You have a lot of options. On the north side of my house, which gets sun in the early morning and late afternoon, I'm growing two kinds of lilacs, four kinds of viburnums, redtwig dogwood, several kinds of hostas, astilbe, centauria montana, several kinds of hardy geraniums, lamium, bleeding heart, and boxwood. Also English ivy as a ground cover.  (I'm not  recommending the ivy, just including it for completeness, as I have to cut it down periodically to keep it off the walls.)

Thanks for the ideas. I have several red twig, lilacs and viburnum doing well in other parts of my yard.

Think beyond color to texture as well. The astilbe, pulmonaria, columbines and many ferns can be had for not much money, and would help tremendously because they’d break up the mass.

btw.. as those hosta mature. yo have about twice as many plants as you have space .... keep that in mind.. when you see holes around the yard.. that need a hosta .. a free hosta ...

if i recall this side of your house from old posts.. i dont know why you even wasted time posting about it... its barely noticed form the street.. and its the side of the house you probably have no reason to be over there.. but for mowing the lawn ...so all i ask is.. WHY MAKE YOURSELF A GARDEN YOU HAVE TO TEND OVER THERE .... why not just work on your other million projects...

ken

Agree with you Ken. Just looking for some flowers to drop in and let them be. Like I said right now it’s a holding cell for my Hostas

I have become obsessed with Sun King's, a small shrub that grows in sun or shade and is a nice bright lime green or yellow green color. They look amazing with orange lilys on my north side.

To be a bit pedantic, the Aralia Sun King is actually a shrub-sized perennial. It will die back to the ground when the growing season ends, but it is a large, dramatic presence during the growing season. I have a friend whose Sun King overtops her 6’ tall husband.

To be honest, to make any useful suggestion I would want to see photos of a larger area and how this fits with the rest of the house and yard. You say it is not visible from your back porch, but is it visible from the street, the neighbors, a window in the house, etc? Do you want interest year round or are you Ok with die back perennials so nothing is there late fall, winter, and early spring? Will you be diigging in the bed annually to add or remove hostas?

What does z 5 NW mean? z5 tells us your general winter coldest temperatures, but a better location will give us better info on soil pH and moisture and you are likely to get more useful suggestions.

I'd be putting impatiens in there, cuz every year you might be changing things around as you move hostas to other spots.... I always have iris to split so those might be something i'd put in there.

I’m in NW Illinois. This area is slightly visible from the street, but mostly hidden behind a large yew. I’ve simply filled it because it was there and I had several Hostas with no place to put them. I’d be ok with perennials that die back.

i like the idea of an Aralia Sun King since it would have the presence to be seen from the street as it matures and would look nice against the house and with the hostas. it would die back.

another possibility would be a variegated red twig dogwood; green and white in summer and bright red branches in winter cut to the ground every 3 years in very early spring or cut away 1/3 of the branches (the oldest) each year.

Thanks for the ideas. I’ll wait until some shrubs get marked down this Fall :)