I have uploaded several pictures of a large bed off of my back porch. The area is near full sun. The tree is a Linden and it is surrounded by 2 species of spirea as well as ostrich ferns. There are some astilbe in front of the ferns.

I recently seriously thinned this area out as everything grew together. Please give me your thoughts on this area. I personally think that it looks too shabby and "unstructured" and lacks color. Do You agree? I was thinking about replacing spirea with something that flowers all summer (?hydrangeas). Should I plant a ground cover or just mulch between shrubs? I would like to keep the area relatively low maintenance.

I would cut back all the shrubs - and try to separate or "isolate" each type of plant (or grouping of plants) ...

then place mulch (of your choice) around each grouping, extending to the lawn .... a black or dark mulch will create "depth" and draw the eye in

Perhaps create a winding path through the entire bed ... paths do not have to go anywhere, but could dead-end at a bench, bird bath or nothing