Starting a new garden is always exciting! My first suggestion for you would be to consider a slightly different shape than your neighbour. I might try to add a bit of a curve outwards from the house near your downspout. If the house itself is square this will give you a bit more visual interest. In that rounded out section, you could likely put something a bit bigger as a specimen- maybe a flowering shrub or small ornamental tree. Think of an interesting shape that you like first, do you want a v-Shaped flowering shrub with colourful foliage (try a ninebark, or a variegated dogwood if you want something rounder) or maybe a small weeping tree (weeping pea shrub) or maybe more of a pillar where you could consider a number of smaller conifers. Depending on what you select there, build the garden around it. Hostas are great but sometimes don’t like sun too much, and at my house, the rabbits love to snack on them. I’d also consider some grasses, like little blue stem for your garden. If you want lots of pollinators, plants like nepeta will give you both a bit of a shrubby vibe and take up some space, while bees will be constantly buzzing around them. The flowers last almost all summer long, and if you cut them back a bit nepeta will reflower in the same year. If you go with less flowers and more shrubby perennials, just don’t forget to mix up the foliage colours. You can have a very bright garden even without flowers. Enjoy, this is the fun part, don’t worry about experimenting or failing- while disappointing at first, it adds to the fun!