Beginner Gardening: Need help with my pool area garden, 1 by amdmtm

amdmtm wrote:
We have recently redone the patio around our inground pool and have left an area by the back fence where we want to plant a garden--picture attached (we are also in the process of replacing the pool liner). We would like a mix of shrubs and plants, some flowering, some not, and maybe some ornamental grasses. We would like our plantings to be more sparse than dense and we want things that will provide a lot of color in the summer months. Our soil is very clay-like and we get very hot summers (Missouri, zone 5B). The majority of it gets full sun, but there is an area on the right that is always shaded by the redbud tree on the other side of the fence. Any ideas about what we should consider?