I am in the same situation. I have finally gotten the areas everywhere else done and now I need to do the sides of the house.
On one side I have some purple decorative grasses. This year I want to do the side of the house that is shaded all the time. I think I am going to put ferns on that side of the house. This way I will have a tropical touch that I want too.

Karen

We just moved into our house a year ago, and the west side was already planted. It's a pretty boring round-up, but does look nice: in a bed of small stones we have forsythia, potentilla, arctic willow, weigelia, burning bush, forsythia (again) and a variagated dogwood. (Please forgive my misspellings!)

On the East side of the house I've planted korean lilac, Annabelle hydrangea, a bluebird hibiscus, a viburnum (but I've forgotten which one! It's cold out and I'm feeling too lazy to go out and check the tag....), a 'black beauty' sambusca (?)and a mock orange. Oh, and another variagated dogwood...and I'm adding a Korean maple (too cold here for Japanese maples) on the front corner (W/S) of the house, too.

I can't offer any specific advice (other than: yes, I suppose it's always a good idea to call the utility companies before you dig big holes), but I like having at least a couple of fragrant things growing near the foundation, because we open our windows when it's warm out. Having viburnum, lilac and mock orange notes wafting in can be a very nice thing. Other than that, your plant list sounds nice, though I wonder if a western exposure might be a bit much for many hostas and azaleas. I would think grasses, roses and daylilies would all be pretty happy facing west.

Hostas are real easy, but late in the summer if they're
somewhere that they get a lot of sun they turn pretty
ugly. I'm also really tired of ours, but if you need
something quick and easy to fill up space they're great.

On the north wall of our current house we have a lot
of dwarf bleeding heart that we really like. I'll use
some of that on the north face of our new house, once
I get a real plan for it sorted out.

These are some items that have done well for us against various sides of our house & require little if any maintenance:

Bayberry (graceful summer foliage; ours grows quite slowly, it's in a hot & dry area on the south side)
Endless summer hydrangeas (with some shade; summer flowers)
Hostas (do best w/ shade, we only plant these on the north side; foliage & fall flowers)
Carol Mackie daphne (bicolored foliage most of the year, incl. winter; brief fragrant spring flowers)
Daylilies (summer flowers)
Roses (summer flowers)
Compact burning bushes (provide great fall color if in sun; coarse branches look kind of nice in winter)
Clematises on trellises against the house (summer flowers & height contrast; need sun; in spring we cut off almost to the ground)
Upright sedums (foliage; fall flowers, butterflies love them; heads usually stay upright in the winter for us)

Spireas of various types do ok as well; many require a mid-season shearing to really stay nice looking.

Plan any evergreens carefully, as they can get bigger than you think. An evergreen grafted on a standard could look nice, providing winter interest & height contrast.

Depending on how much space you have, I have seen the smallest (star) magnolias planted against houses, as well as the dwarf Korean/Tinkerbelle type lilacs (normal or as standards.)

Best wishes,
Randy W.

On the north side, which is pretty dark, I grow various ferns, and in one section I sprinkle wild flower seeds. Whatever comes up does.
On the south side I have dogwood, hosta, red trailing rose, hardy sweet pea, hardy 4 o'clocks, pampass and Japanese grass, lily's, hardy datura, glads, and directly to the end I planted a purple-flowered rose of sharon. I also am experiencing w/an 'alledged' hardy citrus. Toni

Since you've already been overwhelmed with all the great plant choices above I won't add any more to the list, but I will reinforce the idea of ornamental grasses. They do an excellent job of softening the bare concrete.
I think it's also important to have varying heights and textures, but for more insight you may want to check out your local garden center. Most sales associates can give you basic design off of picture, and rough diagram.

Good luck.

North side: open shade in the middle of the bed...few hours of sun on each end of the bed...in the morning on one end, and in the afternoon on the other end.
* Dwarf Pampass grass
* Sweet Flag
* Tassle Fern
* Autumn Fern
* Big Blue Liriope
* Hostas (various, do great in the shade on a North wall)
* Cleyera (fabulous glossy leaves. new growth is red, turning to green as it matures)
* Lamium (Golden Anniversary, White Nancy...both varieties provide bright spots in the shade but they won't appreciate damp shade...leaves get mushy)
* Ivy
* Gumpo Azalea (stays compact. can't kill it. I can't, anyway.)
* Camellia Japonica (Marie Bracey var.)
* Vinca Minor (spreads like crazy and some people don't care for it. Personally, I like that it spreads so fast, and it has pretty lavender flowers..just cut it back when it starts to creep too far)

