Help me redo my garden please!

[notverygreenfingered]

Hello!

My front garden was a mess, so I am more or less going to start from scratch and have dug up a lot of old overgrown hedge and other stuff that was looking not very good. The garden faces west and gets plenty of afternoon and evening sunshine. I am looking for low maintenance so lots of shrubs I think. Does anyone have recommendations on what might be suitable? I enclose a diagram!

Faces west, eh?

Roses and lavender.

And if the grass was used to a bit of shade from the hedge in the summer afternoons you might need to water it occasionally until it's used to hot sunshine.

I very much like the idea of roses, but don't they need a lot of TLC?

Good tip about the grass.

Verbena! So easy and so pretty. Bee-friendly too.

Euonymous (gold and silver), choisya, hardy fuchsia, lavender, pieris, hebe?

You could plant some daffodil and tulip bulbs for spring colour.

You can always add summer annuals in the gaps for extra colour.

I have a small (1m deep x 3m wide) butterfly and bee friendly flower/shrub bed. It basically looks after itself apart from once a year in the spring when I prune it all back and give it a good weed. I've got geranium, buddleia, verbena bonariensis, salvia, yarrow, coneflower, rudbeckia and coreopsis. I'm in the west of Scotland and they're all full hardy and have survived the last few winters. I'm planning to put some spring and early summer bulbs in later this year so I have a wee bit of colour and something to fill the gaps where I've pruned it all for those few months until it's all back in full bloom again. I love it. It's so colourful and attracts loads of butterflies and bees and other bugs.

I would get rid of the sharp angles at the edge of the grass, particularly where the two flower beds meet - sharp angles are hard to mow.

If you want low maintenance, consider getting rid of the lawn and replacing by pebbles/gravel over a weed suppressing membrane. Replace once a week mowing by very occasional weeding.

Thanks for all the suggestions! I'm going to look all these plants up and have a think - I like the suggestion of going bee friendly. I don't think I would get rid of the grass as I like it and don't mind cutting it.