Nap time

During a fabulous nap-time today I got motivated!

Here is the front of our house.

It did not look like that before nap-time. I ripped out five of the worst bushes that were ever created. They were red, thorny, barberry bushes. They were bad for us on so many levels; thorns suck, their branches are weak and constantly break under the weight of snow, they had overgrown the area and were killing off the grass. So now they are gone. I love that you can actually see our front door, but I don't know what to do with the area. This is where you all come in .

Here are my questions, concerns and issues with the front of my house. Please ignore the butchered bushes that are still there; I hacked them to pieces last fall and they are just starting to come back, but we like those and can't afford to replace everything. Please let me know if you have any suggestions, comments, or advice.

In the picture below you will see the mulched area where the bushes use to be. I would like to plant something in that area that will flower, spread quickly and stay low to the ground. It is a partially shady area but does get full sun for a portion of the day. We have a lot of hostas around other areas in our yard; I don't want more hostas. Any other suggestions?

OR


Do you think it would look better to eliminate that rounded out portion of the garden all together and return that area to grass? We could simply have the mulched, landscaped portion end right in line with the retaining wall. Is it weird to have the sidewalk just end at the yard? Or would that be better and easier that planting something else there?I am also thinking that a bench and large flower pot of some kind would look good right in front of that small retaining wall in the picture above. It would be a little sitting area right in front of our front door. What do you think?

Another issue that I have is a planter box that is to the right of the picture above. It is directly to the left of the front door (in the first picture) and right behind that white column that has the address numbers on it. Nothing seems to grow in that planter box. We have tried different types of flowering annuals, they die. We have tried shade friendly ferns, they die. It gets really no sun and because it is in a bricked in box has limited water and nutrients. Can anyone think of something that would look good in this box, either alive or something else? I will take any suggestions.

Okay, I stink at landscaping and knowing what to plant where so please let me know what you think! Thanks!