Looks like you are building a retaining wall for a raise bed. I would not do that. You don't want to raise the area around the foundation and the window wells. It leads to wet basements and other issues.

Plant a variety of evergreen and flowering shrubs, perennials and annuals for long season color. Plant in odd number selections and a variety of heights. Find out the sun requirements and mature growth height and width.

It's a pity you removed everything that was there without assessing its value for your new plans. If the previous owners were gardeners you might have saved a lot of money by reusing good, mature plants. Too late now, sadly, unless you've thrown them in a distant corner on your property. Hydrangeas and boxwood are so common, you might already have some.

The beds are much too shallow back to front. Remove the peculiar looking wall and deepen the beds from to back front for starters, keeping in mind that every shrub you plant should be planted far enough from the house that it will not touch the house when it is fully mature. For example, a shrub that will be 8 ft wide should be planted 5 feet from the house.

Since your house is a low one story, you'll want small shrubs, but the same principle applies--4 ft wide shrub, plant 3 ft from house.

Yikes. Sadly, you would have been better off planning your planting prior to building the wall. You really want to plant shrubs far enough away from the house so they are not touching the house and have room to grow. How much depth do you have between the house and the wall? I'd plant hydrangea 3 ft away from the house, but it also depends on the variety.

Think about what you want your home to look like in the winter and spring prior to leaves coming up. Mix some evergreen shrubs with hydrangea or it will look very desolate in the winter.

In the front it’s 6 feet from the front, on the side 4 feet from the wall. We didn’t save because everything was overgrown or dying. The owner just died at 95. It had not been touched for a very long time.

Not everything needs constant TLC. In fact, most things don't.

I am very accustomed to pruning plants that look half dead, when in reality, about 4 or 5 main branches (out of 15 or so) are dead. Once those are removed, the shrub looks MUCH better, and can go about the business of filling in. It's work, but it can really pay off. As for watering, fertilizing, and all the other things the snake oil salesmen try to convince you are necessary - Nope.

The walled beds are definitely too small. The side one will only hold very, very small shrubs or small perennials. The front is big enough for meatballs, but little else.

Here is an example of the jungle we were working with. Like I said , it looks like they were into gardening decades ago. The last just died at 95, so I don’t think she was doing any gardening for a very long time. How wide should the beds be? Right now they are 6 feet and 4 on the side.

6’ and 4’ beds are manageable, but not big enough for hydrangeas unless you get one of the smaller varieties. Little Lime, Bobo, etc. But the side bed, the 4’ bed, is too small for shrubs except the very smallest ones. Check plant tags for mature sizes!!!!

If you’re a new gardener, pick only 3 or so types of plants. For instance, a little hydrangea or two, one other accent shrub, and coneflowers. Small beds can quickly become overgrown and out of control. In the beginning, restraint is key. In a couple of years, see if you have room for other things.

Soften the curves of the edging wall. An easy way to do that is to mow a swathe around the house and don’t make sharper curves that you can mow. No sense making extra work for yourself.

As houssaon said there's no need for a retaining wall/raised bed. The grade on your lot looks great so why mess with it? Adding soil around the house would be a mistake. Remove two courses of brick so it's just an edging to keep the mulch in place not a wall. The squiggle around the tree will make mowing/edging a chore. Curves should be gradual. Can you make the front bed all the width of the portion by the tree?

What’s done is done re: any previously salvageable foundation shrubs.

The real issues are: 1) what to plant, as that determines how far from foundation to place it-such as if doing a small tree ( or shrub that gets tall) diagonally out from house corner , as that might become 12-15 feet out, or more; shrubs that may be smaller that are below front windows but could be several feet wide, and so on. So you’d start with rough plan on paper and sort of “ bubble diagram ideas based on sun exposure and climate, growing conditions, what you like ( or think you like, as a beginning!) or what you see in other yards that look good.

2. recommendation to NOT build up soil next to foundation. Doesn’t mean you can’t have an edging stone, just that it wouldn’t be a foot high and filled with soil that now can’t slope away from foundation. Raised type bed could be sited farther out.

   So I think you’re trying to avoid creating a large rectangular space ( meaning doing a lot of work, bringing in soil & digging it all up) and then going back to say, now what do I plant here. You could though make rough temporary partial outlines.

I don’t think my husband’s intention was to ever fill it in with soil. I think his intention with building the wall this high was so you can see it from the street, since our house is not at street level. He could, however, remove some to make it shorter.

I’m just really confused on how wide the beds should be? Even just looking at neighbors right now, no one has super big beds but they have plants. Perhaps most plant too close to the house? We will go to the nursery and ask. And I understand we need to longer the wall, but we shouldn’t even keep one layer of the stones?

