Curlgirl's advice about not planting until you have done any painting, repair, or roofing is spot on. I know it's difficult to wait (it was 5 years of waiting for me after we bought our old house) but it is well worth it to avoid damage. Are you aware that there is a perennials forum, a Shrubs forum, a New England Gardening forum, and a Landscape Design forum all over on the Garden Web side of things? You can get both plant and design advice there as well as here. I would find it useful to have you go and stand out by the street (or property line if this is a side entry) about opposite the main door and take one photo head on, one of what you see when pivoting to the right (with a bit of overlap with the center photo), and one of what you see when pivoting to the left (with overlap) to give an idea of the whole view and how the dooryard fits into it. Currently I am not sure of the fence style and why it will be put there. Does it turn the corner and run parallel to the front of the house? Does it have a functional purpose or is it there for ornament? Would you consider one on the left side as well? Gardenmaid has given you a good list of plants that will be happy in zone 6 MA in part shade. Climbing Hydrangea is probably too big for that spot (it's a narrow chimney) since it needs a substantial support like a large wall, other masonry surface, or tree trunk since it can grow 30' or 40' and more than 10' wide given a surface to cling to. You don't want it growing on your wooden clapboards as it will damage them. However, there are three species of Hydrangea shrubs that will do well in part-day or bright shade: H.quercifolia AKA oak leaf hydrangea, H. arborescens (Annabelle, Incrediball among others) and H. macrophylla AKA big leafed hydrangea as well as the quite similar H. serrata. H. arborescens is hardy to zone 3, but will sucker some and need annual removal of suckers to keep it in bounds. Here's my Annabelle after letting her get out of control. Blooms start some time in June and continue all summer and into the fall. For the big-leafed hydrangeas (both macrophylla and serrata), be sure to get ones that are reblooming so that if a late frost or especially cold winter kills back the buds that you will still get summer bloom. There are lots of reblooming varieties available, both mopheads like the 'Let's Dance' series 'Forever and Ever' series and lacecaps like 'Tough Stuff'. They don't sucker. Oak-leaf hydrangeas don't grow around me, but should be fine for you. Ask on the Hydrangea forum or the shrubs forum for more info. Some other perennials to look at: Leucosceptrum 'Gold Angel' has gold to chartreuse foliage and is 2 1/2' tall with flowers that are small, so the foliage is the real ornament Solomon's seal is a slowly spreading arching foliage plant that has different heights depending on species and some variegated types lady's mantle AKA Alchemilla, has different species that are different sizes, but all relatively low Cimicifuga (now changed to Actea) racemosa AKA bugbane can have maroon or red leaves and has tall wands of white or pink flowers Astilbe has ferny leaves and feathery flowers in shades or red, pink or white Coral bells (Heuchera) and foamy bells (Tiarella) and their cross Heucherella all have ornamental leaves and foamy spring flowers. Iris crestata AKA crested iris which is a short-statured spring bloomer with white or blue flowers Veronica 'Georgia Blue', a groundcover that has bright blue flowers and is an easy going plant that rambles around without overwhelming its neighbors Digitalis AKA foxglove is a self-seeding biennial or short-lived perennial with tall spires of pink or white flowers. In the sunnier spots, you might try a clematis on a trellis. Look for lists online of shade-tolerant clematis, though they will want at least 4 hours of sun. Hellebores are a very early spring bloomer. Other shrubs: Microbiota decussata AKA Siberian cypress or Russian arborvitae is about the only evergreen you can get to grow well in shade other than broad-leafed evergreens like rhododendrons and mountain laurels. It stays low and gets wide, looking a bit like a spreading juniper. How were the yews growing? If they were dense and full, you may have more light than you think. Rhododendrons are a great choice, and most of New England has perfect soil for it. See what is available at local nurseries and be sure to pay attention to size of the variety since they can get huge (20' x 15'), though many stay small. Nursery tags may give size at 5 or 10 years, so look them up in a reputable source such as a botanical garden's website or Rhododendron.org's plant database. Mountain Laurel are another great part shade evergreen with spring flowers in shades ranging from white through reddish pink. Witch hazel (Hamamelis intermedia) is a great early spring bloomer (Feb.-March) that will grow to a very large shrub if you have room. I really like the generous depth of the beds you currently have. When planting, you want to space plants so that you leave a foot or two between the plants' ultimate size and the house so you can get in for painting, cleaning windows, and other maintenance without stepping on plants or having to prune them severely. Have some plants that occur in generous swaths or that repeat several times along the length of the bed as that will make it look more pulled together. Visit lots of garden centers and resources like the Arnold Arboretum or the Berkshire Botanical Garden. Look for gardens you like that have similar shade conditions and ask the owners or take photos of plants and post on the Name that Plant forum to get them ID'ed. Here's a link to some photos I took of a MA zone 6 garden that has largely shade. The photos are all of New England gardens, but my post of Marie's garden is on July 26, most of the way down the page. If you want good nursery suggestions, ask on the New England forum.