On the South side of the house:

* Nandina Domestica (mine have required virtually no care and look beautiful. I have 5 of them planted and right now they are a brilliant red. There are dwarf varieties available which stay compact and still provide that red color in the winter)
* Soft Touch Holly ( stays compact and mine have been maintenance-free, with the exception of occassional watering during periods of drought last summer. very slow growers and great as a filler plant)
* Blue Shore Juniper ( compact and very pretty color..have been maintenance-free and have looked magnificent all winter)
I did have Wintercreeper growing on this side of the house, too, but it got some sort of borer insects and never did do well, despite application of a treatment for the bugs. I dug it up a few days ago and tossed it.

I have roses growing in front of the house, by our front door, and they face due west....so I'd wager that they'd do well for you, too, in that position. I cut ours back too hard last Fall and I thought I'd killed one of them because it started oozing and didn't look well at all. Nope...it's growing like mad at the moment.

Our electric lines are the only lines that don't run under ground, here. It would be a good idea to find out where yours are located because while digging a bed for my Sago Palm last year I cut into our cable line....looked just like a pine tree root. *blush* They came out and fixed it for free, but the guy said if I did it again he'd take my Sago away. LOL.

Anyway, all the plants I've listed provide interest year round, with the exception of the Hostas, which die back once freezing weather sets in. They will come back, though, when it warms up again. Everything is just now in its second year...ie., it all got planted last year. We only purchased our home 2 years ago and I didn't get around to landscaping the property until last Spring.

BTW, if I can figure out how to upload my pictures of the plants I've listed, I'll post them. I took pics. last fall of all my beds but they're in a file on our computer, not hosted.

Good Luck and I apologize for the novella.

Oops..I see you're in zone6, so some of what I suggested may not be hardy for you, such as the pampass grass, and maybe even the camellia and azalea. Sorry about that.
The rest should be ok.

Rivers, Camellia's are iffy, but Pampass grass and azalia is very hardy here...Mine was started in the mid-90's, comes up each spring, flowers in fall, then I leave stems for the outdoor birds, (think they like the seed or something) I've the white pampass, my friend has the pink.
I'm debating getting a camellia, need to talk to a few ppl on the camellia forum to find which is hardy to z5. Toni

I had no idea that pampass grass was hardy in your zone, Toni. All information I've come across seems to suggest that it doesn't do well in zones lower than z7.

My azaleas are evergreen. No dieback, unfortunately. A hard freeze will kill back any new tender growth, but old growth shrugs it off, no problem. I hate them on my property, although they look really good on someone elses. The only reason I haven't dug up my Gumpo Azalea is because it'd be too much work. Those babies put in a root system that repels shovels, spades, and just about any other tool you might use to dig them out. Azaleas are beautiful shrubs, but are so over-used here in the south that I get tired of looking at them.

Good to know about the pampass. Guess I won't have to worry so much about it come next winter here in my zone 8 garden. I actually believed that our hard freezes this past winter would damage it. Ha!
And my 2 camellia shrubs, both still babies, came through many nights of temps in the teens and 20's with not so much as a brown leaf edge...flower buds got a bit brown on the edges, but blooms turned out fine. So they might do ok in your area with some protection.

Rivers, you say the azalia's only grow as annuals? Are you buying the right type? There's florist azalia and hardy. The hardy should come back yrly, like rhododendron, its cousin.
One place that sells pampass grass here in IL is www.directgardening.com but I bought mine at Home Depot.Also have Japanese grass that said z6 but for some reason pops up yrly.
I found out there were some camellia's that were hardy but they're EXPENSIVE..LOL. Toni

Oh, no, Toni. Here in South Carolina the majority of Azalea varieties are evergreen. I didn't mean to suggest they were annuals, just that some may not be hardy in colder zones, and may suffer die-back of foliage, or worse.
Here in my zone 8 garden, new growth on azaleas in winter can be killed off by freezing temps that last more than a day or two. That's what I meant by "hardy". I'm very familiar with azaleas...grew up with them as a constant presence in our yard and everyone elses. They are a garden staple in the south. I'm not that fond of them, to be honest, because they are so over-used (IMO) here. I just dug out 3 monster azalea shrubs last year (probably 30 years old, planted when our house was built) which required using a chain hitched to the back of a truck in order to get them out of the ground, and several people to lift each of the root balls so they could be loaded into a truck for disposal. They were at least 7 feet tall and even wider. Enormous. I couldn't plant anything else around them because of the root systems and it was just time for them to go.

