I never post here either, just stumbled by to ask a question. I agree with lee, I see cottage gardening all over the yard. Winding around the corners of the house as well as a flowing bed, not straight, under the windows, window boxes, wood or iron would be nice. You can decide the flowers depending on the colors you like as well as the plants. You will find a lot of inspiration just by peeking into these forums. If it were my house, I would plant with a lot of mass and color like reds, yellows and dark blues. I would put in a path of flag stone or bricks, I would do a white picket fence with an arch at the gate for a climbing climatis or rose, I love old benches so I would have one under the tree with a pot of flowers on it and bring in more garden art like old gates for trellis, old pails instead of flower pots. Like I said I see cottage all over the yard. You have good bones just depends on what YOU want to achieve.

I'll try to play catch up. (Have been travelling for a little more than a month in the past 40 days. Much of that was without Internet so more absent than I thought might happen.) The drawing is pretty basic but hopefully it will convey some ideas. First, I would get rid of the odd angles on the beds. They would look much better to tie in to walks at 90* angles instead of weird wedge shapes. In the lower, right corner I'm illustrating two ways you could make a circular bed around the lamp post. (The lamp post is a primary purpose of the bed so the bed ought to use the post, at least roughly, as the radius point. And a generally circular shape would make more sense than a sprawling asymmetrical wedge shape.) Also, I would re-shape the large front bed. It should swell out to accommodate the tree you intend to plant but does not need to extend outward, around the walk in a grabbing fashion. To explain the planting in the illustration, it is a shrub below each window of the garage, and a small hedge below the pair of windows (right half). None of those should get taller than bottom of the window. There is seasonal color flanking the entrance to the porch and at the left of the porch. A perennial mass wraps the garage corners and right house corner. A low groundcover, solid, links the other plantings together. Can't tell how your existing tree would possibly conflict with the proposed tree. (The third picture you posted was taken from a different position so the existing tree location shown could be seriously misleading.) You might want to consider moving the proposed tree farther back in the scene rather than placing it at a pure diagonal to the house corner. (I wouldn't know because we don't have the information.) A large shade tree is probably not in order. A flowering tree (such as redbud) might be a better size to use so close to the house. As far as what plants to use, gauge the heights and research what plants grow locally that could perform well.

Jeff, to have a hope of having the crape myrtle look like it's not in a completely wrong position (smack in front of the window) you'll need to lift the canopy by not cutting it back to any lower than the eves. And then clean the trunks so there's no foliage on them. It should all be over head ... no in your face, or in front of the window. No question about it that the house would look much better if the walk were widened quite a bit, given the proximity of the porch opening and its width. And don't plant in front of this area, except at the edges. A small, multi-trunk tree (or cluster of palms such as Pindo) off of the left house corner of the house would help frame and give it a nestled in look ... like it's integrated into the landscape, not just stuck on top. The bed is reshaped to accommodate the tree and is filled with groundcover. The colors don't indicate specific plants, just sizes, shapes and locations. Though I did not draw it, I'm sure you could use a similar small tree and bed below off of the right house corner.

My suggestions aren't based on ideals, but on practical attractive suggestions for a new homeowner with a limited budget. I wouldn't choose to barricade the entryway, hiding the walk and much of the door as in the image immediately above, which also uses some plants that aren't shade tolerant and are tightly pruned into unnatural shapes. If you have the time and the inclination, I would move the path out away from the house, take out the worst of the squiggles and make one long sweep of a curve if you don't want it straight as Laceyvail suggested. If not, plant larger plants in the areas of outward squiggles so at least they look like there is a reason for them being there. Certainly remove the ivy from the tree on a regular basis and keep it at ground level. As long as you are willing to manage the edges and keep it from climbing, it is an adequate groundcover as is pachysandra, and either will do better than grass on your shady slope. If there isn't money for a pro to do design, there isn't money for masonry walls which are expensive. For now, I would go to a good garden center with your photo along with some observations of how much sun (if any) the space gets and see what suggestions they have for plants that will stay below the level of your windows and will be narrower than the space between the path and the house by a foot or two so plants are not smooshed against the house. Depending on amount of sun, that might include some smaller azaleas, but I don't really know plants for your area. Then plant a shade tolerant evergreen flowering ground cover beneath it or some evergreen shade tolerant perennials (Veronica Georgia Blue and hellebores are two that come to mind). Hostas in various colors and sizes will provide large leaves for contrast to whatever else you plant as long as deer aren't a problem. If deer are a problem, be sure to tell the nursery where you go for plants. Since you seem to not have a lot of garden experience, spend a bit more to get plants from an independent nursery with qualified staff to help you with design suggestions and appropriate plant choices for your situation. At this time of year, they are more likely to have the time to assist you, and fall planting is often more successful since there is adequate rain and cooling temperatures. You most likely want to get a load of compost and turn it into the bed before planting since the shrubs there previously may have depleted organic matter and nutrients. This is a task you can do now while it is still too hot to plant, working a bit at a time in early morning before it gets hot. Regardless, after planting, mulch the whole bed. Right now, I am not sure you have room for a Japanese maple there unless you place it in the center of the yard away from the house. Perhaps removing the hedge to the left of the house and placing a J maple off that corner would work, but you would need to decide if losing the screening of the hedge would be a good exchange and also would need to choose a small enough cultivar that it wouldn't outgrow the space. Let us know what you end up doing.