Here's my favorite with these classic ranches for a custom look for less. Go for a traditional single or double hung window everywhere you have the scale for it, and get standard grids / muntins / grilles but only for the top light. It imparts a cottage look for less. Can't see your other elevations to know how to add windows that work from inside and outside . . back wall . . but french door sliders with top row grids plus the strategy for all the windows and wowsa. . . a great look for not too much. If you have small bath windows up high, you can grid both sides and go slider so you get closer to square panes. . or awning windows if you have a perfect square close/ somewhere. Since your trim now is light, white is likely what you will gravitate towards. It will always work with this color brick, and you can do contrasting trim around it if you have any trim. . . if not, you can either skip it and embrace the white with a colored front door // colored siding / stucco areas in a medium warm greige (good with this sort of salmon / red) the secondary door in the carport storage needs to be the same color as the wall so it doesn't read out. . . and the front door would be gorgeous in a glossy blue-green-gray like templeton gray from ben moore . . or I might trim the house in a camo color like bm gettysburg gray then coordinating for the entry door . . mountain moss in a gloss . . . . deeper tone for carport and posts and fascia crownsville gray in between . . . In a deep tone the entry door carvings will be a little more classic . . can go grayer like storm cloud gray if you prefer . .. not as rich a contrast . .

I would LOVE to get rid of the ivy but my husband loves it. We had a specialist look at our trees last year and had 4 huge oaks removed. There are 2 trees up front we plan to have removed this year along the driveway. I want them removed before hurricane season starts!!! I don't think hurricanes and trees go well together!

I realize this is an old thread, but generally speaking, commercially prepared potting media are a poor choice for any plant that doesn't tolerate wet feet w/o protest, and Crassula falls in that category. Even those media labeled as being suitable for succulents and cacti very rarely are good choices, it's not what's ON the bag that determines a medium's suitability, it's what's IN it that counts. Generally speaking, commercially prepared media are too water-retentive even for plants that prefer an evenly moist medium. The reason lies in how much perched water these media support, which commonly ranges from 3-6". Perched water is water that takes up residence in a 100% saturated layer of soggy soil at the bottom of the pot, and refuses to be dislodged by the force of gravity. It sits there until it eventually evaporates of the plant uses it. The trouble with the later is, soil saturation very quickly kills the fine roots which do the plant's heavy lifting. When these roots die, the plant's chemical messengers tell plant central to halt all top growth until a sufficient volume of new roots are brought online to support new growth. In most cases, the grower uses a digital moisture monitor, their forefinger, to check moisture levels. If the top inch or two of soil is dry, they add more to the saturated layer at the bottom of the pot, which is still waiting to evaporate or be used for the plant. This very often results in the cyclic and never ending death and regeneration of roots, which is paid for by energy that would otherwise be put toward growth or ensuring the healthy glow we all covet. Media that holds no, or very little perched water is a much better choice. These media will always be based on an VERY high % of coarse ingredients, usually between 75-90%, with some smaller particles mixed in to adjust water retention to suitable levels; this, because it's primarily soil particle size that determines how much excess water a medium can/will hold. Media with high % of peat, coir, compost, composted forest products, sand (other than horticultural sand which you would likely consider gravel), topsoil, in any combination lead to watering issues that rob plants of most of their genetic potential. The most productive media will hold water inside of porous particles, on the surface of all particles, and at the interface where particles contact each other, and there would be no appreciable amount of water in the spaces between soil particles. In order to achieve that end, a very large fraction of soil particles would necessarily be large/coarse to achieve that end. Something like this would be an excellent choice for a huge % of succulents and cacti: Al