Id have Raised planter boxes put in around the outside of our yard so my mother in-law doesn't have to spend hours on the ground with a bad back to do the gardening!..

As a sustainable advocate, I would always prefer to use an aggregate as these allow for natural penetration of any rain that falls on site. Complex drainage systems aren't required to take runoff from the paved driveway and so the end result to me is not only totally sustainable but is cheaper. And if you plant trees down the side of paved driveways, the paving or cobbles too often lift and become walking hazards. Burglars also don't like aggregates!

I quite like the idea of concrete sleepers for your retaining wall. They keep the modern mood. Not sold on Ridgi's faux timber look, though. If your drainage profile would allow it, continuing the brick of the pillars would look quite good, too. For me, the biggest landscape issue is the almighty fight happening between the two different sides of the driveway. You have the stick-up-the-rear formality of the camellia hedge fighting the looseness of the grass and shrubs on the other side. You need to decide on a single mood and go with that. Really!! I'd go, actually, with a loose boulder or gabion wall with a planting behind it similar to that on the left (narrower) side of the driveway. Have a think about what you actually use that front lawn for, and if it's only there to keep the dirt from showing, add some trees and shrubs and underplanting. Shout yourself a tame forest! This will take up a lot of water if your climate's a bit wet, and stabilise the slope, too.

Looks interesting. Does this plan extend beyond the property to the street kerb, borrowing space from public realm? I assume that is the public footpath running straight through. How will it look along the streetscape. Can people park at kerb and walk across. Where do bins get placed for collection. Do you have image of one you have done?