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

Good soil + strawberries and herbs + pig face + myoporum purpureum + succulent/cacti + paint a beautiful colour (with excellent surface preparation). All and any of those will take interesting but ordinary, which you currently have, to gorgeous and eyecatching. Go for it! May the force be with you! ;-)

no storage, the retaining wall didn't allow much room, and the client didn't want to go any deeper with the seat.

You can buy spiral rods specifically made for constructing gabion baskets from weldmesh. Gabions need to withstand tonnes of weight. A few C rings isn't going to cut it as the weldmesh will bend outwards under the weight. Hence the spiral ties which are sold. I looked into making my own gabions but discovered that I wouldn't save any money doing so and would only waste my time and put myself through a lot of effort when I could have just purchased flat packed baskets anyway.