My folks have a mugo pine mixed with blackeyed susans that are part of a low maintenance "perrenial" foundation planting. Also some type of shrub rose. It is hardy, gorgeous in bloom, takes to pruning well, but is a japanese beetle magnet. But I know there are lots of easy care "landcape roses" for foundation planting. Funny, when you said, "easy care perrenials, not things with much upkeep like shrubs" that was the opposite of my experience. My perrenials give me fits, but my shrubs just do their thing. The small shrubs I have that I recommend for a foundation are goldmound spirea, Miss Kim Lilac, some type of golden mounded arborvitae, and many of the dwarf conifers. I have a dwarf fir and it grows extremely slowly, needs zero attention. Other low care perrenialss I have are columbine and asters and shasta daisies. Perrenials that are NOT low care: mint!!! Sorry, but nothing in the mint family, even mondarda. You give those plants and inch and they take a mile. What a beautiful porch to landscape around! I'd try and work in a scented viburnum carlesi or mockorange somewhere in there! But I digress, all this is garden talk, not landscaping. With a woodland setting like you have, I'd try and create and extension of that in the yard. I'd plant some of the smaller, flowering understory trees like dogwood, redbud, serviceberry, viburnum, spicebush, witch hazel. I'd create a large bed away from the house, with a red maple, pin oak and some conifers to look at in the winter. And I couldn't avoid a birch since it is one of my favorite specimen trees, but river birch is what's likely to thrive in your zone. I'd mix it up, with deciduous and evergreen trees underplanted with shrubs, ferns and perrenials. There are gadzillions of examples of this kind of thing in the landscaping books. If you're talking easy care, you can go for the native rhodies, they look and smell great. Right now I'm really into japanes maples and wish so much that I had the room for a larger sampling. You could design a bed around those trees with their stunning fall colors and many varigated forms. Don't know how vibrant they get in the fall in your zone though. Probably passable. Hey, you've even got room to plant one of those gorgeous copper beeches as a specimen tree. By specimen, I mean a tree that eventually makes a large, impressive statement in the yard. What statement you make depends on your taste I guess. Besides those big copper beeches, I love rows of norway spruce, but that's just my taste. You can get the same effect going native with hemlocks. Your house is very well designed and situated, so you've really got a lot of good bones to play with. If it were me, I'd focus on making the yard blend with the surrounding woodlands, focus on big elements first, (trees, shrubs) since they take the most time to get established. I'd do that by gradually transitioning from the woods to house with beds featuring the flowering understory trees. I'd sit on the porch and see what views I'd like to "frame" and then go out to the road and see what views looking in that could be framed. I'd also check out how the sun moves across my house and see where I'd like some eventual shade. I know you can't do it all at once, so I'd plan out my eventual beds, and then plant the anchor trees and big shrubs first, knowing I can go back later and fill in.

If you're interested in having herbs around, I've found Seedsheets to make growing fresh herbs so easy in small spaces! Container gardening is great when you don't have a ton of space, and now I don't have to run out to the store whenever I need a sprig of fresh basil or parsley. What climate zone are you in? Since I experience frost in the winter, I just bring my bucket inside. Seedsheets.com

"They [low priced nursery/garden center landscape designers] are used primarily as a marketing tool to sell plants, often very common or less desirable plants, and what you receive design-wise may be very substandard." My sentiments exactly. One would likely get the typical "builder's plan" ... the kind of problem prone landscape that everyone can't wait to redo as soon as possible. The forum is good for giving ideas about general direction to take, or spot problem solving ... but it does not produce PLANS, which are essential for a quality landscape product. One has the option of drawing their own plans if they are DIY oriented and feel competent about it. (They can get advice from the forum on the mechanics of doing it. ) If not, as in every other project, they must hire a professional. But landscaping without plan at all will probably result in something less desirable than a 'builder's plan.' The approach one takes for a back yard depends largely on one's goals and objectives. Some people want total privacy, as in a private paradise ... they don't want to see any part of neighbor's houses. Other people want a more open solution and prefer not to block much view between neighbors' yards. Still others want to block sight lines between theirs and neighbors' outdoor living spaces while keeping a feel of openness at other places. One needs to decide on their goals in order for a plan to shape up that would meet them. In nearly every discussion of creating a privacy border of some type comes the advice to avoid a uniform hedge. I would take this with a grain of salt because often, especially when space is at a premium, it may be the uniform hedge that best fills the bill. Many people here are plant loving "gardeners" and can't conceive of a planting that is not crammed with as much variety as possible. A potential downside to that is more labor in upkeep, more space consumption, and a busier look. If that fills the bill, no problem. But there are advantages to uniformity in potential space conservation, a cleaner look and simpler maintenance. Landscaping is not 'one size fit all.' Develop your goals and set about to see how they can be realized.

My guess is someone thought shrubs would require the least amount of labor. Unfortunately, no one seems to have paid attention to the tags on the shrubs that gave their ultimate height and width. The shrubs against the garage are not evenly spaced around the windows. And, the shrubs next to the sidewalk were probably expected to stay small?! I would remove them altogether and replace them with truly small shrubs that provide more interest, perhaps Barberry 'Crimson Pygmy' or Euonymus 'Emerald & Gold'. Perennials are less likely to crowd the sidewalk and don't usually require attention until at least three years after planting. I would, however, add a generous amount of compost to the bed for perennials. This ARTICLE gives a good list of perennials. You can plant early blooming bulbs like tulips or daffodils between perennials that go dormant. The bulbs will bloom early and the perennials' foliage will then cover fading bulb foliage. Fill in around new plants (shrubs or perennials) with annuals the first several years.