Finally working on the foundation garden!

For three years, I've been meaning to replace the foundation planting on the north side of the house.  Five years ago, we moved to my husband's childhood home, and when my mother-in-law hired someone to do some landscaping work, her instructions were that it needed to be no-maintenance.  So we have these evergreen something or other that I've been wanting to replace with a nice foundation garden.  You can see my original posting about this project (from April 2011!) at this link.

Here's where my husband becomes my hero!  As we were raking the abundant leaves from our yard yesterday, he commented about how frustrating it is to rake around these things.  I told him I've been wanting to take those out for years... so that's just what he did!

Now I HAVE to get something else planted here!  I'll have to re-read everyone's advice about what to plant in this zone 3, dry, shady spot!  Suggestions?