Beginner Gardening: i need a little more advice about my crape myrtle., 1 by jessnjus

jessnjus wrote:
i tried to clean it up a little bit. im just not satisfied with the way it looks. i know i need to get some more limbs out, but i dont know which ones and i dont know how many. do i cut the outside ones or the inside ones? im confused. i was thinking the bottom needs a border or some monkey grass around it or something. any advice would help. and the only reason i decided to go ahead and "crape murder" it is because we had a really, really bad ice storm this winter and it looked horrible. im hoping it will be okay if i dont do it ever again. i can tell by the big stumps on the mid section that the people who owned this house previous to me did it regularly. thank you for your time. =)