What to put in a flower bed?

[JollyYellowGiant]

We've just dug up our lawn to create a muddy patch flower bed. It is 13" wide and runs along the front of our garden. It faces West. It is a good 40 feet long (DH reckons, I have no idea).

I have no idea what to put in it. I would prefer it to be at least green all year round. Rather than muddy. And I don't want heather or anything alpine-y.

Where do we start? Please help!

What colours do you like? What style of garden do you like? Do you want formal or informal?

Err. Probably informal. At the moment we only have grass lawn! Happy with any bright colours but not so keen on pink.

We are in cold, rural Scotland so I think the plants will have to be pretty hardy.

I am in NE Scotland. West facing I have the following:

Astilbe - dry stems and seed heads stay through winter
Winter jasmine - just flowered
Rudbeckia
Phlox
Aubretia
Sweet William - various from white to dark red
Hebe - purple tipped leaves, just about survived the two cold winters when the deer nibbled it
Crocuses
Daffodils /Narcissi
Lupins
Spiderwort
Campanula - blue purple
Amanagawa cherry tree
Rhododendron
Flowering currant
Buddleia - small and a bit sad
Potentilla
Crocosmia
Rhubarb
Veronica
Aquilegia - assorted cross bred
Raspberry canes
Geranium - pink, purple and white varieties
Michaelmas daisy

Our bed is about the same length as yours, but 3-4ft wide. There's actually quite a lot of pink in there too, now I think about it. It's against a wall which holds a bit of heat when the sun has shone.

Wow! Thank you so much for such a comprehensive list! I will do some googling.

Hope it's helpful! Once I started I just kept going...