what sized area are you working with? What is the sunlight exposure?

I have part-sun to shade in the front of my house. The planting bed is 40ft across the front and about 4ft deep.

i have a nice little display in front of my house. there was a square patch of "lawn" bordered by the driveway and sidewalks. because i had a collection of galvanized tins (some given to me by neighbors), i decided to form a circle with them. i surrounded them with woodchips. i potted up all sorts of plants -- ornamental peppers, mexican heathers, daylilies, balsam, dahlias, etc. i went out and bought a tall, galvanized garbage can and placed it in the middle and planted tall cannas and irises -- nice!

pat
durham NC

Pat,
Did you do something to the cans to make them look like something other than garbage cans? I don't think this is a look for in front of the house.

how about putting the pots on the bed and then planting around them with a ground cover like sweet woodruff (shade), vinca (sun/shade) or thyme (sun) most of these will take poor soil until you have time or inclination to work on thing.

Also, use larger containers. I design container gardens for my clients, and the #1 problem with homeowners doing it themselves is that they tend to buy a bunch of small pots and stick them around everywhere. If you buy several large ones (and I mean pretty big, don't even bother with a 12" pot, go for up to 2' tall), they really make a statement.

More expensive, but worth it in my opinion!

There was someone here with a GORGEOUS display of coleus at one point...will see if I can find the thread for you.