Do you have a budget in mind? preparation is the key to success, I would consider maintenance how much time do you have to spend on the garden, hedgers are great but to look great require a fair amount of consistant care. Firstly I would do a ph test on the soil, that will determine what you will be able to grow easily, you then need to consider light, how much sunlight does the area get, it looks to be quite compact being a driveway, drainage is another issue as from the picture it looks the have quite a slope to the area, the laws of gravity will have an effect on water infiltration, so plants at the highest point will have less water and the plants at the bottom will be subject to being water logged. I would be mindful of plants with thorns being such a small area and getting in and out of your car scratches are inevitable and dangerous for little kiddies eyes etc. Australian natives are great but most wont tolerate water logging and most prefer alkaline soils and wont do well in heavy shade. My choice would be to find a climber to suit the area there are many to choose from I love Hardenbergia Happy wanderer, Jasmine, honeysuckle and stephanotis just to name a few. Camelias are also something to consider but again all comes down to your soil ph.

It always makes my heart sink when a client asks for a "no-maintenance" garden. It tells me they really don't care. In truth, any planting needs a certain amount of care. Plants, like animals, need care. It's true that they're slower than animals to respond to deprivation, but respond they do. And it's not a good look. You might not have a lot of time, or you may not be physically up to a lot of gardening. That's fine - you can choose plants that require a minimum of care and grooming, and if need be hire somebody to do that minimum. But it does require planning. A gardener actively engaged with their garden can (and will!) experiment, try new things, move plants around, notice when things are going right and wrong, and for them a garden is never finished. Contrast that with somebody who wants a garden they don't want to work in or at. They want a garden that is more or less "finished" the day it is installed, rolled out like a stretch of lawn and meant to "behave", to stay static. I can't do a garden like that! Plants grow! They change, the environment around them can change, and what might have succeeded one year is not going to do it the next. It is entirely usual for a planting that just nicely fits a situation to need complete re-planting a few years on because the individual plants have outgrown the site. That's work! It is entirely usual for plants to flower, and for those flowers to set seed and die off. It is entirely usual for some plants to shed leaves as part of their yearly cycle. This "mess" is treated by non-gardeners as a crisis, as a nasty surprise, as something the plants "shouldn't" do. Because it makes work. Well, sorry, but no garden consultant can change the laws of nature. If you want a garden, you've bought work, and if you don't want to do it, you're going to need to pay somebody else. That's fine. Just don't ask for what you can't have.

It’s a great idea, that way you can alternate whenever needed without too much fuss, your balcony looks quite spacious so you can have some beautiful pots out there with the added bonus of looking lush from the inside, love these wall circles too.

Hi JE C, If you run irrigation at base of your ivy it should cope with the western sun, we have a similar planting to yours with ivy and star jasmine and pears and it is doing really well since we added a watering system, I added mulch and that helped also to keep the ground moist, love your pears.