I’m a little unsure of how much space is available for the layout, as it’s being described as confined by the house & walkway. So not sure if there is room for several 3-5” wide shrubs.

For watering, I would use longer run times, or hand- watering at root level. 20 minutes of sprinkler is pretty shallow watering.

I have Abelia ’Twist of Lime’ by one of mine and love the color contrast. I also have Dwarf Yaupon Holly nearby, which are pretty much indestructible. I don’t prune any of the listed plants — the Abelia sends out such nice arches, and I love seeing bees and butterflies on it all summer.

I was trying to get a pic of a bee on my salvia this morning, you can see one of my Abelias behind it:

That one gets morning sun in backyard, my others in front get full on Texas sun all day … they love it.

One of my other Black Diamonds last year. It’s young and I have to move it soon because the rosemary behind it is eating it. It’s twice that big now.

I took some pics of my actual area for you just now.

This is from the main entrance to the garden. I have a ton of weeding to do, cutting back the Creeping Jenny, and mulching, so don't judge! LOL

The crape myrtle is in the back left, near the deck. You can see that the irises on the right side of the garden have all bloomed nicely! The impact sprinkler is next to the bench you see on the left.

A bit closer to the crape myrtle so you can see it. This is the flower garden I'm wanting to remove since the bearded irises never bloom. There's also Autumn Joy sedum and Chocolate Chip ajuga (which I need to divide, but I might be out of time).

You can't see it now, but there's a large boulder near the front that I placed to balance the rocks around the pond that's on the right.

And this is from the other side of the crape myrtle, so you can actually see it. Please ignore the opening under my deck, that's the access point to my hot tub.

The empty space in the middle of the irises is where canna lilies are starting. The original design was to have the irises bloom early, then daylilies, then the cannas.

Now I can see that the irises that are blooming on this side aren't my Siberians, they're yellow. Maybe Yellow Flags? I just read that they're considered invasive in NC, though, so that kinda sucks.

I failed to mention before that this area is fully enclosed, so deer aren't an issue :-) Voles are a big problem, though :-( And occasionally a rabbit makes his way in, but rarely comes into this area.

I measured, and the distance from the walkway to the deck is 14'. I'm envisioning a more staggered pattern, maybe @Jilly 's abelia (4' x 5') about 5' to the West of the tree and 5' from the deck (so that the mature edges ends up 2-3' from the tree and deck), and then something smaller sort of in between the two and closer to the walkway?

I was going to suggest abelia as well. It is evergreen except in very cold winters were it might drop a few leaves. Any of the colorful or variegated dwarf abelias would work - they all get to be about 3-4' tall and 4-5' wide but can be kept more compact with late spring pruning.

I am really fond of 'Kaleidoscope' for its very colorful foliage that changes colors through the season and blends with so many other plants. The pale pink, almost white flowers are just a bonus.

Jason, your gardens are lovely. I envy all the trees nearby.

GG, I’m definitely getting a Kaleidoscope next. I’ve been wanting one for ages, but my two favorite local nurseries have closed and I’m having a hard time finding any. Kicking myself for not getting them when I had the chance!

I had an abelia in the front yard when I bought my house (almost 20 years ago), I never loved it but I think it was just because of bad upkeep on my end. And maybe bad placement. The Southern side was always leafy on the outside, but the North, East, and West were just dead looking. And of course the inside of it just looked like bare sticks, so it never really looked healthy.

I eventually dug it up and relocated it, but it did even worse! Last year I took several cuttings and just eliminated the rest; two of the cuttings survived. I moved them both to full sun areas recently, so I'm hoping they'll grow into something nicer.

The Twist of Lime has a nicer color than the one I have/had, though, and the area I'm envisioning for it would be full sun. So hopefully it'll do better :-)

I still need a third, though. I'm getting mixed information on the size of the abelia; some say 5' tall, others say 30"! I'm leaning towards putting it more towards the walkway, though, since it comes to the ground and I could always prune it to keep it smaller.

@Jilly, I recently had a bunch of wild trees cut back to give this area more light, and I was able to select a stopping point to create a border. Now I have a nice variety of holly trees (evergreen), bigleaf magnolias, white pines, red oak, poplar, and maple giving me a backdrop behind the fence.

I'm excited to see how it looks this Autumn, when all of the leaves are changing colors!!! I hope that I've left enough evergreen to have a bit of a barrier between my house and the neighbors, too.

