Hello Deanna,
Its exciting but also intimidating to see this blank area just waiting to be planted. It may help to browse some gardening magazines and/or books (library) for ideas that catch your eye. For me, I go with easy care as I like a atural look without a lot of fuss. You may prefer something more formal. I like to see what local garden areas have done. I even get some ideas from the big flower shows.
Good luck and have fun with your new planting!
Susan

Things to think about...Is this viewed from the house? from the road? does it need to look good in winter too? Do you want it to be for birds and wildlife? butterflies? Is it full sun? where is north? Will the woods in back be creeping inward over time? What sort of irrigation? what's the soil like? i.e. do the plants have to be self-sustaining? What about maintenance? formal? pruned? It would be nice to know what you want from the area rather than just a place to plant shrubs. You can easily end up with a mish-mash look. serene and calm? colorful and crazy? A conifer garden? cottage garden? woodland? bird haven? winter garden? ...

After you decide on a general direction/style, I would start by thinking about a focal point first. If it fits in the style, a conifer like Picea orientalis 'Skylands'(oriental spruce) would make a stunning focal point in a conifer garden. Maybe an arbor or a pergola or even a bench or birdbath.

wendyb, I know that answers to those questions! It will only be viewed from the house. Our driveway is 300+ feet long and this garden is on the opposite side of the driveway, but is on the side where all the "important" house windows are: living space, dining, kitchen, etc. It is a side garden. From inside the house, this and the front garden will be the main garden views. So, it's a garden for us, not for the street, and the two pictures show good viewpoints of it. First picture is taken from the front of the house looking back, second from the back looking forward,

The front of our house faces south. The first picture is taken from the front of our house looking back, which means looking north, the second looking south-southeast. The part of the garden nearer the back (north) gets full sun, but the part nearer the front (south) is definitely part shade. There is one section that is basically all shade, but I know what I want to do with that. I'm looking for shrubs that will do well with the minimum requirements of full sun, 6+ hours, in August (I expect more hours of sun in June and July), as well as any that flower well in part shade. I'm not that interested in greenery only at this point in my life. Perhaps it is a result of seeing too many boring shrub borders in my life, who knows, but I don't want anything for its greenery only. I'd love to have a Harry Louder's Walking Stick for winter interest,but those are so darn expensive. It's on my list of Ultimate Desires.

Irrigation will be hose only. Soil is a loam I had analyzed, and it's a typical new loam for NH--slightly acidic (5.4), good sandy texture, a little low on nutrients, 4% organic matter, and I'm ammending with compost as I plant. I also limed it to increase its pH so it should have a higher pH than 5.4 without going above 7.

I do want self-sustaining plants with an informal cottage feel. Notice that my paths are curvy. I feel more serenity in the random curves of nature than I do in the formal outlines of a palace garden. I am more than willing to prune a plant when it helps with its growth and habit, but do not prune anything to force an unnatural shape.

As for color, that's a harder one to nail down. At this point in my life I feel that I am drawn to bold colors, but I love other palettes as well. That's without doubt part of my gardening experience I'm learning about and discovering. Since this space is so big, I'd love to experiment with bold contrasts as well as monochromatic harmony.

I don't like evergreens too much. I think growing up in the south where every other tree is a scraggly Southern Pine, scraggly and green all year, I am just not drawn to evergreens now. I love the fall colors and the bare branches in winter. But, some shrubs are evergreen and beautiful. I think I just don't like conifers that are trees.

Beyond that I don't know much about how to incorporate shrubs. Right now I see them as big view blockers rather than things that contribute to the view. But, I have that opinion ONLY because I can't visualize how to use them well, not because I dislike them in gardens.

Focal point? I don't have one focal point of the garden now, that's for sure!

I agree that you should decide on a style. Oriental garden, xeriscape (desert-like), flowering shrubs, conifer garden etc. Personally I would suggest that you consider varying the elevation in places, such as mounds or "berms" as they are called. They can add much interest, as well as adding instant height to plants, allowing you to save some money by using slightly smaller ones to start. They also create slopes facing the sun and some facing the shade for variety. Some things that would do well for you in most average conditions (soil,sun, etc.) would be Japanese maple, lilac, holly, many conifers, forsythia, flowering quince and many types of spirea and several grasses, to name but a few. Good luck with whatever you decide.

I like the informal cottage idea and I second the idea on adding a few grasses. You can't have a cottage garden without some roses either. There are lots of long blooming, easy, shrub roses out there. Check out some shrubs that have red tinged foliage too, like Weigela, or Ninebark, or Smokebush. Even some shrub roses have red tinted foliage. And there are so many evergreen varieties to choose from with interesting color and foliage. Hollies are wonderful in winter with their red berries, just be sure to get both a male and female for the red berries (poisonous though) on the female. Some of my favorite evergreens have blue colored foliage. There are also red-twigged dogwood shrub varieties that boast red twigs in winter! Arctic Fire is one....... Ivory Halo, a variegated variety, is another. Once you get started, you will find a lot of very interesting things and I don't think you will be disappointed. If anymore favorites come to mind, I'll post them.

