I inherited a yard with lots of existing plants when we bought this house. I've been learning a lot, and I'd say that, in general, you want to leave the leaves that died back. It seems to be far more useful to plant things which come up at different times in about the same place to cover up the previous plant's old leaves. Also, cutting the leaves is more work, and leaving them there turns into free mulch and keeps the nutrients in the soil.

I was going to check where you are (other than zone 5), as that might help in determining what to suggest. In general, I would suggest things which are locally native, simply because those are adapted to your area and are much more likely to live with little care once established. At a random guess, you're probably in New Hampshire in zone 5, so maybe http://www.plantnative.org/rpl-nen.htm would be interested to you.

For bulb plants, I really like old house gardens, and their advanced search will let you choose bloom time, shade/sun, and soil type.

Are you more the type for a cottage garden or a more formal type garden? That will also matter!

In the shady, moist parts of my yard, I have various hosta, lily-of-the-valley (this _will_ spread if it's happy), solomon's seal, false solomon seal, jack-in-the-pulpet, a native part-to-full-shade creeping phlox, lungwort (one of the early type plants), bleeding hearts, ferns, hellebores, astilbes, some recently added primroses, a recently added monkshead, grape hyacinth, scilla.

Note that my soil there is only moderately acidic (6.2 pH, buffer 6.6 pH). How acid is your soil?

Also, the organic matter in my soil is _amazing_, between the leaves from the trees nearby and I presume ammendments by the previous owners.

It looks like your shady area is shaded by a building, not a tree? How much sun does it get? In the part which gets very little light, I currently have hosta, lily-of-the-valley, and the aforementioned native creeping phlox. I am not sure what else might be ok there. It's also the north facing part of the yard. So it mostly gets blocked by the house and the fence.

I have both inherited several gardens and started many beds from scratch. Here's what works for me. Use shrubs to anchor the garden: pick different blloom times and some evergreens, such as rhododendron and holly. I plant perennials with depth and height: tall, medium and ground covers and then use annuals to change things up from year to year. Again, with perennials, pick different bloom times so that as one thing fades, another comes into bloom. I always group plants by my favorite color combos and plant in odd number groupings: groups of 3, 5, 7 and never in rows (think triangle patterns). You can have a singleton here and there, but they should be stunners. You may want to get a good "go-to" book for different plants. The Sunset Northeast Garden is my favorite and has a section that categorizes plants by season, sun, shade, etc. with good descriptions of each. Also patience and lots of mulch is important. It takes time to get that full look you see in garden photos. For example, when redoing my front yard garden from scratch 5 years ago I planted a long swath of day lilies that bordered the road. They now are thick enough to not need any mulching. And trial and error is the best teacher. Ask any experienced gardener. We've all lost a few plants (over the years, maybe more than a few) and tend to move things around til it works. Look around your area to see what you like and what is doing well. Good luck!

First off, get a copy of Sydney Eddison's "Self-Taught Gardener". It was my first gardening book and it remains a favorite. She is a great teacher, and her chapters on easy perennials for sun and easy perennials for shade will help you get started. Your library can probably get it for you, or Amazon has used copies starting at about $4.

Next, you might want to map your garden -- know its orientation (is it on the north side of the house?), and observe when it gets sun (early am? late aft? for how many hours?). I actually drew my beds on graph paper, made several copies, and then illustrated on them where I had sun at different hours over the course of the day. This will tell you what spots have no sun, what spots have 6 hours, etc.

Once you know your sun, you might want to start visiting gardens to see if they have similar conditions and, if so, what they do with plants that you like. Are they using shrubs for height or structure? Perennials? Annuals? Do they catch your eye with flowers or foliage color or texture or shape, etc.?

Are there any gardens in your town that you can observe and hopefully chat with their owner? Does your town have a Garden Tour? Or do neighboring towns? Can you attend any of the Garden Conservancy's Open Days? Can you get to Tower Hill? Can you attend any of Mass Horticulture's Thursday evening talks at Elm Bank? There are many, many ways to learn!

Have fun!

Here is a link that might be useful: Open Days link