Help please, I don’t know what to buy!

[Littlemiss74]

Hi I’m new to gardening and would really appreciate some help please.
We have a bed that runs along the front of our house under the living room window to the front door. There is an established rose about 2 thirds of the way along but nothing else, this was there when we bought the house. It looks lovely when it flowers but this only seems to be for about 3 weeks a year. It covers quite a bit of the wall.
The length of the bed is about 4m and the height to the window ledge 1.4m. The bed is about 60cm deep
I want to fill the rest of the bed with low maintenance plants, maybe evergreen shrubs but have also been reading about having all round colour which would be nice. I’ve been googling for hours but just don’t know what to buy, what works together, what to put where, how many to buy etc. Can anyone give me some tips please as I’m getting overwhelmed with all the choices? I do like lavender but just don’t know what to put with it and worried just one would look a bit silly.
I am clueless but I really want to learn & make my garden nice.

most evergreen shrubs will grow to wider than 60cm. The soil close up to the house will be on the dry side.

You’re right that one lavender will look a bit silly, so try three spaced at intervals then fill in the gaps. Safe option is to limit yourself to one area of the palette so, say, pink through to lavender. Go for English lavender, rather than French lavender with the tufts on top, it’s easier to grow. You could have all lavender, all in one colour, or it comes in different colours, white, pink and different intensities of “lavender”. Or you could include other things to extend the flowering period - Rosemary is out now, and is evergreen.

You can either plant with big gaps between to allow for growth, and perhaps fill in with bulbs, or plant closer and be prepared to remove some plants when they start getting crowded.

My main advice is don’t worry. By far the best way to learn is to try and then learn from the mistakes. Nothing you do will be irreversible.

It really helps if the plants you choose are happy in the place you plant them.
Which way does the border face and how much sun does it get?
What kind of soil is it? Does it hold moisture or dry out really quickly? Is it acid or alkaline?
(clue, if you get limescale in your kettle you'll have alkaline soil.)

Thank you both so much, as i said this my first time gardening so I really have no idea & this is very helpful.

@Quinque i think the border is easterly facing, we get sun for first half of the day. I think the soil is quite dry and we get lots of limescale so I would say alkaline. The rose bush is well established and seems to like it there.

@MereDintofPandiculation my Mum said about hebes being small evergreens so she suggested planting those but again I wasn’t sure how many or which type as when I googled there were so many! I love the idea of the different shades of lavender and as the rose is pink I’m going to stick to pinks & purple palette as you suggest. The only thing i’m thinking is will it be a bit dull in the winter? I’ve read that you can get evergreens to give some colour all year round so that’s what I was thinking with the hebes but now I’m not sure.. do hebes go with lavender?

how about a choysia? Looks good all year, not too big, white flowers in spring

And a camellia is great too for flowers in January / February. They can grow big but it will take years to get started and you can prune if needed in 5 years time. BUT this does need acid soil so it depends on your area.

Hardy Fuschia is also good for summer flowers & not too big.