I have no idea what I’m doing. Please give suggestions (Central NJ) – Reddit Post

Ok. So my husband and I finally decided we want to make our front yard more presentable. We’ve been in the house for a year now.

I really love nature and bugs and I want to encourage the pollinators to hang out. Great! Grab some flowery perennials.

Thing is, I have no idea what I’m doing. We stirred up all the dirt. We grabbed plants that we were told are hardy and like the direct sun that this spot gets (this pic was taken at 7am, full sun hits soon)

There’s a lot of spots to fill in, but we’re unsure of what would work here. The soil under is a bit sandy because it’s right up against the foundation of the house. I THINK the soil is kinda basic because we have a hydrangea bush on the side that’s pink (is that accurate btw? The hydrangea flower color thing???) and an azalea bush that takes off every year.

I wanna give our new lil bush on the left plenty of room to grow, but I also hate all those dead spots. I don’t wanna put perennials in there because they’d just eventually get nuked by the bush right? Would it make sense to put annuals down around it to fill in the space?

Suggestions are very welcome. I am an idiot. My understanding of gardening is reading the labels at the garden center and hoping for the best. I keep fish so I dump fish water into the flower beds, which works great for my few house plants.

Help.

Ignore the weird layout btw were building this up week by week.