowing masses of color to outline her beautiful home. But planting in that rock (with landscape fabric beneath it?) would be impossible.

you dismissed the question about plastic or landscape fabric under the rock... it interferes with waters ability to move in and out of the ground properly ...

ken

Shelby I like your gravel mulched planting bed! I‘m sorry you are getting so much negative response from it. I live in a dry climate where they are everywhere and a wide variety of plants thrive in them.

The consensus on this forum seems to be they are bad in wetter climates although when I was in England I saw very successful ones! I read a NY Times article about a proponent of them in Wisconsin who had a lot of good things to say about planting in gravel. Here’s a cut and past from the article, sorry I can’t figure out how to post the link.

The phrase “gravel garden” doesn’t resonate with Jeff Epping, although he’s a leading proponent of adopting this planting style, which is beautiful and exceptionally resilient.

“I’ve never liked the name, because it just doesn’t conjure the look of what’s possible,” said Mr. Epping, the director of horticulture at Olbrich Botanical Gardens, in Madison, Wis., where he created his first gravel garden in 2009, and has planted three more since.

I’m in north Missouri, a much more temperate climate than SW Missouri. But I’m familiar with it. The plastic/landscape fabric obviously will work better there than here, but still - I’d never do it.

Plastic/fabric in the landscape is evil. It interferes with rain getting to the soil and prevents natural decomposition of plant material into the soil, which is always a good thing. And when weed seeds (already present in the soil) germinate and find their way up through the plastic, it’s nigh impossible to pull those weeds. They become anchored into the plastic and it’s impossible to remove them without removing the plastic. And rocks on top draw and hold heat and roast desirable plants.

Obviously water under the bridge for the OP after all that work, but hopefully someone else can learn from this.

Edited to add: whatever is planted next to the house is too close. More roasting in the heat reflected off the house.

There is a nursery called High Country Gardens (www.highcountrygardens.com) that specializes in xeriscape gardening. They sell preplanned gardens (all the plants you need in coordinated colors to make an attractive garden). In a rural area, you probably don't have access to a local landscape designer so take a look at the High Country Gardens website and see if one of their designs appeals to you.

England is a lot drier than most people realize. Average annual rainfall for London is 30.4 inches, with fall averaging higher than spring. Compare that to NYC, which averages 47.2 inches a year, spread pretty evenly through the year. With that much rain, you are getting little to no weed suppression from a lack of water.

Thank you all for the helpful thoughts! I do believe there is landscape fabric from years ago that is probably not well in tact, Ken. :) I think we have learned the hard way it’s not a value on any level!

We are region 6 planting and the average rain fall is around 49.6 inch per year if that helps.

Landscaping is clearly nothing I’m familiar with! But I value the beauty so much. Thanks for helping me, especially around the windows for appropriate height!