How much sun does this area get? How big is the planting bed? Do you want season long color? what color, evergreen, short, tall, shrub, perennial, annual, variety of plants or just 1 or 2? FWIW I have a bridal wreath spirea in the south west corner of my house that is in a partly shady spot so I have part shade plants nearby (Brunnera, creeping phlox, tulips, hostas, siberean iris)

Low maintenance is one thing; and deer resistance at a weekend place is going to depend a little on the acquired tastes of the wildlife in your locality. There have been umpty ump threads about this on the Cottage Garden, Perennials, Plants for Difficult Places, etc. forums and the one absolute is that there are no absolutes from one person's garden to another's. Also, if you search out deer resistant plants on the web, virtually every university extension has a site with big charts listing the regions typical plants and rates them as seriously, seldom, and/or rarely browsed. (Rabbits should also be a consideration - over the winter they'll chew down a lot of shrubs to nubs.) Low maintenance could mean more shrubs that could go for quite a long time before needing any kind of pruning or shaping; and fewer blooming perennials. In my experience, nepetas (catmint), salvias, Russian sages, artemesias, astilbes, peonies, PJM Rhododendrons, Northern Lights series azaleas, ferns, mugo pines, various spruce, creeping junipers, ninebark "Dart's Gold (chartreuse color), actaea pachypoda alba, Alpine currant, barberry (someone is going to say this is considered an invasive in some states), potentilla, and some things I'm forgetting, have never been touched by deer. I don't think they go for ornamental grasses, either. Until you get your gardeing feet wet, annuals are always a good choice along with some good bones shrubbery. It's wired in wildlife DNA to ignore annuals and go for the expensive stuff.

Welcom, Soxi! Thanks for posting the photos; they really help. I would agree with those that suggested that you plant on both sides of your entry sidewalk. Your walkway will go through the garden instead of being the edge of the garden. Over the years, I've yet to make a garden too wide, but I've often had to widen them. I've also had to whack things away from the house so it could be painted, so I'd suggest leaving a minimum of 2-3 feet between where the plant's width will be at 10 years (the usual info given for mature size, though most will get larger) and the house. I also don't like the look of plants lined up - I prefer having layers of plants, and I include bulbs, shrubs, vines and perennials to provide a longer season of interest, so bed depth is needed for that. I try to include at least some hardscape (like a trellis, birdbath, etc) or evergreens in most of my gardens so that there is some visual interest between when the first frost kills most of the foliage and when everything is buried in snow (or in years like last year with little snow, for most of the winter.) As Mad Gallica mentioned, often this period is several months of the year, so anything I can do to make March and November and any other snowless months less dismal outside, is all to the good. This isn't a foundation bed, but this could be done on a smaller basis in a your beds. A good chunk of its interest is year-round, and the evergreens and trellises add interest as background and support for the flowers in the growing season as well as providing all the interest during the 6 or 7 months in the non-growing season. From December 2010 In laying out the shape of the beds, be sure that they are easy to mow - don't make those inner curves too tight. I use the black plastic edging buried up to the top bead just outside of the bricks which edge my beds; the grass hides it and it keeps the grass from growing between the bricks. The lawnmower wheels run on the bricks and the blade misses the plastic edging, so a separate pass to edge the bed isn't needed. While I don't find the plastic aesthetically pleasing, it does reduce maintenance without being too obvious. Here's a photo of a bed edged this way, and you really can't see the plastic. From June 5, 2012 As a relative beginner to gardening, it's easy to get caught up in just the flowers, but also try to think about foliage. Varied leaf shape, color, and texture will add to the appeal of your garden even when there isn't a lot in bloom. Check to see if any of your plants have nice autumn colors. Try to plant so that you have at least some plants in bloom all through the season as well. The annuals will help with that, but also try to spread out your shrub and perennial bloom.

Imagine that ... landscape maintenance NOT the most important thing in your life and you only have two jobs and 2 kids! :-) When rejuvenating shrubs like this, you cannot cut them back to where they would have been cut as part of routine maintenance (about 30" height, or so.) When they've been let go and you are trying to regrow them, you must cut them back much farther (down to about 12" to 18") and then re-grow them again as if they are new shrubs. If you don't cut them back hard like that, there will end up being unmanageable woody parts that somehow always end of being in the way. It's better to bite the bullet and just get these things out of the way in the beginning. Then begin trimming/shaping the hedge as it's coming back. With most plants that are used as hedges, you will have no trouble getting them to regrow. However, DON'T DO THIS NOW! Wait until between February and just before they would leaf out naturally in the Spring ... which is quite a large window of opportunity. If you do it now, they may produce some growth that will end up just getting frozen and lost. If you do it during the winter, they will not leaf out until the proper time, so nothing will be lost.