Garden Parts: The side-bed

There's not much I can say about the side bed.  It's got a mild slope.  It's on the west side of the house, so it's mostly shady.

Gotta love the ivy taking over the house!

There's a rhododendron!  Hey, that's cool.  It's doing alright, but didn't really bloom this year.

The only other stuff in the bed is ivy and something-I-think-might-be Virginia creeper.

So - what are my plans? 

1. Dig out the ivy and vines

2. ....

I'll figure out step two after I finish with step one.  I think I need to find some shade loving shrubs for that side of the house, but I'm not sure if I want to do more rhododendrons or something different, like Japanese Aucuba with hakoechloa underneath. 

Exotic plants two days in a row?   What's the world coming to?

In other news, my shipment from Bluestone arrived yesterday.  All of the plants are in good shape, so I'm looking forward to a nice gardening weekend. 

Do you have any plans (garding or otherwise) for the long weekend?