What should I plant?

[AWombWithoutARoof]

In the midst of buying a house with a rather boring, pretty much square garden, approx 7m long by 8m wide. At the moment there is a very ugly deck and a patio. The patio takes up about 1/5 of the garden.

The garden faces west, and has a high wall on the south boundary, a shoulder height wall on the west boundary and a fence on the north boundary.

I'd like some screening (thinking clumping bamboo), and maybe a climber on the shed and wall, but otherwise would like some ideas. Colour all year round of course! What plants do you love?

Your garden faces west so does it get the warm afternoon and evening sun? This could be rather good as you can plant sun loving plants which will flower profusely. Things like delphiniums and hollyhocks and sunflowers and chinese lanterns for the back of the border. A little fruit tree. Peonies and roses and lavender and irises and day lilies and pinks and dahlias should all do well. It would be nice to plant some flowers which give out their scent in the evening, like honeysuckle and night scented stock. Crocuses and tulips will do well in the spring and echinacea, asters, rubeckia and sedums will all do well in the autumn. Clematis often do well.
Think about whether you want the flowers to be bright and blowsy or delicate and frothy when deciding on the varieties you plant, whether you want blocks or drifts or interspersed. Its nice to look at pther plants and gardens and websites first and then do a wish list.

Thanks for replying! The house sale is just going through at the moment, so can only judge the sun by the compass, rather than by experience.

The back of the house faces west, so I'd need to plant those sun lovers by the house, rather than at the boundary, wouldn't I? I love delphiniums and hollyhocks!

Hhm, hadn't thought about the blowsy v frothy argument.

I definitely like softening the edges in a garden, so I think drifts are the way to go.

At the moment there's no lawn, and I'm not sure whether I want one.