Plant ID & help needed!

[LittleFriendSusan]

Morning all. We moved into our house back in Feb & I am now wanting to get to grips with the garden. I'm a bit of a novice though, so not sure where to start...

There are quite a few established shrubs but I have no idea what they are. First pic hopefully shows quite a bit. Is the grassy type thing a weed? Seems to be taking over... Pic 2 - again, not sure if there is a weed in there too.

Also some of the plants don't seem very well - pic 3 shows one but there are more like this. I dug one out and binned it yesterday as it was completely dead. They are all in this raised border type bit on the right hand side, facing east). Anything i can do for them? Lots more pics btw but reached my limit for today - will try to remember & post more tomorrow.

Also: Ivy. The fence / hedge? is covered in ivy, do I need to cut this back and if so, when? Can i grow other climbers over it? Thinking clematis, honeysuckle, passion flower. Garden is south facing, this is the boundary on the left so on the east side, facing west.

There are a couple of holly bushes which are huge, I'd like to keep one maybe and put something less prickly in place of the other! Maybe something evergreen but flowering in summer. Any suggestions?

Finally (for now), we have a summer house at the end of the garden. next to this is a patio type area covered in gravel. Nothing is growing here. It is partially shaded due to trees in neighbours gardens but appears to get a bit of sun first and last thing. I love the look of lilac & wisteria, would this be a good place to try to grow it or would the shade be a problem?

Any help / suggestions much appreciated

[Twoevils]

Pic1 might be a mallow at the back and some kind of spirea at the front.

Pic2 is a fuchsia

[LIZS]

1st one lavatera, second fuschia, third not sure!

[Trethew]

1. is a Japanese holly fern, it's got shiny leaves so Cyrtomium falcatum. Needs a damp shady site. Cut off the brown fronds, firm it in gently at the base and it will be fine
   

The variegated leaves behind it belong to a hebe, which wants a sunny spot

[LittleFriendSusan]

Thanks :)

So.. pic 1. I have looked at pics online and leaves do look like mallow / lavatera. It is 1.7m at its tallest point. I guess I need to be patient and wait for it to flower to find out what type.

Pic 2 - i thought this might have been fuchsia, wasn't sure if there was something else mixed in though as there are not many flowers.

The bed with the holly fern has several hebe and quite a lot of lavender. Would i be better moving the hebe to a sunnier place do you think? There are at least 3 in there, my friend thinks possibly some of the others are also a variety of hebe. Some faring much better than others.

I think i would also like to get rid of some of the lavender and put in oregano & thyme. Should i do that now or keep the herbs in pots for now?

I also have another large shrub which is in flower now, pale pink trumpet shaped flowers around 1-2inches long. The leaves are rough to touch but not particularly hairy. Quite a bright green with pinkish red stems. Leaves are similar in shape to the fuchsia but much bigger. Any idea what this could be from my crap description? It's quite pretty but unfortunately most of the flowers are hidden by leaves..

[cantkeepawayforever]

Weigela of some kind?