Picture from further back:

What is your gardening zone? Encore azaleas bloom in spring, summer and fall. Here are some recommended:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4CSheIa25g

https://www.encoreazalea.com/about-us/top-10-reasons-to-love-encore-azaleas

Thank you! We are in Zone 7b

Plant 2 or 3 sizable masses, a few hundred total, of Daffodils for Spring blooms, and solid Vinca minor as a groundcover over everything.

How about natives? I planted native azaleas last fall and they are lovely. Not quite as showy as the non-native ones, but I like them a lot. Of course, as I try to move to more natives, I see how much I have that is not. I do not know where in Maryland you are, but I am in Alexandria, Virginia and there are a couple of good native nurseries nearby. I would use shrubs and perennials. Vinca minor is considered an invasive in Maryland and therefore is not recommended.

it looks like there is a lot of moss in the grass .. is there??... if so.. maybe you should just weed out the grass.. and encourage the moss.. so you dont have to mow it ...

St. Johns Wort is a good ground cover ..yellow flowers in spring....no maintenance ...10-12” in height grows great on hillsides ...just need to hammer in a little border of plastic black root block in the ground where you want it to stop spreading..as the roots are shallow ....beautiful dark green ground cover all year round

For color i would call a local nursery for suggestions on shrubs with red or lime green leaves or grasses with distinct colors ...variegated pampas grasses are,pretty for areas further out...if they work in your climate...

Don’t know if you have wild life but the grasses and st.johns wort make great protection for quail..that are great for eating bugs and daily parades through your property ...especially cute in the spring when they bring the little lines of babies...

If you want to consider some native plants, Packera aurea would work as a spring flowering ground cover, if it dries out some Packera obovata would be a better choice. For more color and height I would throw in Rhododendron periclymenoides, woodland sunflower Helianthis divaricatus, and blue wood aster Symphyotrichum cordifolius 'avondale'.

Thank you for the wonderful ideas! Very much appreciated!

GARDEN GAL...Thanks for the good info ...we are in zone 9A or B....and we could grow St.Johns for a living...we are surrounded by a forest and it grows everywhere with no upkeep at all...it is now covering almost the whole hillside behind our house about 70 feet wide and about 30-40 feet deep from about 3 -4 little slips planted behind the house ....also lots of them in front and in our meadow...from a few planted near the house and have been harvesting from that spot for 15 years to plant in the woods...we are in the forest with lots of huge pines and oak trees so i treasure the green...as the usual ground cover would be leaves and pine needles ....as to the variegated pampas i didn’t know they were unusual but have been grabbing everything variegated as we have so much solid green around us...we have also hundreds of beautiful variegated Irises and have been supplying bulbs to everyone who will take them for years....we are gone for the winter so i also appreciate all these varieties as they survive even through the occasional snow fall and are a beautiful greeting when we get home in the spring...since we have all kinds of wildlife....deer...squirrels ...lots of birds....raccoons...foxes..bobcats...even... we finally had to fence about 3 acres around our house as some of our neighbors around our vernal meadow have horses and cows too....

Forgot to mention we have a big pond right in the front of the house...sort of under the deck a little....the obvious reason for all the wildlife to visit us so often...the big fat turkeys even fly over our fences to visit the watering hole..and they all bring their babies to feed on the insects under the ground cover

Sounds beautiful! Nice to see all that wildlife!!

It is amazing for sure

may be some pine trees