Now Ya See it, Now Ya Don't

As promised here's a look at the outside shenanigans that went on at our casa last weekend.  If you'll remember, here's what our front landscaping looked like before:

We had a funky hedge in the front (to the far left of the picture) that was awkwardly short and some randomly placed bushes in the front garden bed.  I've had it out for the hedge for quite a while but figured it would be a long time before we focused on making the outside purty. 

Eric (who's THE man, by the way) surprised me by pulling out the nasty hedge for my birthday.  We got so many compliments that I think he got motivated to pull out the other ugly stuff we've been eying since we moved in.

Maybe not the hugest difference in the world, but it makes us pretty dang happy!  I really like that the stone fireplace is more visible now.  Here's a view from the front:

Granted it's very bare, but we're happy to have a blank slate to work with.  Neither of us knows a whole lot about landscaping, so we want to take our time researching where we'll go from here.  We've also got a couple landscaping gurus in mind whose brains we'll be picking very soon.

Here's what we do know: our house faces West and this bed only gets sun from about 1-4 PM.  We *think* our soil is relatively well-drained.

  On the To Do List:

• Research, research, research!
• Dig out existing rock and install new landscaping plastic or fabric
• Look for/buy perennial plants that bring more color and texture to the space
• Specifically looking for ornamental grasses and maybe a flowering bush or two
• Replace current rock with a more contrasting color of rock or mulch
• So far we're thinking either grayish/whitish/beigish rock or dark brown mulch
• Integrate annuals, possibly in containers spaced throughout the bed

Have you ever tackled a landscaping project?  Are you a good resource for us?  We'd LOVE to hear from you :0)