Hiya, for a no fuss cover my suggestions are: Ivy - would cover the wall completely and also climb the fence. It's super easy to keep neat by using an electric hedge trimmer. Bamboo - get a species that is clumping - not spreading. Species that have black stems against the green leaves would look very striking. Most grow quite tall though and require full sun so you'd need to take this into account. Lilly Pilly's, Murraya's, Photinia's are hardy and great for tall hedges. Certain species grow quite quickly. Want to get some use out of your plants? Consider passionfruit vine. Great fruit, but the wine will lose its leaves in winter. Same with wisteria, ornamental grape, etc. Enjoy, and hope this helps. Cheers, Debs

Thanks for the photos, they help clarify your situation. A few points. The front wall, going by the brickwork, is approx. 700mm high. You could get this down to 600mm by sloping the lawn or garden slightly. Doing this should be fine and then you can pass the construction off as complying and replacement of existing wall. I'd assume the garden in front is part of the council nature strip in which case you can't move forward. I can't see neighbouring front fencelines so it's not obvious. Often there is up to 600mm between the boundary and the footpath but not always. I think there would be too much gabion. Contact a landscaper for a comparative price with sandstone. Obviously it's cheaper if you were intending to build the gabion yourself. The driveway is quite narrow. Widen it towards the lawn, not the boundary. You need to leave that narrow garden for softening of the fence in particular. A picket fence along the front should look fine in white, if that colour appears on your house but the paling fence should not be white. If you are doing a major reno of the house then the landscape items would be best left until the major work is complete. Then you can consider the landscaping in relation to the new look of the house.

It looks great, but lots of hard edges and surfaces so soft foliage would look great. From the photos it looks like it doesn't get a lot of sun? If so that will limit your plant choices - a mixture of large succulents (crassula, silver spoons etc), raphiolepis Oriental Pearl and even some Japanese box balls would look great and do well with limited sun and provide tonal and textural interest, then cover the large expanse of wall with creeping ficus which would look amazing. Then even an outdoor garden mirror on the end wall to make it feel more open. If light allows, a feature Japanese maple (maybe with star jasmine planted underneath would look beautiful in the square centre bed from all angles from inside the house. Looks great!

first things first - 100% agree with Retro - don't focus so much on the nitty gritty on the cosmetics for now, rather focus on an overall masterplan for the property as you said the residence requires renovation. How you manage the stone walls to the pool is honestly the lesser of your issues here (you can deal with that one way or another depending upon certain preferences and budget............but clearly the bigger issues is the obvious awkwardness of the pool location and access in relation to the home - most likely an afterthought dropped/squeezed in the back...... what you have here though is great opportunity to improve the relationship of the interior and external spaces - this is way more important as a priority as it will make the most difference in terms of your overall living experience/enjoyment/functionality (and property value one way or the other) than the cosmetics. So if you can't see how you're are going to achieve that yourself, I'd be suggesting you best seek some Pro design consultation that deals with the renovation scope & covers consideration of landscaping /external elements/spaces that properly negotiate the site levels and better link/integrate everything in together....of course budget is always a critical factor/controller.... Hope this helps steer your focus in the right direction.... Best of luck PD :)