Question for anyone with a "green thumb"

[Tina]

I have an area of space between a sidewalk leading to our deck and the house that needs some sprucing up.

I'd like a possible mixture of color-- maybe some red leaved, some green... maybe something streaked with white.

I don't want anything that blooms-- because of the attraction of bees, yellowjackets, etc.. and we don't want to constantly have to fight them around the deck.

The space is 4 ft wide and approximately 16 ft long. I don't want any type of shrubbery that would grow up to the windows on the back side of the house.. so I need something that has a maximum height of 2 -2 1/2 ft.

I can use graduating heights of things, and possibly plant two rows of plants/shrubs. I plan on using pine bark mulch or something to fill in the area around the plants/shrubs.

Anyone have any suggestions?