Because the planting bed is too narrow anyway, I'd remove the 3 patio blocks at the garage center and move the new plants away from the wall a little. You can trim the stumps to within 1" of grade. Plant what you wish, but 1 gallon containers will probably work best in relatively small planting holes. You should be able to get them pretty close to the desired location, or cut through old shrub roots where needed. If you don't remove the 3 blocks, you're limited to smaller, vertical plants.

Thank you Yardvaark. I hadn't thought of removing some of the blocks. Was only thinking of working around them. We're going to consider this option....getting those blocks out without ruining the newly planted grass could be an issue, but the end result might be worth the hassle of planting new grass. I appreciate your thoughts!

A hedge of bigleaf hydrangea could be nice there and about the right size... surrounded with a groundcover or low flowering perennial.

Yardvaark: Hey that is really cool and I can picture what it might look like! I wish I knew how to do these things. You must have Photoshop or something similar. Thank you so much for your suggestions. We are considering all of them! :) I'll post a photo of the finished product.

Draw on any photo (or just draw) using MS Paint. It helps if you have a touchscreen and stylus.

Thank you Yardvaark. I hadn't thought of removing some of the blocks. Was only thinking of working around them. We're going to consider this option....getting those blocks out without ruining the newly planted grass could be an issue, but the end result might be worth the hassle of planting new grass. I appreciate your thoughts!