Do you need an access route from driveway to what looks like the front door? Can you take a photo from farther back so we can see the house's setting as a whole?

@simplynatural attaching a full photo - we have a sidewalk that goes from the front entrance to the right drive. The left drive accesses a lower apartment and doesn't need a path.

For plant suggestions please give us your location (nearest city & state). What did you dislike about the hollies? Hollies and yews would be my suggestion for shrubbage.

Atlanta, Georgia - the hollies were very prickly and I had a hard time trimming them. :-)

Fair enough. You've got a slightly raised bed now. If it's in your budget, a mason could build a higher brick retaining wall to raise that bed several feet and greatly reduce the slope.

Atlanta cries out for azaleas.

You may need some straw netting or sections of hay bales to lay down now that the ground is bare for erosion control. They will naturally compost as the new plants mature.