I like a mixed planting with a few evergreens, some spring bloomers, something with fall colors, and something with winter interest. A classic for winter interest is red twig dogwood. Once the leaves are off, the red stems are beautiful, especially in a snowy landscape:
Other winter interest plants are things with berries that keep them through much of winter, like the winterberry holly shrub, beautyberry (gorgeous purple berries that stay on for a long time), etc. Another is crabapple trees. They have beautiful spring flowers, then later they get the little "apples" that look like large red berries that stay on almost through winter. You can't eat them like apples, but you can make crabapple jelly. There are dwarf crabapple varieties like Firebird that don't get more than five feet tall.
Ornamental grasses add structure and interest through the winter:

I really like pink muhly grass, but there are lots
When you think of evergreens, don't just think of conifers. There are lots of beautiful broad-leaf evergreens, many with spring blooms as well: mahonia (oregon grape-holly), azaleas, rhododendrons, kalmia (mountain laurel), euonymous, ilex, leucothoe, pieris, etc.