Beginner Gardening: Need some ideas for front of house, 1 by cyrusd

cyrusd wrote:
We ripped out all of the wild ugly stuff in the front of our porch- now we need some ideas of what to put there.
My girlfriend and I have no green thumbs between the two of us- but want to learn!

We really have no clue what we should do with the front of the house- we drove around tons of neighborhoods around us to find ideas and nothing really appealed to us.
I really want to get rid of the tan little rocks we have and get 1 solid darker color, either a black or a dark gray.

Anyone have any suggestions???
We were also thinking about a fountain or something of some sort.

A few things we liked when we were wandering around a few places:

Golden Shrimp Plant - http://www.bloominbert.com/plant pics/p36-golden-shrimp-plan...
Persian Shield - http://www.friendsschoolplantsale.com/wp-content/uploads/200...
Cordyline Australis - http://www.jungleseeds.com/images/CordylinePurpurea.jpg
Cone Flowers - http://www.youcanlearnseries.com/Landscape/Images/PurpleCone...
President hibiscus - http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2613/3976104184_cf7159cbe0.jp...
Husker red beardtongue - http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/hort/info/perennials/maltese/pensthus...
Maui red ixora - http://www.foxhillnursery.net/ALLPRODUCTS/PLANTS/LANDSCAPEPL...
Texas sage silverado - http://bexar-tx.tamu.edu/HomeHort/F1Column/2006 Articles/Sil...
Passion flower blue crown - http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_lq42-S0byeU/Sd1batJ04AI/AAAAAAAABg...