Yes, pull out the whole thing and start over. BIG house, BIG lawn, BIG driveway, ITTY BITTY flower bed, proportioned microscopically. By all means, start over and give your new bed generous proportions, a minimum of 6 foot of depth, a broad sweeping curve, let it eat up as much of the lawn as you are willing to garden in. Feel free to step AWAY from the house. Make no small plans, dream big.

I love the old metal chairs you have by your pool. I was visiting a garden in Frisco awhile back and this lady really had an eye for creating little vignettes in her garden. She would find old windows without the glass, paint them red or whatever color was attractive for the area and hang those on the fence. Then she would also hang a couple other things like a candle sconce or a little garden plaque then in front of that place an old chair. She had several of those old metal chairs she used in the design and you could sit in any of them. She also had an antique wash tub filled with flowers - lots of really neat ideas. Just wanted to pass that idea long to you to maybe incorporate something like that into your design. This coming from my brother who is an HVAC technician - whatever you plant around your A/C unit - make sure it isn't prickly and keep it at least two feet away from the unit so they can get in to do repairs. So, when planting, consider the plant's mature size. Also, don't put anything near them that will have stuff that might get caught up in the unit and cause it to not run efficiently. Maybe something like compact nandinas that only get to about 4-5 feet tall would be a good screening plant. Just leave space for the technicians. As far as the curves of the landscape borders go, make sure you can mow along them - no really sharp curves that would be difficult to maneuver the mower.

You can use "Aster x frikartii" or "Coreopsis 'Mango Punch' " perennials for this summer. Both have different coloured flower. You just loved it.

Here are a couple of links that have recommendations for Clematis that do well in part shade. clematis tolerant of shade Clematis varieties that tend to do well in more shady spots What will do well in how much shade will vary some depending on where you are, so you might want to add that info to your profile so it comes up in your posts. (I've given directions below.) Edging plants for part shade that I've grown in my acid sandy loam: -Veronica Georgia Blue is low with tidy foliage, but wanders a bit nonaggressively in the garden so it may need occasional trimming back from the walk way. -Campanula 'Blue Clips' or 'White Clips' Any of the Hostas with Mouse Ears in their name Alyssum, a self-seeding annual Sunpatiens annual Begonia - in the shadier spots; nonhardy perennial, so you can dig or take cuttings to overwinter indoors. If you are going to widen the bed, I'd also either cut a V edge or bury to the very rim (so the grass will hide it) some of the black plastic rolled rim edging. Otherwise you will be fighting to keep the grass out. (Actually, I'd do this regardless of whether you widen it or not. Life's too short to fight grass in the garden!) Here are the directions for adding zone/location information: Go to Your Houzz in upper right of every page, click Edit Profile, and on the left side click advanced settings. Well down the advanced settings page is a blank labeled Climate Zone for Garden Forums along with a link to find your zone. If you add info on your state or the nearest large city you will get even better information since zone only relates to average coldest winter temperatures. Then return to the top of the page and click Done Editing.