Here is another picture of the front.

So I hear your idea of something more visible from street. You don’t have your give that up— just re- interpret.

It might mean you want some evergreen shrubs that are variegated or god- green. It might be a birdbath or garden statue. There might be a shrub that does well in a container in your zone & the container is a lighter color & placed within the foundation planting area. Something like that would be more pleasing, the way I think about gardens, than using a long wall of white-ish faux stones. Plus the wall idea, even if not backfilled, makes it much harder to access your plantings for weeding , watering, mulch. Plus you might not install everything at once.

Oh thanks for the new picture! Now we can see what’s up much more clearly.

It is small, to be sure, but it’s workable. Personally I would remove the top row of stones and use them to make the swoop at the corner of the house larger, especially since you have that beautiful tree there. A larger bed will help showcase the tree.

Your husband does nice work. He gets an attaboy from me!

I'm sorry if it feels like we're all criticizing you. Let me try again...

Look at the above photo of your home. Notice how wide the eaves are. rain doesn't reach the soil under the eaves so this soil stays dry. That's good for the house. If you plant close to the foundation then water the plants to compensate for the dry soil, your foundation will get wet. that's bad for the house.

Houses need air circulation around them and they need maintenance. Imagine a repairman replacing a window pane. They need to be able to walk around the side of your house and have space to work.

So we want your shrubs to be planted far enough away from the foundation so that you won't be watering a lot or trimming them frequently. A small local nursery with a design service can create a planting plan for you and then you'll know how wide the beds should be.

If you like the wall just the way it is, you can certainly keep it but don't fill that space with soil. Or remove bricks to reduce the height of the wall. Just don't add soil around your foundation.

So remove top row, make the corner larger, and on the side where it’s 4’ maybe widen it to 6’? How wide would we make it if we wanted hydrangeas?

Hydrangeas come in different sizes (no kidding!) Some are three feet wide and some are six feet wide. You need to choose which kind you want at the nursery :)

We need constructive criticism so no worries :) I just wish my husband did it BEFORE he did all this work. In his defense, he never wanted the wall that high, it’s just the slope of the yard made it difficult. And he never planned on adding soil.

Yes, I know hydrangeas are not evergreen. That’s why we wanted it on the side and not the front and wanted a mixture of evergreen and perennials in the front. Plus the amount of sun we get on the side vs the front allow for hydrangeas there. We have big spruce trees around the side if our property that limits some sun on the side, so we need plants that do well in part shade.

Megan, you are a trooper! If you had not pulled everything out, then everyone on here would have said - "Pull everything out. It looks terrible!"

I have no idea where these magical garden centers are that all provide design services. But, I would go shopping around at many and try to talk it up with the most knowledgable person there. Show them the pictures, and also make a little drawing so they know exactly how many feet you are trying to plant both length and depth. I do this a lot and get conflicting info from different centers. Plus, some just don't sell what I am looking for. In the end, you will learn a lot, and come up with your own scheme. Run it by here again and you will be good to go.

Here are the "little lamb" hydrangeas we had at our last house (in North Dakota). I just looked it up, and that variety is no longer available - similar size is "bobo".

The bed (next to the garage) is 4' deep, with a little wooden edging to keep the mulch in, and 4x4s buried into the ground outside the edging so we can mow right next to the bed. We cut the bushes down in the fall.

May (the plant on the right is a shrub rose):

July:

August:

"...everyone on here would have said "Pull everything out. It looks terrible!""

That's a bit unfair. Regulars here would never say that. We always encourage posters to identify what they have as a starting point before they do anything drastic or expensive. As it happens, having seen the picture, Megan did have a lot of burnweed and pokeweed, which needed to go, but there was a nice little dwarf conifer there which could have been useful and would be pricey to replace. All we are trying to say is that for future reference ask the questions before you dig everything out and commit time and money to construction.

How big the bed has to be depends on the plants planted there, and how large (old) they are. There aren't really general guidelines for how large a foundation bed should be like there are guidelines for how wide a driveway or walkway should be. It depends. Which is a big reason why IME, very few foundation beds have hard edging. The bed gets bigger as the plants get bigger. This is going to be particular important for you because the evergreens are probably going to end up being types of conifers that don't take particularly well to pruning. (yews won't be able to handle the deer, boxwood won't be able to handle the combination of cold and winter sun)

I didn’t like what the previous owners. They planned so many different types of plants, it wasn’t cohesive at all to me. Plus it was so overgrown and weeds everywhere, I was embarrassed and I just wanted a blank slate. Maybe some don’t agree but i have no regrets. I don’t understand how boxwoods won’t work when I see so many houses with them around me? I don’t need these extravagant flower beds, I just want simple and nice. I don’t have time to have the 12 feet garden beds that were there before.

