First picture has hydrangea, then a row of miniature boxwood finished off with annuals. Second picture has dwarf boxwood with perennials. Last picture has dwarf shrubs that you could plant annuals and or perennials around. I know you dislike the boxwood you have but the kind I posted are different from what you have. Some people like evergreens in front of their house for color all year round. I don't mind my bare hydrangea in the winter.

Thank you! I do like the drawf kind you posted....ours are so twiggy! we definitely need some sort of winter color and interest though!

First, you need to bring some compost. We had the same problem,,the builder sold all the topsoil and left us with clay only (they all do that). After 7 years, we managed to have some decent soil now. We just landscaped our front and backyard (you can see in my ideabooks the yard project). There are different kinds of booxwood,,,you seem to have the skinny one, which I don't like either. Look at the Green Mountain Boxwood. Also, some grasses would soften the look as well. You could extend the flower bed. I think builders are doing just the minimal flower bed so that they don't have to plant much.

:( we are struggling with that issue with the grass right now too - doesn't help that they seeded it in July - as we were moving in in August!! We're trying to give the soil as much organic matter as possible - we do know this will be an on going project!! I asked them if we could just get a credit and landscape ourselves - they said no, they could just not plant and we wouldn't get a credit. Our neighborhood is a little cookie cutter (which is okay with me cause I love our house) but the same style house has the same landscaping!! I do feel really bad for them as I don't think any of their plants made it through the winter.

I do love the idea of grasses - I played around with that idea as well last years. I love the way they look and sound blowing in the breeze!

also...Printesa - I LOVE your patio/pergola!!! That is right along the lines of the idea I had for ours...when we get there...one day :)

Stick to dwarf varieties of azalea and hydrangea - that will provide spring and summer blooms. They won't get out of control as much either. Out in front plant ornamental trees such as dogwood, redbud and perhaps your cherry can stay - give it a chance.

I know what you mean,,,we had very similar landscaping,,it took us 7 years to finally give in and higher an architect to come up with a plan. We have similar houses in the community and all of them have the same builder grade landscaping. Of course, when we had it done, there were complains from some people because they didn't like that ours didn't look like theirs..but they got over it,,,I hope:) As for the pergola, we had it installed last year. I wanted to have a vertical garden as well, so we had those horizontal slats installed as well. I will have to hang the wooly pockets on them and get some plants. Like you said, it's a long process, but we are getting there:)
For grasses, I really like the Mexican Feather Grass, the blues little bluestem, and Pink Muhly grass

what are some thoughts on what I should use to flank the steps...should I keep something evergreen, hydrangea, grasses...etc...

I was also thinking about replacing the burning bush with a weigela

I have grasses on each side of the walkway, starting at the steps. They grow pretty tall and fill out the space there as well. In Spring, I have tulips between them so there is some color. Once the tulips are done, the grasses start growing and they cover the wilting tulip leaves.
You could do something similar so it covers the concrete base of the porch and then plant something shorter and with some color in front of it. If you wan evergreens, then there are the compact holly.
Weigela is nice and I think better than the burning bush given the space you have there. The burning bush gets pretty large

So I was playing around with garden puzzle and I came up with this...

Dwarf Pompas flanking the door

dwarf rose of sharon

Wigela in the back

Rhodoendron's in the front replacing the azelas for spring color

Day lilies in the middle of the rhodoendron's

a trellis with trumpet vine or clematis near the corner pole

peonie's under the cherry tree with lilies during the summer

It looks nice.A few comments..the rhododendron, if it has too much sun, it won't do well (my SIL had several and those in the sun didn't do well...we are zone 7). The Sharon is nice and it will have flowers until winter..after that it will not have any leaves,,but you know that:)
Clematis do better in colder weather then the trumpets. Look at the nursery for the type you want,,,some are larger and will have flowers later in the summer and then through fall. Others are smaller and have flowers earlier in the summer.

I was walking around today looking at both rhododendrons and azelas and can't make up my mind! the front gets sun in the AM...

See which ones flower longer...I believe there are some azaleas that bloom in Spring and Fall

So...I've decided against trumpet vine - from all the information that I am reading. I knew it could take over - since my parents have one - however I didn't realize how invasive they could really be - so maybe honeysuckle/climbing roses - which smells amazing :) might be a better choice - since I am looking for something yellow or orange to go there

I'm a rose person:) I had about 18 English roses (David Austin roses, all fragrant)..after the architect came up with the plan, he tried to find space for most of them..The landscaper who executed the plan managed to kill most of my roses (left them on a tarp, without water for more than a week). She replaced five of them, but for me that was not enough so I bought this Spring about 15 more:) So if you want roses, check David Austin. For orange, I love their Pat Austin. It has beautiful color and the leaves are shinny, which is good if you have humidity problems. For yellow, I had (still have one) climbing Teasing Georgia,,beautiful again.

I just checked them out and I will keep them in mind - they are gorgeous!!

I am going to start taking some of the stuff out of the bed today...I ordered a few of my plants online and they will be here this week :) the others I can just get at the local nurseries - I am going to wait to plant my back row first and then go from there!

That sounds like a good plan:) Post some photos later on

So typical me completely changed my plan! more to come...

Roses do very well in clay soil - they like the high mineral content. Roses need a lot of water to bloom well, so as long as that is not an issue for you, they will do well. "The Fairy" is my personal favorite. It blooms heavily and continuously and also for a very long time, right to hard frost. No diseases of any kind.

Consider some flowers you can cut. Daisies come back every year and will bloom longer if you cut back dead blooms. Another flowering bush to consider is a mock orange. The flowers are beautiful in the spring and give off a heavenly scent. A peony is another nice addition for cut flowers.

I have the mock orange, but for some reason, it doesn't do well. I wanted it because we had in Europe and I love the fragrance.
One thing that does do well and smells amazing is the Viburnum Carlesii.
For some flowers that will come back and are not overpowering, consider the Anemone 'Whirlwind'

Make sure you have a good number of evergreens, so that during the many months that you have no flowers, you still have a good coverage of a variety of needle color, shape and size. If you take a photo of your house, and a drawing of the size and shape of the flower bed, someone at the nursery should be able to help you. Some nurseries even have "sample" landscaping beds that can be adapted to most situations. If a neighbor has a bed that you like, you can copy aspects of that.