Another thought than another poster mentioned....... An few well placed garden ornaments, like an arbor, a bench, a bird bath, will give the space structure, focal points, add lots of interest and give you things to plant around. You are headed in the right direction too with a windy path in the space. How exciting!

You will have to post pics to show your progress.

Deanna - One more question to consider: Do you have problems with deer? (We have them, but find they don't bother the gardens in general since there is so much else available for them.) If so, you will want to keep that in mind so that what you plant aren't plants which deer particularly like such as hosta, or in my case, they are loving one of my asters this year.

Look into this book: The Well-Designed Mixed Garden: Building Beds and Borders with Trees, Shrubs, Perennials, Annuals, and Bulbs by Tracy Disabato-Aust. You can probably get it through interlibrary loan at your public library. Doing a mixed border with perennials, bulbs, shubs, vines, small trees and evergreens can be just lovely (my only annuals in my beds are self-seeded since I don't want to leave specific spaces for them.) Look at other books with lots of garden eye candy and decide what appeals to you. Then go to a bunch of nurseries that have shrubs to see what is available. In my experience they will often have fall sales (I think Cole Gardens in Concord is 40% off right now) so it's more economical to buy now, and most plants like the warm soil and cooler temperatures of fall to get good root growth. When I started a mixed border, I began with the large shrubs and have filled in around them with vines, bulbs and perennials. I had general ideas of what types I wanted (ie blue conifer, gold conifer, green conifer, rhodie, or red-leafed shrub) and how to arrange them, but waited until I saw what was in the nurseries to decide what to actually get.

Think about foliage as well as flowers and varying the size, texture and color of leaves to add interest in times when the flowers aren't abundant. As cdeperon mentioned, the ninebarks/Physocarpus opulifolius and Cotinus/smokebush have colorful foliage as well as flowers, along with many weigelas, some elderberries, and some of the Deutzias. Consider broad-leaved evergreens like rhododendrons, mountain laurels/Kalmia, and Leucothoe. Several of them have foliage with color (along with flowers) and they all contribute a different texture than deciduous plants. Needled evergreens such as small spruces or arborvitaes will aslo add texture and color, especially during the 6+ months when plants aren't actively growing here in NH. Most of my evergreens are under snow in deep winter, but they add immensely to the interest in fall after leaf drop and in early spring before plants start up again as well as highlighted by shallower snowfalls.

Below are some of my favoriite woody plants and vines to consider. Many of them have multiple seasons of interest, like my pagoda dogwoods, which have a couple of weeks of lacy flowers, berries in August, peachy fall foliage color and architectural winter branching. Not the absolute best plant in my garden at any given point, but earning its keep with year-round interest, and I grow clematis in its branches for July and early August flowers as well.

Deciduous plants with colorful fall foliage:
Blueberries, fothergilla, wtichhazel/Hamamelis, Enkianthus, Acer griseum (small tree), viburnums such as the natives V. acerifolium/mapleleaf viburnum, and V. cassinoides/wild raisin and the nonnative V. plicatum (popcorn and maresii are two I have)

Spring flowers:
Magnolias, rhododendrons, crabapples, kousa and pagoda dogwoods, spirea, mountain laurel, various viburnums, ninebarks/Physocarpus

Summer flowers:
Stewartia, some of the hardy deciduous rhodies and azaleas, hydrangeas, clematis (type 3 pruning, and can be grown on obelisks or into some of your shrubs), spirea, smokebush/cotinus

Berries:
winterberry/Ilex verticillata, elderberry/Sambucus, pagoda dogwood/Cornus alternifolia, blueberries/vaccinium, chokeberry/Aronia, serviceberry AKA shadbush/Amelanchier, many of the viburnums if they have compatible buddies to pollenate, crabapples

Nice winter bark, branches, structure, color:
Evergreens (both deciduous and coniferous), red/gold/orange twigged dogwoods, Cornus alternifolia/pagoda dogwood, Acer griseum/paperbark maple, Stewartia

I agree with others who suggested some focal points. I have a stoneware garden lantern that I love near my house, and in my shrub bed I have several iron structures for my clematis to grow on that provide interest when it's snowy as well. In previous gardens I have used some of our native granite. Just be sure that whatever you use is large enough to read well from the house when you view it.

Have fun with the planning and planting. Feel free to send me an email to arrange a visit and take home some small woodies to help you get started. The link takes you to my largest mixed border in its third year with photos taken in June, fall, and early winter. (and I want to update with recent photos when I have time to upload some pictures since it has really filled in.)

Here is a link that might be useful: summer and winter mixed border

Thanks so much. You all are exactly what I needed. I do want roses, but in my mind I had been thinking about climbing roses to go up the wall I will add (eventually) around this space. I had forgotten about bush roses! How silly of me, since it's a perfect suggestion.

cdperon, thank you for mentioning the colored dogwoods! Last year I read a post on them and just LOVED them, and I had completely forgotten about them. I would so much like to have those for winter interest.

nhbabs, I was hoping you'd post. I remember some of your posts from past and you seemed to have so much shrub knowledge, including one on colored dogwoods and pollarding trees. I'm going to investigate all those suggestions. What a great list!