HelpfulGardener.com

I'm a newbie to gardening and landscaping. I have done containers and done them fairly successfully but it gets expensive to be replacing them every year.

We have lived in our house for 5 years and there is zero landscaping. Last fall we set an area to be landscaped and now I have NO idea where to start!

I have 2 small kids so I have a few requirements:
-the plants need to be non-poisionous and not thorny
-the plants need to be fairly low maintenance (besides basic pruning) because I don't have a lot of extra time to garden
-I'd like to have a little bit of color through the entire growing season

The area is narrow and long. About 3 feet wide and I'm guessing about 30 feet long along the front of our house at the foundation. On the south side I have a small bump out with a bench. (I will try to take a picture that shows what I'm working with)

I am in zone 5A-5B. The area is on the east side of my house, gets a fair amount of morning sun but is shaded by noon or a little after.

I would like to have something climb between my two windows (or have some taller plant there).

I look at all the photos and plans and see so many amazing looking plants...but I have no idea how to group them in my small area. Any help or advice is very much appreciated!

Go to a garden center or a few and ask lots of questions. Be sure to ask how much space the plants need and how big they get. Shrubs are the easiest to take care of.

I've kind of done that. I need to explore some new places though...the ones I've gone to haven't been very helpful. That's why I turned here...

Okay you don't want anything between your two windows because that would make them the focal point and that is not what you want to acheive. The front door should be your focal point unless you want people coming through the windows. Since you don't have a lot of room may I suggest simplicity. Potentillla will bloom all sumer into fall. Yellow, orange and other blooms. Suggest K. Dykes, it is weeping. Then consider euonymous, Emerald Gaeity or Gold, evergreen. Plant them in 3's. They will need pruning annually. Then look at some junipers, like Blue Pacific. No uprights or they will cover your windows. I don't know if aspen grow in NE but if they do or similar small narrow trees put them near the front door and at the end of the house, maybe a redbud. Do not have a straight edged bed. Get a buzz and lay out a bed with a smooth simple wavy line and jut the bed out to six feet at the doorway and the end of the house. Nothing worse then having a bed in a straight line with the house or else you are framing the foundation and not complimenting your home.