Plants for front of house under window - novice here!

[Littlemiss74]

I’m a gardening novice but am keen to learn & improve my garden.
We have a small grass area at the front of our house and a rose bush outside the front (living room) window.
I’d like to make a proper bed where the rose is and put other plants either side of it, the rose is fairly central to the window.
I’d like it to be quite simple & easy to maintain but maybe with some all year round colour.
I was thinking of lavender but what other plants would work well here? I’m not sure how many I would need, I would say the length of the area is about 2 metres.
Also, should I add like a fixed (brick/stone) border around the bed? I thought this would look neater & separate the grass from the bed but my DH says it would make cutting the grass more tricky at the edge.
Any advice would be really appreciated as I am completely new to gardening & want to get it right!

What way does the front of your house face? North / south / ...? What's the soil like? Clay / chalky / peaty / ...? Does it hold water or is it quite dry?

I’ve had great success with Japanese anemone under a window and they flower for a long period

How high is the wndow and do you want the plants visible from inside or just to look good from outside - so how tall do you want the plats?

Wispy/see-through plants like verbena bonariensis can be nice in front of a window as you see the heads wafting about without losing much light. Lower plants like lavender and rosemary are very easy and great for bees.

Sometimes in a small space it is good to pick a single colour so it looks calm/planned - what is your preferred colour or what colour are the rose flowers?

It depends very much on whether the spot is in sun or shade.

Oh and cutting the grass if you edge it - if it is not a big border just mow to quite near bricks and trim it with scissors, it won't take long. That is what I do.

You can edge it or not, it doesn;t matter. You can also always change your mind about the edging, so maybe plant it and see how it looks before buying anything. I got a whole load of lovely bricks from a skip when I did mine, but of course you have to wait until someone near you chucks them out!

I have such a border, although there is no grass beyond it. Mine's south facing and I have a magnolia stellata and a ceanothus either side of the window. Under the window I have spring flowering bulbs, cyclamen and primulas, and some perennials - aquilegia, geraniums, geums, a potentilla and a pasqueflower. It requires no maintenance other than a bit of trimming back and dead heading, and everything comes up sequentially through the spring and summer. I did have some lavenders but they have a tendency to go woody so I tend to keep those in pots for easy maintenance and rotation.

If it's north facing I'd go for hostas and more woodland plants.

I'd agree with your DH about the edging - but then again I don't like lawns and don't have one. All the plants, and a place to sit amongst them with the bees for me.

Thanks for all the suggestions. It is roughly east facing & the soil seems fairly dry. Another post said the soil is most likely alkaline aa we get alot of limescale.
I don’t need to see the plants from inside it’s just to make the front of the house look nice. Height to window is 1.4m. The rose is pink.
i like lavender but am not sure what plants look good next to it. Also the area is about 60cm in depth so is that deep enough for 2 rows so that I can have some taller plants behind smaller ones?