And I'm still surprised by the fact that pampass grass over-winters in your zone. Ya learn something new everday around here. Blows what I thought I knew about that grass right outta the water.

Yes, I agree, Camellias are expensive, period. They are hardy in my zone but still expensive in our nurseries and home improvement stores. I was able to afford 2 tiny Camellias (in the one gallon pots) last year when Lowes got some in. They have a few left-overs now which they are still trying to sell at full price...they look like crap, quite frankly. Does it make anyone else sick to their stomachs to see plants so neglected at the big box stores? I received a Sago as a birthday present from the hubby last year. It was an extravagence, the price he paid for that Sago. So it pains me to see them sitting neglected at Lowes, Walmart, Home Depot, etc. and dying. If I had the money, I'd buy them to save them from death-by-neglect. It's sickening.

To the OP of this thread.. I didn't intend to hijack your post. Sorry. *blush*

WOW! Thanks for all of the great ideas! I need to check my email more often for replies to posts. I copied all of your replys into a Word file and I plan to look at these plants at the nursey this Spring to see which I'd like best. I sort of want to draw it on paper first, just to see what would look good where. I want varied degrees of height. So we'll see. Thanks so much!

Carrie

Rivers, sorry maybe I misread your post. It's funny, my MIl is from Tullahoma, Tn but moved up here many yrs ago..
She'd tell me stories about the farm she grew up, and all that grew..When I mentioned some plants that were hardy here, she didn't believe it..lol..This was about 18 yrs ago. Anyway, at the time I got very few garden catalogs, but started w/one and then more came in..I showed her all the plants that could be grown here and she was baffled..lol. She was a great woman..She passed away Aug 2003, and was buried in her home town..We drove out there for the funeral, and boy did I fall in love w/Tn. I've been trying to convince my husband to move somewhere warmer, but he like me has family here and doesn't want to move just yet..plus someone has to work, lol, and starting a new job wouldn't cut it.
I also fell in love w/Ga when we went out there a few yrs ago when our son graduated from boot camp in Ft. Benning, GA..
If you ever get time, go to www.DirectGardening.com They've a ton of plants hardy to z5. I even have a hardy cactus, now 3 yrs old, related to Prickly Pear. There's a hardy banana called Musa bansoo that I planted, and tried this as an experiment. Planted 2 very hardy citrus..we'll see what happens come spring.
Rivers, yes I get pi$$ed off when I see dying plants at stores, and still they want full price..Home Depot is good at that. I know, I used to work at one in the gh. If I had more room I'd probably have a table filled w/sick plants, trying to revive them, but just don't..but I've bought ailing plants in the past, and they worked out fine. But I must admit, if a plant is infested w/bugs, I cannot bring it home..I've too much invested to dare and bring a plant filled w/mites or mealy home..Congrats on your sago..now can you plant this outdoors or is it too cold?
I've seen pics of sagos and other cycads in places where snow has fallen this yr..especially TX..
Carrie, in a way you're very lucky..You've got ppl and all sorts of pics to get you started. What do u like? Flowers, fragrant, big flowers?
I love Butterfly bushes, though they grow quite tall if you don't cut back. But the fragrance is heavenly. Flowering almond is nice, too..Snowball bushes..Hydrangeas. Look at pics and write down names...Toni

Well when I started the first bed --I cleverly hit the freon pipe to the A/C --had 3 police cars here ---I did'nt know what the heck I had done but boy did it give me a scare ................I screamed to the kids to get out of the house ..........cos i thought the house was going up ......................
NOW we have quite a nice flower bed there .........
Roses,Lots of lillies [not day lillies cos everyone has those..........] and lavender --also got this flowering shrub that smells like heaven ...........
The soil can get very dry so amend with lots of compost frequently .......... esp around the roses ........
and keep them well watered .the other side of the house is the shaddy side --there I have wood popies [yellow and very pretty] they are the guys that like the shade
tryed Lily of the vally there but they just would'nt have it --also they can be grow way too much and spread like the diggins so plant carefully --but they make nice --side of the house plantsing too [to have to literally cage em in though cos they speard like crazy
Janice Britmum