I would.. taller stuff in the center working toward shorter stuff at the outside... so it doesn't creep to the sidewalk and driveway.

I would plant some annuals seeds for color all summer among all the plants suggested. My favorites are zinnias and cosmos. They sprout in about a week and bloom until freezing. I don't know how Knock-out roses do in your area but if they do well one of those would look great in that bed. These roses don't require a lot of upkeep.

For 10 years I had a home in a golf course community. No maintenance for me, but that place looked great at all times. In the spring, they planted annuals grown in flats. They always had a color scheme. I remember petunias in summers, mums in fall, pansies in winter. They varied it a lot. As soon as something got scraggly looking, it would be replaced. They kept all the evergreen shrubs pruned also.

You might post on the Texas Forum; lots of southern/coastal people over there, & they're all knowledgeable, & they're all smart.

I like shrubs whose "natural" height & width fit the space, or at least those that don't need constant attendance (nandinas, etc). Here, near Dallas/Ft Worth, I'd use some barberries (sp? it's the only spelling that didn't give me a red line!), Indian Hawthorne, dwarf yaupon, etc.

An older lady showed me around her garden one day & told me that, noticing that it was harder to get up & down & harder on her hands to prune the roses & fiddle with the prima donnas in her garden, she changed her landscaping to "green things", trees, shrubs, etc.

She picked evergreens where she could, put in some crepe myrtles for summer color, & indulged her need to get her hands dirty by popping in some bright annuals every spring.

Her house & grounds were very pretty, & she could enjoy them, not seeing something that needed attention every time she glanced out the window or took a stroll through the garden.

Lovely house & garden; have fun!

Radicans gardenias. Some people call them ground covering gardenias, evergreen, and when they flower right by your walk way, ohhhh they will smell sweet. Easy to care for, just mulch well, the east location is perfect for them.

I would first take that sharp inside corner out and curve your sidewalk bed into the foundation bed. Corners like that are a devil to mow and usually get chopped by a string trimmer that sends all the junk right into the bed.

A soft curve would match the curve of the paladian window and unite the two beds nicely.

You might want to think about widening the sidewalk bed so you have more space for low shrubs that tend to be wide thus leaving little room for color annuals or perennials.

Love it! Thank you! When it cools down a bit more I think I'm going to take your advice.

Sandra, if you're still eager for advice , before you even think plants you have to address that drainage problem and do a better job incorporating the bagged soil with the existing soil. Otherwise your sidewalk and your driveway will always be stained and an eyesore and the bagged mix will float off in heavy rainfall.

I'd also address the gutter downspout. Can you half bury a pretty large planter in that square spot and fill the planter with pea gravel to receive the gutter water? Rather than run the extension to wet the driveway and rot the underside of the garage door. Does that downspout receive a lot of water or just a small amount of the roof area. If it's a small area you could remove the downspout and install a rain chain to a slow draining planter full of pea gravel.

At the very least, get some durable paint in the reddish tone of the brick and paint the downspout.