I need help with what to do with my garden in my backyard, it looks bare and I just want to make it look more homey. What should I do???

blig blooming bushes
Butterfly bushes are great and come in assorted colors

Lillies are also "homey"
and come back year after year

I find mulch really makes a garden look finished. It also helps retain water so that you don't use as much to keep the plants watered. I am also a big fan of garden art. I have concrete squirrels, birdbaths, birdhouses, little wrought iron benches, interesting rocks, and even container plants in my gardens for interest. In one of my gardens, I have a shepard's hook with my galvanized watering can hanging from one hook and a candle lantern on the other, although last year I had hanging baskets on both hooks. They are under $10 at the big lots and add height and dimension to an otherwise flat garden.

Plant some type of ground cover in the garden. Snow-on-the-mountain spreads pretty easy and is hard to kill. Moon flowers are pretty easy to grow and they spread like crazy.