I really like the look of that false cypress in the corner. Curious, why specifically Baby Blue? Would there be a similar variety from the thyoides species (since those would be the natives)? Or is this variety softer, more forgiving to take of, or better formed?

Love the Pennsylvania fieldstone wall. We had been thinking about something similar, as we have stonewalls around the property.

Things I forgot to mention:

The trim color is BM Paris Rain, so it's cream but leans green.

The lilacs remnants are common lilacs, though we have other varieties elsewhere.

Other flowers we'd been considering: yarrow, threadleaf coreopsis, cone flowers.

When I say we are considering certain plants, we don't really have certain spaces in mind. It's more that we like the plant and have had decent luck with it.

Plant in layers and drifts. I like the idea of lambs ears as your border plant- silver foliage goes well with your home. The next layer should be a long blooming plant such as bobo hydrangeas, quick fire hydrangeas or little limes. I would add evergreens For winter interest such as sprinter boxwood, mountain gem or Hicks yews. Blue arrow juniper placed in the corner would add height and tie nicely into the color scheme. Add annual plants for a pop of color. Superpetunia vista is impressive.

I can't suggest plants but I would say that the bed needs a good sharp edge. Even a bed of bare earth looks miles better if clearly delineated. If you do go for a low wall make sure it has a mowing strip or you'll be fighting grass at its base for ever.

Thinking about this, I'm not sure shrubs in the juniper family would be a good choice. We've been fighting cedar-apple rust, so I'd hate to bring in another host plant for that ... particularly with the quince and the serviceberry that I neglected to mention to the west (left) - some of its branches are visible in the first image (though it's a little hard to see with the neighbor's maple in the background). We've been cutting off galls off the cedar as much as we can, but with a 30 foot tree, I don't know when we'll be able to eradicate it. I'd be worried that false cypress would be closely enough related, as well.

(The serviceberry and quince haven't had bad cases of rust thus far, possibly being protected by the house being between, but definitely can be hosts.)

Yews ... oh, yews ... we have a yew around the front. It gets threatened with its life at least several times each summer, and pruning it is described as "hacking the green bush" on to do lists. Unless there's a variety that actually has a mature size of under 4 feet, I would think a yew would be too massive for this bed.

Boxwood, I'm going to have to veto in smell ... we're of the population that finds them to smell a bit like cat urine.

We love hydrangeas, and have a bed of heirloom white mopheads (look like Annabelles) along the west side of the house, mixed with daylilies and some phlox. That bed doesn't get nearly the sun load, though, since it gets shaded by our house in the morning and then the neighbor's house in the late afternoon. Would due south with no sun protection not be too hot, dry and sunny for hydrangeas? I haven't grown panicle hydrangeas before, are they more tolerant?

Bed will definitely have a defined edge ... it looks better, and it tells the lawn mower and weed whacker where the yard ends and they should stop (we've had to add more or higher edging to some other areas where mistakes have been made ... feet into a bed).

So we've started across the bed. It's slow going, as it seems there was a concrete spill or something when the footings were poured, so there's a lot of dirt sifting in addition to the stump digging.

We've gotten a bunch of the lilac stumps out. We also cut back the ones we didn't dig out to make them less scraggly. The ones remaining are pretty healthy and not terribly located, so they're getting to stay at least for now ... we can always rip them out later if they aren't working out.

The low growing green is predominantly violets, which we might keep as a ground cover or might move some elsewhere. The sunk pot with the trellis is holding a tomato for this season; the tomato needed a home, and it's supposed to get pretty tall, so it's trying out this location. I'm really liking the look of the trellis, so I'm thinking that might be a good solution. I liked the look of the false cypress, but I'm wary of planting anything that could potentially be a host for cedar-apple rust, as I don't want to create a better bridge between the eastern red cedar and the serviceberry/quince. The trellis seems to give a nice structure there. The trellis recommends bringing in for the winter, so I'd probably put peas and annual vines on it. The advantage of the pot is that the plant can be a bit of a spreader without invading the whole bed ... and that was the center of the bad dirt, so we can give better dirt and amendments to the pot.

We haven't determined exactly what we'll be doing with the border, whether it will be stacked like in Dig Doug's Designs mock-up or something simpler like a row of cobbles. The black is pound in edging to define the bed and keep the mulch from washing out.

We have yarrow and sedum that will be ready to plant in this bed after they acclimate.

We also have these siberian iris that are ready for division:

(Caesar's Brother in back, Little Red in front)

(Caesar's Brother in back, white blooming one similar to Ong's Hat in front)

(Ong's Hat)