Nate, it sounds like the following is too late, since your work has already begun, but for what it's worth: We had 4 new roofs (entire house) and everything that that entailed (remove old roofs, put on new + gutters & downspouts) and new stucco siding on one side of the house's addition (hence, remove all old stucco, too). Contractor also created a new profile for the eave over that side of the house; also made and installed a copper overhang for the window on that side. Not all of this was done at the same time; still, a lot of construction materials and debris. Used the same contractor and his small crew for everything. The crew was able to do the roofing job by accessing all the roofs from the patio; the main issue was roof debris that ended up on the ground. They were exceedingly careful and neat but even now, I do find the occasional nail and bits of roofing material. For the stucco work, however, they needed to erect and safely access scaffolding. I asked the contractor to try to protect a daylily bed directly under the side of the house needing that work. For various reasons, I couldn't dig up the plants in it, even though it contained some daylilies I value a lot (eg LAST SNOWFLAKE, NEON FLAMINGO, COWBOY SCARF, MABOU, Jack Carpenter patterns, and more), so he set up the scaffolding on a large piece of plywood that was placed on cinder blocks on either end of the bed (and with two blocks supporting the mid part of the wood). The crew had to access the scaffolding of course, so one end of the bed got badly trampled & the soil very compacted. Even so, given what had to be done to the house, and the time they spent doing it, the daylilies sailed through everything in near perfect condition. There was a lot of bent and torn foliage, but it was late autumn anyway so that didn't matter. Plus, it was the crowns I'd been concerned about. We plan to use the same guys to paint the house's exterior next spring. Since I don't know exactly which month that will be, I expect to have to dig up the entire bed. Even so, I'll ask the contractor to once again place scaffolding on plywood on cinder blocks. The idea will be to protect the soil from compaction so that I can use that bed again as soon as the work is done.

Mulch, though some folks recommend not within a few feet of the house, and weed as needed. You don’t want erosion. You may need to do some modification of flow if it is concentrated in an area, such as creating a rain garden or dry well or French drain. If there is a slope, use highly texture mulch such as “gorilla hair” or arborist’s trimmings to help keep it in place. Where you want established moss, don’t mulch. However, it will be best for small patches in flat areas since it won’t stop erosion, and eventually will be shaded out by groundcovers IME.

Personally I would plant mint. Lots of it, in all possible flavours. I understand you don't want to care for that corner much, in which case you need something that looks good all the time, not just two months a year. You can have a mix of winter cyclamen and hellebores, spring lilly of the valley (I have small kids and they are smart enough not to touch anything I tell them is poisonous), summer moss, autumn cyclamens (different than winter ones). However all this requires some maintenance, much more than mint :D Why not place a few aromatics? Like celery, parsley and a few pots of mint? ;) Also spinach, peas and lettuce would love to grow there. Or you could go for a trellis on the wall and let vinca grow on it, one with gorgeous leaves. I have a full north little space and the previous owners had the vinca and trellis. It looked nice but I preffered to reduce it in size and plant small pansies and many types of hellebores. It makes for a gorgeous front autumn and winter garden, less gorgeous in spring and summer.

I have a comment about weed seeds, or any unwanted seeds. I use a product called Preen, but there are others - they prevent the germination of seeds, but do NOT hurt plants already growing. So, obviously not something you use if you are hoping nearby plants will self seed. However, I have used it forever, and it works fantastically. I only mulch my roses once a year (right after pruning or trimming them, whenever that happens - in a warm climate I can do that most anytime). First I deal with the pruning or trimming, and remove any weeds or nearby ivy or bulbs which have crept too close to the base of the rose. Then, I water the rose well. Then, I sprinkle a handful or two of Osmocote on the soil under the rose out to the drip line of the rose (my theory is that this will provide nitrogen while the compost is decomposing further, and both of them will feed the rose). Then, I put a layer of at least 3 inches of home made compost my DH makes on top of the soil out to the drip line, of course keeping at least 3-4 inches away from the base of the rose. Then I sprinkle Preen or some similar product all over the top of the compost, and (very important) water it in. Voila - done for the year. By the time a year has gone by, the compost has fed the rose and turned into soil, so I repeat the process. I also use Preen on bare soil if, say, an area has just been weeded and is all clean. It has worked like a charm always, and although nothing is 100%, it reduces the amount of new weeds by certainly 95%. Regarding my DH's compost. Our property is a city lot of only 1/3rd of an acre, but we have a lot of mature trees, most of which are deciduous. He makes it from grass clippings and shredded leaves (the small leaves don't need to be shredded - just the large oak leaves) from the trees in a very large sort of raised bed place he built in the back of the lot, which he can leave open to the rain, or cover with a thick plastic sheet to let the compost rot and get hot underneath. Then when the Fall cleanup has produce MORE leaves, etc, he bags up last years crop which has sat for 12 months already, and puts it in those huge strong black garbage bags - it usually makes 7-8 of them. It stays in those bags until eventually one by one the bags are dumped into a medium sized plastic garbage can which lives on my wheeled garden trolly, so it is easy to wheel it to where I am working in the garden. One crop lasts me about 12 months. So, there is always one bagged crop aging further, and one new crop in the compost raised bed, while the trees grow another crop of leaves... I like it because, after sitting for 12-24 months it is the darkest, most wonderful compost, and the roses love it. Also free - what's not to like? Jackie