Ahh, I’ll bet the trees will be gorgeous this fall!

Most of my Abelias are at 3-4 ft and are a few years old. At least it’s not solid hedge-like growth, though, it’s the individual branches that arch and shoot out. I do expect more growth this year.

I just love them. :)

Not a great pic, a couple of mine last year among Salvia Greggii — bees were all over the flowers, but it’s hard to tell. My better pics are on another computer, I’ll try to find them.

Another bright one is ‘Sunshine’ Ligustrum. I have several and they’ve been wonderful. I do give these two light haircuts because the bed is small and bordering the driveway, but wow, they’re so easy to work with. Very soft leaves and super easy to keep trimmed. My others are in spots they can grow however they want. I’m expecting them to get pretty tall, they grow fast! I’ve noticed the ones in full sun are so much brighter than the ones in more shade.

They usually stay semi-evergreen, but in our extreme winters the past couple of years they’ve gone pretty bare.

ETA: I found these Abelia pics from a couple of years ago — a hummingbird moth was on it! I was very excited. :D

My poor little Dwarf Euonymus next to it was struggling that year, but looks great now.

If you found a dwarf abelia you line, you might want to do a group or curve of several of the same thing for massing and impact. And there could always be option of weaving in a taller perennial for bloom and softening m.

I tend to be a bit of a plant collector, and that can work out, but I often find myself admiring gardens where there are good groupings of things, and maybe some things mingling.

@marmiegard_z7b, when I started building my first garden, I thought it would be a one-and-done thing. My 13 year old dog had congestive heart failure, she couldn't really walk, and only had maybe a few months to live. And I had this expanse of lawn that never did well. This was long before COVID and my income was great, so I decided to convert that part of the lawn to a garden while spending time outside with my dog.

It was a very sweet bonding time and I'm glad I did it, but of course the garden kept growing. And growing. Over time my tastes change regularly, and like you I keep getting inspired by other gardens with different styles. So I'm almost constantly digging up plants and changing everything! LOL

And now I have 13 separate gardens :-O

Because of that, I try to only buy plants that handle being dug up and transplanted pretty well, with bonus points to those that I can divide over time. But recently I've started to appreciate trees and shrubs more, especially when they're evergreen and can help fill in large areas.

Long story short, my thought here is to fill in between the boulder and crape myrtle with a few shrubs, then as they mature I'll surround them with some type of ground cover. Then between the shrubs and walkway, I can fill in with perennials or self seeding annuals. Maybe a blend of black eyed susans and speedwell, but that'll probably be a decision for next year.

@Jilly, your abelia is gorgeous! Thanks for the pics :-)

I have two Sunshine Ligustrum myself! I planted them in 2021. They're larger than yours, but nowhere near as pretty and lush.

And for perspective:

The area is full sun and has two sprinklers, so I don't know why they never look good :-/ I have three Ever Red Fringe Flower loropetalum here, too, that never look good.

I took cuttings recently, though, and if they survive then I have plenty of new areas for them! If I can figure out how to make them pretty and lush like yours then I would love using it near the crape myrtle :-)

Update, these are the plants I bought from the local nursery on Friday:

"Twist of Lime" abelia (expected mature size is 5'H x 5'W)

https://www.monrovia.com/twist-of-lime-153-abelia.html

"Little Lime Punch" panicle hydrangea (3-5'H x 3-5'W)

https://www.provenwinners.com/plants/hydrangea/little-lime-punch-panicle-hydrangea-hydrangea-paniculata

"Let's Dance Blue Jangles" reblooming bigleaf hydrangea (2'H x 3'W)

https://www.provenwinners.com/plants/hydrangea/lets-dance-blue-jangles-reblooming-hydrangea-hydrangea-macrophylla

"Double Play Candy Corn" spirea (2'H x 2.5'W)

https://www.provenwinners.com/plants/spiraea/double-play-candy-corn-spirea-spiraea-japonica

Based on the mature sizes, I'm thinking to place the abelia on the Southeastern side of the crape myrtle (closest to the deck), and then one of the other three to the Northeast of the abelia. Then I can fill in with perennials.

I'm leaning against the Blue Jangles, because I already have three Endless Summer hydrangeas nearby that looks similar. And I can easily put it in a front garden, where there aren't any hydrangeas.

Would you pair the crape myrtle and abelia with the Little Lime Punch hydrangea, or the Candy Corn spirea? Or should I keep hunting?