Boxwood suffers when there is frozen ground and sun. It literally burns because the roots can't pull enough water out of the ice to replace what evaporates out of the leaves. This doesn't happen if it gets winter shade. Given your comments about the hydrangeas and sun, I'm assuming the front gets pretty much full sun all year.

Our local library had gorgeous boxwoods that regularly handled extremely cold winters (-20s F). The secret was that they were planted on the front of a building that faced north- northeast. I have a row of boxwoods where the south end gets fried when we go much below zero. The rest gets shade from deciduous trees, but the low winter sun comes in under the branches and gets the very end.

So it isn't a simple matter of 'this plant is good here'. Sometimes it matters exactly where it is placed. Then there are the variables of summer heat, how much precipitation, when it falls, soil type, etc. Which is why a lot of people give a geographic location as well as zone.

My husband is actually taken said wall down as i type this, so no I’m not resisting all advice. I’m just confused on some of the advice because it’s conflicting to all the houses around me. I’m planning on going to the nursery once I get time. I’m not dead set on boxwoods and hydrangeas at all. I just know from how much sun the side of my house gets because of the privacy trees to the side of it, it needs to be something that is not full sun. So please don’t just assume I’m not taking advice because I’m trying to understand why they are bad choices.

housegal, I think that’s a little simplistic and harsh. Although I understand that at some point the questions get frustrating. I at some points in posts will have to take my own ball & go home if I don’t think I have anything further to add.

I believe there are some very cold- tolerant boxwoods. And not sure all are grown in winter shade, but maybe there’s may a spot for them in area around the corner. . There are smaller hydrangeas as noted above. One is also entitled to plant a deciduous flowering shrubs in the front foundation. Sometimes these are very effective behind a lower evergreen. Hello, roses and boxwoods. But yes, good to know they won’t be the best winter interest, dried gray flower heads both withstanding. We don’t have a complete sun- map/ climate map here so it’s great to point out cautions and OP can go see where the successful boxwoods are growing in local yards. And the shrub forum might be a good forum if asking, what can I grow that’s evergreen, only this tall & wide, for this many hours of sun in this zone/ nearest city. Because so far we’re shot on what TO plant. Plus I did once hire a landscaper that work with a local independent well- known nursery and he did a cookie-cutter job & placed shrubs & small tree too close to house , so in 5 years they were a problem. And I did not know any better at all then. So it can be a crapshoot. Though potentially still very good approach and one where it’s great if one can get a planting proposal ( for a fee of course) and then research everything ! Or get HOUZZ critique. But not always possible. Megan, I get back to that idea of doing little brainstorming on the kind of look you want. Then the idea of going nursery- browsing & read some tags about sizes( though the tree & shrub folks will remark , things actually get bigger because some keep on a-growing’. ) That’s why it’s hard to give an outline of bed and depth. If you want 2 layers of shrubs + small perennials you may easily need 12 to 15 feet, because of the advice you got to leave at least a couple feet breathing room by house walks, and that is measured from the spread of shrubs when mature( so even a modest shrub might be planted 5 feet from wall). Then as is normal, you have maintenance concerns. Are you planning to use a lot of mulch & refresh yearly or so? Because there’ll be a lot of mulch in a large bed. I don’t think that’s bad, just that some people are taken aback when their foundation bed looks like a lot of mulch. Yes, there are groundcovers but there’s a whole other though process about what and how to use those if there are other plantings too. Better to fill in with other smaller things when you’ve determined what are the “ foundation of your foundation “. That’s why a poster above focused on planting the things in their right spots— distance from house & each other , sun, etc, and not as much on their being in a “ bed”. The bed kind of evolves over time - unless you have a detailed knowledgeable design.

You can also note your house’s orientation on the map & drive around to see what similar facing front foundations are. Though of course that’s limited, since there will be soil & irrigation & sun/ shade you can’t map in a drive- by.

So

With regards to planting away from the house, I am going to throw in my two cents. When we first moved to our house almost 30 years ago, I was so excited to be able to have a multi-level yard that backed to woods. It was a relatively blank slate in the back once I got rid of the bamboo and ivy. Hmmm, still fighting both, but the bamboo was gone for a while and now returning from the neighbor's side of the fence. Anyway, there were shrubs very close to the house in front. I wish I had removed them! Anything I plant now goes pretty far from the foundation. It is true that the ground will be very dry under the eaves. Very dry. This year, I am regreting not putting evergreen trees in the far back since our elderly friend who owned the woods died and her heirs sold to a developer. I do have evergreens on the hill that are now doing a great job of screening one of the new horrors behind us (what is the allure of 9,000 square foot 'modern farmhouses'?). I have plenty of deciduous trees at the bottom of the property, but I should have backed them with evergreens. Sigh. Ah well, we all make mistakes, but I will be kicking myself every winter when I look out back.

