I have a long stream and waterfall meandering through my back yard. I'm happy with the surrounding landscape for about 2/3rds of the water feature. But there is this one section in particular that I just can't seem to get right. I have planted, and replanted this area so many times I've lost count and I'm never totally happy with it. I'm very interested in good garden design, but I'm still relatively new to the art and I'm definitely not a natural at it. So I'd love to have suggestions.
Here are some facts that might help:
The troublesome area gets about 3 hours of sun in the afternoon.
I use a lot of hostas, astilbe and ferns in most of my garden beds (because I've learned that they do very well in my yard - I'm open to all kinds of suggestions for zone 5, part-shade).
I want the water feature to be the main thing, but I have an aversion to bare spots as well so previous attempts at minimalist planting didn't satisfy me either.
To start, here are a couple pictures of the water feature so you can get a feeling for the area...
Part of the stream
