By the time we finished our recent home build, little was left in the budget for landscaping. We wanted low maintenance and color throughout the season. That meant perennials and flowering bushes and trees. Surprisingly, our builder let us work directly with his landscaping subcontractor and this is what he and my wife came up with.

The pink flowers are alliums and the little white ones are calamintha. Pollinators love these flowers and they stay in bloom all through summer.

We have a pair of serviceberry trees anchoring each side of the front yard. After the flowers bloom, the berries show up. The birds love them.
These are the flowers on the serviceberry trees. They only last a week or two but it is really nice to see an entire tree covered in white flowers.
These shrubs are called tor spirea. They bloom for a short time in the spring. The shrub in the upper left hand corner of this picture is a boxwood. We have several small boxwoods bordering our large front porch and a few against the back of the house.
These are dwarf lilac bushes in our rear yard. They bloom for a short time in the spring. The yard smells fantastic during this time.
These perennials are salvia caradonna. They stay in bloom all through summer as well. Rabbits love to hide in these things.
Below are irises. These were brought over from the yard of our previous home and align the south side of the house.
The lilac tree below was preexisting in our back yard and survived the construction. I almost dug it out, as it had been smothered for years by several tall pine trees which had to be removed to make room for our garage. As a result of being crowded by the pine trees, the lilac tree grew at an angle. When spring came and we saw (and smelled) its flowers, there was no way we were ever going to remove this beautiful tree.
Not pictured, are our three "endless summer" hydrangea plants. Ironically, they did not bloom last summer. We seem to be struggling with this particular plant, which is certainly no stranger to the Chicago area. We'll spend some time working on them and if they bloom this year I will put up some pictures.