Completely overwhelmed with long borders - help!

[SaveTheUnicorns]

As the title says really, I have these two 10m long (about 70cm depth) borders from a split level garden and zero privacy from the house behind. I have climbing roses to the back left (which need pruning) and some helbores (sp?) The front I planted with edibles and annuals last year and it looked lovely, but I don't want to do that every year! I have however got sweet peas, sunflowers and nasturtiums on the go in the house and a big bundle of summer bulbs to go out.

The front border gets about 7 hours of sun, the back three quarters on left gets about the same but more evening sun with the right little patch in dappled shade all day. The soil is decent compost and top soil, free draining.

I have a dwarf Stella cherry tree, Leonard magnolia, blue moon rose and miss saori hydrangea to plant today, but I'm just overwhelmed and don't know what to put where or how to create a little cohesive planting that gives us privacy and height.

I love pastel colours, mainly pinks and creams/white in plants and love having cut flowers in summer, ideally something evergreen and tall too. Any advice on which plants to go for or just anything would be appreciated!

Thanks if you got this far!

Message edited by MNHQ to remove pic

The Sarah Raven catalogue is great for ideas on perennials for cut flowers. I'd suggest a mix of evergreen and deciduous shrubs to give all year round interest, planting things suitable for the soil type. Have a look at what grows well in neighbouring gardens that you like as that's a good way of predicting what will do well. You can add trellis, canes and obelisks to training climbing plants up and give you greater privacy.

Another thing to do is note which months specific plants look their best and having a range to have interest during as many months as possible.

One of my friends has a gorgeous garden and she has several clematis that all flower at slightly different times, some of them are trained up large shrubs. She also has lots of perennials which are well-established and fill the gaps between the shrubs.

I'm giving our garden a big makeover as it was all overgrown and rather neglected. I've removed the things which had taken over and the things I don't like and started re-planting. It looks terrible, but it'll get better with time.

Astrantia, Alstroemerias and verbena bonariensis would be perennial and give some medium height.
Before you plant dot the pots around taking the existing planting into consideration and see what is most pleasing. The hydrangea would be happiest in an area that gets some shade during the day and like water retaining soil.
Next Autumn you could plant some spring bulbs for colour at this time of year.

They're so narrow they're barely there! Turn one to grass and make the other twice as wide so you can't plant some decent size plants in

Cosmos grow to a decent size, flower over a long period and would flop over the edges.Nasturtiums will flop - or climb and are bright in mid summer. Lavatera, the flowers not the shrub, are quite tall pink and white flowers, great for cutting.

There's advice on the net, e.g. www.theenglishgarden.co.uk/expert-advice/gardeners-tips/planting_a_sunny_border_1_1671348/

I agree with hedgehogger. Minimum boarder depth should be 1.5 m other wise it will be hard to make it look like a garden rather than a row of plants.

No problem with having a row of plants, though probably looks best pseudo formal, planting with the same thing or a repeating pattern rather than a mishmash of different plants

With that little privacy, the d be planting a row of photiinia tbh definitely not any herbaceous
I know a lot of folks don't like them (heard council car park comments) but they are foliage all the year round, quite easy to control if you keep on top of them and I like the colours