Spring Cleaning

OK, so it isn't officiaially spring yet, but we have begun cleaning our yard anyway. We use to have a bunch of excuses NOT to clean out the flower beds, like being pregnant, being cold outside or just trying to convince ourselves that it didn't look "that bad." But it was time to do something.....no more excuses left. The couple we bought our house from liked gardening a little too much. There were a bunch of wild flowers everywhere in the back yard. The entire side of the house was a "garden" with overgrown flowers of all kinds. We are NOT gardeners! We knew we had to do something with it, but we didn't do it quick enough and it got a little out of hand. So, these last couple of weekends we have been working on cleaning out our yard. We have taken several loads of concrete and old bricks to the dump. The entire back burm consisted of concrete pieces and old bricks from the back patio. We found this out when we had a storage shed built this fall and had to dig out concrete just to get a smooth surface for the shed. Bodie spent last weekend digging out the rest of the burm and placing rocks around as an edge for the yard. Obviously, it isn't finished yet, but it is really an improvement from the overgrown mess it was. I don't have a before picture (partly because it would have been embarassing and partly because I didn't think to take one), but here is the after. We need to find a couple of easy maitenance bushes/flowers or ground cover or something to plant now. Bodie and I are clueless with types of flowers that would work well. You should see us when we clean out the flower beds. We are always asking each other if we should take this or that out or if she should just trim it or cut it off and if it will come back next year or not?? We have TONS (and I mean TONS) of bulbs everywhere in the flower beds and Bodie said one time when he was cleaning out "I don't know what these things are, but they are all over." Yes, we are "garden challenged." If anyone has suggestions for plants that would work well, please help us!!!!!
Bodie planted this willow tree a couple weeks ago, too. Our back patio is so HOT in the summer that we can't even sit out there. Hopefully this willow will help, eventually!