Hi chook! Just a quick pop in to see what's going on and I see where your daughter is getting a new bed. It is very nice and she will love it, I'm sure. So glad you got the winning bid! Exciting, huh? Talk later. :)

i love bamboo, giant bird of paradise etc but do NOT put next to your pool. In our last build we used Zanadu. Big leaves that do not drop and bullet proof. Perhaps find another way to cover the fence other than plants that almost always drop their leave and have invasive roots.

Your problem is the heat generated by the fence and the pool and path. Anything you plant will have to be super tough. All plants loose and replace their leaves. Evergreen drop some leaves all the time and deciduous once a year. Adding pebbles will only reflect more heat and is becoming a dated look along with the cordylines. I'm not sure of your climate but a bullet proof evergreen plant that will cover the fence and take sun, drought and frost is the nandina domestica. Upright growing but no pruning required. There are new varieties of this plant but this one is just the right height to cover the fence. If you get cold weather in winter you will also get autumn colour. Will sucker from the bottom to fill the gap but not a garden thug. Has berries but because of the upright habit should fall into the garden bed. Sometimes called sacred bamboo but not a bamboo.

Absolutely agree with blueskies60 ! Remove the artwork/bench/plant that's on the left and replace then with either a bookshelf or a tall chest of drawers. Perhaps the plant can be repositioned into the corner on the floor where this troublesome niche is (there seems to be more than enough light there for a plant) and just place something calm and simple in the niche itself - perhaps a Japanese style scroll or pen and ink art work set off with a more rounded object sitting in the left corner of the niche; a gorgeous rock, a lovely candle, a calming statue... If you have (my preference) a chest of timber drawers on the left where the current art work is, you'll break up the symmetry, have more storage and have another surface upon which you can place a changing display of objects. This is the area that I would utilise for a mirror.