Patience is a good thing and you sound like you are thinking everything through. That is great and you will be happy you did that in 10 years! And yes, asking questions is the way to help yourself make decisions! I hope you will keep coming back and sharing what you have done. I am sure it will be wonderful.

We are actually planting some evergreens in our backyard. It’s a sloped yard with the neighbors window facing our house. I hate it! But man are you limited when you have deer that frequently visit.

I have same problem of deer. No arbs for me! Well, the cedar -relatives arb maybe, but it still gets eaten.

And, in an area I’d like tall evergreen, I don’t think there’s enough sun for the junipers. But I am going to try a Spartan in one sunny spot. Then there’s the overhead powerline, and utility co. clear cut small trees because of possible future encroachment. If you have enough yard for some depth of layered plantings, don’t rule out smaller deciduous trees — ones that that would grow to have have branches at the height you need — so not opaque of course, but creates a hazy barrier.

Deer really do limit plant choices. In my area they chow down on hydrangeas so I can only have them in my fenced-in backyard.

Talk with a local nursery to see what they recommend that deer are less likely to browse. In my area, andromedas, viburnum, boxwood and weigela are fairly deer proof. With the wall gone, it also gives you space to plant perennials and bulbs too that will be visible from the road. I have good luck (i.e., limited deer browsing) with astilbe, irises, salvia, catmint, hellebores, alliums, coneflowers, daffodils, snowdrops.

Choosing shrubs and plants that deer prefer less will help keep your yard maintenance down. Deer spray is available but it can get old fast having to spray /re-spray large planting areas.

We get quite a bit of sun so we are going to go with junipers and cross our fingers. We saw the cedar arbs at our nursery and I was skeptical even though it said deer resistant. I don’t see why they would resist it. One of the workers recommended Allegheny viburnum so we might plant some of those too along with the junipers.

I saw some weigelas I like. And I love catmint and salvia. Pretty much if it’s purple, I’m going to like it. But yeah I’m definitely trying to figure out the more deer resistant plants. We don’t get them every night but there have been times I’ve counted 6 or 7 deer in my yard at one time and my yard is only half an acre.

While a hungry deer might eat anything... you may find some luck with things like hyacinth and allium (for spring) and russian sage, lavender, and hyssop/agastache/hummingbird mint for summer. Bonus: all of those come in purple! : ) I'm in zone 6b/6a (central KY) also, and all of those work well for me. (I don't have deer in my yard, but plenty of marauding rabbits and squirrels and plant accordingly.)

Since you're back to the design stage, can we consider your downspouts? At a home improvement store you can purchase a plastic extender tube that you slide/shove over the end of the downspout. They are like six feet long - it should be as long as the bed is wide so that the edging is built up over it. Then cut the plastic extender tube flush with the outside of the edging. This will ensure that rainwater isn't trapped behind the edging. Thanks.

I'm a blue/purple lover and my neighborhood has a very high deer population. Plants that work for me are as follows:

allium Millennium (August bloomer)

agastache Blue Fortune (summer bloomer)

aquilegia (columbine) (spring bloomer)

aster October Skies (aromatic aster has stinky foliage so deer don't browse it - other asters are deer candy) blooms in October

baptisia (spring bloomer)

iris (both bearded iris and siberian iris)

lavender (summer bloomer)

nepeta Walker's Low (spring to fall blooms if trimmed back between flushes)

perovskia (summer bloom)

salvia (late spring into summer bloom)

verbena bonariensis (summer to fall bloom)

veronica (summer bloom)

Hope this is helpful.

Boxwoods are subject to diseases and also to boxwood moths, whose caterpillars eat them up. In Toronto where I live, everybody is pulling out their boxwoods after the last few years of defoliation. You can spray but who needs the expense, fuss and exposure to chemicals when you can just plant something else.

My sister recently moved into a house where the same owner lived from 1955 until she moved out last year. Same as your case, the shrubs were unsalvageable after decades of neglect.

If you give us a little more information about your location (e.g. closest big city) people can give better advice about specific plants. You've said you're in Zone 6a but that covers a lot of ground (pun intended.)

I'm slowly switching out many of my plants to native shrubs and flowering plants. They need less care, and attract pollinators which I love. Your state's extension service will have information about native plants for your area. For example, I'm putting in a lot of black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta) which takes no care and blooms for a long time.