Help - what shall I plant?

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So I have a brand new very long raised border (10 metres) edged by sleepers. If faces west and the soil is quite heavy. I'd like to get a lovely cottage garden look which is full of flowers and colour in spring and summer but I don't want it to look dead and sad in autumn and winter so there needs to be plants not just bulbs. PS I don't like yellow

I would so appreciate your thoughts as I am hopeless with plants.

How lovely to have a new bed to plant. upA lot of cottage garden plants are annuals, or retreat into the ground in the winter. So I’d go for structure along the 10 m. You probably don’t want anything too high or that will swamp the summer flowers. How about Hebe, there are several varieties that would give winter colour. Sweet box is small and has a lovely winter scent. Repeat planting along the bed would give structure. For spring plant bulbs, early flowering plants such as aubretia in the front.
The of course you can go to town with cottage garden plants and seeds such as, Peonies, roses, Astrantia, pinks, poppies, Veronica, daisy family flowers. Others will be along with different suggestions. Have fun.

I love verbena bonaseris, cerinthe, and cosmos which all give lovely height and waftiness.

Add some well rotted manure to the bed if its heavy soil.

Some structure is important - you could add a philadelphus or a standard rose for structure and height. And some evergreen grasses for movement and structure in the winter. Hebes are a really good idea and pretty bombproof.

The other thing to do is plant things that have lovely seed heads in the winter that also give structure - alliums last a long time in my garden and look pretty in winter, www.bethchatto.co.uk/discover/our-blog/advice/structure-in-the-winter-garden.htm

ooh, I'm loving these suggestions. Keep them coming

Do you think I should fill with annuals between the structural plants or try to avoid too many?

I'd start off with some shrubs for structure and then add in things like roses and perennials. Have a look for things that flower in spring/summer/ autumn/winter and pick a colour scheme that you like. Look for varying heights and dont forget that foliage can be as colourful as flowers too and add texture. Browse images online and find a look that you like. Most of all enjoy it!

pack as many annuals in as you can...and bulbs. Check out the final stize of anything stuctural/evergreen/shrubby that you put in - and leave space for them to grow to their right size.

It'll look a bit sparse to start with so sow as many annuals as you can. Cerinthe, calendula, poppies can all be sown direct. You could plant some sweet peas up a trellis too.

Thank you all. I went to the garden centre this morning but got totally overwhelmed and so came back empty handed. Now I am going to draw a plan so I go knowing what I am after.

Hmm, cottage garden not yellow all year interest.. As above, most flowering plants are going to disappear over winter and many have a relatively short flowering season, so you may have to make some compromises.

How wide is the border? 10m is nice and long, do go for some repetition and avoid one-of-everything. Also places like the plant nursery Crocus have ready-made border mixes that are excellent for beginners.

Shrubby salvias (look up HotLips) flower well on into the autumn and have a fab range of colours. Roses will be happy on your clay. For winter interest grasses are lovely (google Knoll Gardens and look at their gallery). And as the best herald of spring splurge on a Daphne which flowers with fabulous scent in Feb-March and gives a bit of hope at the end of winter.

I've got a sort of raised bed as garden is terraced. Also west facing and on clay and garden is pinks/mauves/purples. Things that thrive:

Roses
Salvia (I have one called amethyst and a big tall one called Amistad)
Nepeta (catmint)
Agastache
Achillea
Scabious
Astrantia
Perovskia
Sedum
Ammi majus
hardy geraniums
Verbena bonariensis

This is Ammi, salvia and some Ranunculus on the east facing side of the garden

Beautiful photo. I should have explained that this border frames our substantial entrance drive on the left as you drive in. It sits high and elevated across from the front of the house. So we look right over it but when you’re on the drive itself you are looking up a metre or so. Because it’s always on show it needs to have some annuals. But really spring summer autumn is when I want it looking lovely. I’ll sit down and google all the suggestions and tr to put a plan together then see what you all think!

I'd plan to plant lots of bulbs in the spring...put a note in your diary to buy bulbs in bulk. There was a great article on narcissi in the Telegraph this week by Sarah Raven. Lots of multi bloomed narcissi would be fabulous. Followed by tulips. Probably in about 3 repeating colours. I use orange, purple and mix with alliums.

Also agapanthus are rather stately and lovely.

I’m in the process of planting up and filling a new flower bed. I’ve already got some evergreens in it - bay, hebe, rhododendrons, orange blossom. And I’m adding flowers (some I already have) that will flower from about July right through to November.
I’m going with -
Erigeron
White Japanese Anenome (this was my favourite in my garden last year and flowered for at least 5 months, I’ve divided them up and placed them all over).
Gaura lindheimeri
Dahlias - Happy Single Kiss (apricot colour)
Verbena bonariensis
A bit of white Lavender and some Geums, some hardy geraniums and ladies mantle - these don’t flower quite so long, but I love them.
Anyway I wanted something that really lasted. I have a beautiful peony, but it flowers for such a short time. So I’ve picked flowers that you really get you monies worth from and they should all be at their best at the same time for a large chunk of summer and pretty much all autumn.

I'm doing my plan - what do we think of Hellebores?

I also have a small area (1.5m squared) next to the border which is quite shaded - not much sun at all at ground level. I'd like to put some shrubs/grasses in there that would thrive in that type of environment.

I don’t think it’s been mentioned, but Astrantia are really great perennial plants for a long flowering season.

Astrantia don't mine shade either.
Tiarella great in shade or sun, flower for months
Hardy gereniums
Yes to hellebores for a shady spot too. They're a joy in early spring.
Asters are worth a look too. Variety called 'monch' does well on shade and flowers for ages right at the end of the season.

Grasses do like sun and drainage but there's some that aren't so fussy.

I would have written the same list as GuyFawkesDay.

Brilliant thank you