Do you have a native plants section in your local garden center? Peonies and bleeding hearts will do well in the midwest. Also lily of the valley.

If you or your wife love roses, they are another flower that does very well in your area (I'm from Ohio). You just want to make sure you buy roses that are disease resistant and are hardy enough to get through the winter. Hostas are another great plant for your type of weather, but some of them require more shade than sun. If you want to plant ground cover, allysum is another good hardy flower that can survive harsh winters.

I have plenty of hostas I plan to transplant from the backyard. Allysum is definitely something I will look into for ground cover, Thanks!

I would like to redesign the edging around the front of the house and the sidewalk as the previous owner did a sloppy job of it. I was thinking about more of a squared off design instead of the curves.

I also lost the maple tree shown in the photo and am looking for ideas of what to replace it with. I had thought about matching landscaping trees on each side of the walkway, but not sure where to place or what trees to consider.