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[quote=Anonymous]OP, I’m so excited for you. I caught the gardening bug with a new home purchase a few years ago.

The best thing I ever did was to make a daylight diagram of my yard once the trees leafed out. I went outside once an hour on sunny days and shaded in photocopied hand-drawn maps of my yard. That helped me to know how many hours of light each planting area received. Previously I had kept guessing that certain areas were full or part sun and then losing plants that were bad fits for where I had sited them.

I made a commitment to perennials because I like to buy and plant once. The trouble is that a lot of perennials only flower for about two weeks before fading. Now I leave room for annuals in containers so that I have more color through the summer, particularly in August when a lot of things fade.

Some perennial plant recommendations below.

[u]Year-round interest shrubs[/u] 
Mahonia (deer resistant)
Camellia (winter and early spring bloomers, evergreen)
Calicarpa (purple berries)
Cornus sericea (bright red bark)
Leucothe (evergreen, pink-tinged variegated leaves and spring blooms)
Hellebore (evergreen, early bloomers; “Lenten rose” varieties do better in our acidic, clay soil than winter bloomers)

[u]Deep shade combinations[/u]
Hosta, tiarella, fern, with huechera or heucherella (comes in different color and leaf sizes)

[u]Shade plants[/u]
Goatsbeard (dwarf perennial or shrub; great if you like the look of astilbe but don’t have a place that’s quite wet enough to keep it well)
Toad lily (good for damp planting beds)
Pulmonaria
Balloon flower, particularly platycodon komachi (from seed only)
Dwarf Japanese maple (Mendocino Maples has amazing varieties to order)

[u]Great sun plants[/u]
Crocosmia
Acidanthera (fragrant, late season bloomer)
Asclepias 
Monarda (lovely scent)
Allium 
Salvia (some varieties tolerate part shade; it has a long flowering season if deadheaded)
Spiderwort (tolerates part shade; blooms most of the summer)
Sedum (inexpensive, drought tolerant ground cover; changes color in fall/winter)
Thyme as a ground cover

[u]Avoid[/u]
English ivy (It’s hard to be rid of; it chokes trees and shrubs; it’s invasive)
Nandina (So gorgeous, but becoming invasive as birds spread the berries)
Wintercreeper (invasive)
Beautyberry (tenacious, invasive vine)

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