Hi there! We are in Northern CA, and looking to put some plants in by our entryway. We have clay soil and a couple of camelia plants here, but would like to have a more layered design that has something tall in the back, then steps down.

The area is shady with hard soil, and the centerpeice is a beautiful purple japanese maple.

Hoping to do something that is shade tolerant, low water and works in N. CA, and in the context of the maple.

This is the key area:

The entry from the other angle is shown here:

Again, we love the tree, but looking to find a way to have some more layers in the approach.

What should we put along the house? What else at the intermediate levels? As groundcover?

A link to our landscape general ideabook is here: http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/2920747/thumbs/landscape 

Any ideas appreciated!

Best,

Dave