What to plant under my front room window

[CatMattress]

Previous owners seemed a bit keen on gravel, while front garden had been covered in the damn stuff, including a wide, deep 'flower' bed under the window of the front room. I'll pop a photo up when I've got up!

The spot is mostly East facing, lots of morning sun, and I need ideas of what to plant. I think I'd like most of it to be evergreen (though happy to mix and match) so it doesn't look too sad in the winter. I can plant bulbs at the front of the bed to make it a bit more cheerful in the spring.

I'm also trying to make lots of my garden edible, so if anybody has any cubing plans to do this here then I'm all ears, though I reckon most food based bushes are deciduous.

Photo!
Excuse the weeds.

I just want to soften the edges. The whole house is very boxy and I'm much more country cottage style.

Ideal for rosemary and many herbs that like east facing space. Intermix with low growing holly, summer and winter Heather and nasturtium. Place sticks in between to prevent it becoming a luxury cat toilet.

I was wondering about a rosemary hedge. I have been cultivating about a dozen cuttings waiting for somewhere to put them

Camelia? They are evergreen and you could buy the variety which we get tea from if you want an edible?

I've got a large rosemary in my front garden that is absolutely thriving! It seems really happy in an east facing location. Another couple of plants that are happy in my east facing plot that might fit the bill are osmanthus and sarcococca. The Osmanthus is in in flower at the moment and looks lovely, after watering well in the first year it seems tough as old boots now. The sarcococca is a little slow to get going, but flowers in the depth of winter and is absolutely bomb proof! It smells gorgeous when it gets a little winter sun on it as well.

Goji berries? They are a climber, could tuck in at the back, dont get too big . Alpine strawberries along the edge. Currant bushes are also quite well behaved. But a rosemary hedge sounds lovely. I have fennel by my rosemary, and I like the contrast in shape and colour.

sarcococca does well for me in north east facing border. One of the choisyas might be nice too, there's some more delicate cultivars that look lovely. I've also got a pittisporum tom thumb doing really well that I'm planning to topiary so it looks a little neat in among the general cottage garden look I've got going on.

There's some roses that would love it too. The rosemary would be fabulous for the bees and you could always put some geum in too, they don't die back comopletely for me in winter. A grass might provide a bit of waftiness - like Karl Foester.

Suspect the soil wouldn't be right. I have a rhododendron that needs to be in a pot filled with ericaceous compost and I think camellia is same family, right?

Ceanothus is lovely - mine has deep blue flowers and covered in bees

You can't plant a large shrub or tree too near the house - even the ceanothus will get big over time.

I think I'd go for herbaceous to be on the safe side - lupins, lilies, red hot poker, etc
put runner bean poles either end - nice red flowers

Put a Sarcococca confusa near the door. Amazing early spring scent.

Cotoneaster horizontalis
Japanese quince
Assorted herbs

How much of an overhang of the roof is there? Sometimes you find flowerbeds under windows can be in a rain shadow and can get very dry.

I had to look it up as I didn't know its name, but it does smell amazing. A house nearby had one which they had chopped down😱 I wish I knew they were going to do this as I would have taken it. I can add it to my garden plant list of ones to get

None really as that window projects forwards.