Garden fun

So last year our front yard was dug up in a hurry to replace a clogged sewer line.  Whenever I did laundry, the sewer line would back up and flood our basement.  We had it snaked a couple times, but the invading tree roots grew back too fast.  Last year our front yard looked like this for two or three days:

Let me just say that Michael was the happiest little boy when the backhoe rolled into our yard and started digging.  I moved some things before they started digging, but when they were done our yard looked like this:

Only this is a picture from this year.  We removed the little dogwood so as to get more sun.

We didn't have any money left to landscape it.  Grass didn't do well in this area before and we hate to mow it, so we covered the area with mulch and left it for a year.  Well, now I'm tired of looking at a sea of mulch (and the neighbors probably are too.  Thank goodness there's no HOA).  So I planted some stuff:

Foundation plants: Japanese Pieris in front, Rhododendron in the middle, and Oak-leaf Hydrangea on the end. 

I also added some coleus and impatiens.  In the sunnier area I put some lantana and sweet potato vine.  I'm planning on planting some switch grasses I bought today and covering the remaining area with annual seeds (nasturtiums, cosmos, marigolds).  It might even look decent.  Unless the weeds get ahead of me.