So much to think about -- thanks for all the thoughtful responses. I'm not overly fond of the serviceberry myself so I'm kind of happy to see that shot down. :) I'm dealing with shade and as mentioned, the sewer line. The previous owner had nothing but evergreens, including two more big 'Christmas' trees in the front yard that came out with the last drain tile failure. I'm not telling anyone here anything they don't already know, but those roots are like steel wool and just a killer of 60-year old clay drain pipes! I couldn't wait to pull them out and am a wee bit leery of putting any more in after spending lots of zeros on sewer repairs over the last 10 years. Anyway, one of my other challenges is shade. There are huge maples in the city parkways that aren't going anywhere and don't leave me much to work with in the way of sun. I'm not one for linear, perfectly symmetrical designs inside or out -- hate matched sets of anything -- so that was another aim. I like the trenched edge, mulch look, as opposed to landscape-block raised beds or plastic edging. I do want to raise the height a bit with a dirt fill. I'm not tied to the stone footpath; I'd be OK if they found a 'natural' footpath through the mulch, actually. I'd planned to trench beyond the burning bushes so that I'm not mowing around them -- the true planned edge just didn't show up on the scan. Excellent point about the side -- the pachysandra is the ONLY thing that has ever grown there, and without a lick of TLC. It even overwhelmed hostas and there aren't many of those left over there either. At the very least, I need to leave it as a border to the sidewalk or I'd forever be brushing back mulch material. Any suggestions on zone 5, partial shade, winter-interest shrubs that do not have an agressively clay-hungry root system? I do like the holly I already have on the side -- more of that? For that downspout corner would a dogwood have the same issues as the serviceberry? It's so hard to tell from online pictures -- and pruning has so much to do with it, too, right? -- what it's really going to look like. I should probably just drive around with my digicam and snap shots of the things I like and take them to the nursery. ~J

I love all of the pictures. Lots of inspiration. My favorite combination with hostas is with my baptisia. I tucked the hosta (this one is a no id, I inherited him when we bought this house) in close, and the baptisia sort of creates a canopy over the hosta. The only catch is that around midsummer, I have to tie up/stake my baptisia so that it doesn't collapse on the hosta.

I planted a few ferns, but they keep getting overgrown by the Hosta. I also inherited some Ostrich fern which duke it out with the maple tree roots. I don't take pics of them, because they're not Hosta. Although, that pic of the maidenhair fern makes me wonder. I found a pic of my Autumn fern in August as the colors are just beginning to change (I cropped it out of a Hosta pic)

Debra- I’ve had the opposite experience with Black Scallop ajuga... I‘ve lost it in most places it was planted. There are only a few plants here and there remaining. I would say that it seems to be susceptible to wet soil in winter, except there are places it survived that are probably pretty wet through the winter. I have one small awkward area at the bottom of the deck stairs and had hoped it would fill in there... but it disappeared. I replaced it with ajuga Chocolate Chip... and that seems to be doing better - so far. So, either way, success or failure- I also wouldn’t recommend Black Scallop, cute as it is.