Timandra knows best, I believe, and has the experience to back her up. My comment is not plant-related, however. You have a front facade of door after door, and nowhere to go, except a narrow horizontal path. How about some front terraces, where you can burst out of one of those front rooms onto a sunny sitting area to have your morning coffee with a neighbor. Why not leave some doors open or change to glass, so the front terrace becomes an outdoor room, and extention of the interior space. How about a pedestrian walk out to the street, or over to the pictured tree, evergreen and plant bed, where you could have a shady terrace. Enjoy the outdoors, don't let your family become nature-deprived, with all the electronics that occupy our kids lives these days. Get them unplugged and outside - you too! You have a wonderful opportunity to achieve great things. Analyze first, then plan.

So we painted it black to match the other sides of the fence. It needs to be reinforced as its falling backwards but ok for now. I've bought some creeping Ivy to grown over it too and I'll get some boxwoods or similar to carve into spheres or balls.... Also founds some nice light teak / grey bench seats. If really like to do a few vertical gardens here but the fence won't hold it for now so this will have to do. Could be something we add to later. It'll take some time to even look remotely good but we're getting there. At least we have a plan! Thanks all for you suggestions!

Something like silver birch trees don't take up too much room but will provide some height and interest. Personally I pick out natives, after asking local garden centres for those which are natural to my area. I've used black mondo grass across the front of my walls with purple fountain grass behind it. The fountain grass really takes the summer heat, doesn't need much water and self-seeds. It's grown slightly taller than me after a few years. I have, what I call a 'survival of the fittest' garden. Over the years, I've experimented with all sorts of plants. Eventually, only those that survive with little help, and almost no extraneous watering, get to stay. One of the key things I did when planting out my garden was to dig down into the soil and lay a mat of used, natural-blend carpet underlay (not the more synthetic types used these days). Just ask someone getting rid of their old carpet- it's easy to come across. Above the carpet underlay I added water crystals, then put the soil back on top. After the gardens have been established, I haven't need to get the hose out since. I do have lots of succulents around the place, some native plants and ornamental grasses. I hope this helps.

Hi there, there's a great forum on Houzz called the garden web which is more relevant to your question – feel free to post your design dilemma here.