Ideas for my unusual front garden

[wowihaveagardennow]

Hello!

I'm very new to gardening, but I recently bought my first home with my husband and we have (a strangely shaped) front garden that I'm very excited to make pretty!

I will put a picture up of what our garden looks like, but essentially our house is lower than pavement level and has steps leading to our front door if you can imagine that. And between the pavement and the front door level is a sloping mud bank.

I'd like to put pretty, flowery hedge type plants along the top at pavement level eg. hydrangeas and camelias. But then I'm a bit stumped as to what to do with the rest of the slope.
My husband wants.to just turf the whole thing.

We would both like something low maintenance too. I would love ideas from seasoned gardeners but I will also update this thread with our developments as I feel like this is really something we might be able to transform into something special looking!

And this is what it looks like!
I feel like its the weirdest layout ever. Like on 3 different levels!

Love the diagram!

What's the aspect and what's the soil like?

Grass will be difficult to manage if the slope is steep, mowin on a hill is annoying imo.

From the house you will see a bank of flowers, and you can screen from the road very easily. Lovely!! As above - what wayndoes it face, how sunny/shaded is it, and whats the soil like (eg sticky clay or gritty sand?). Do you know if its acidic?

Can you make a shingled terrace?

Or patio terrace and put pots on them

I would never have sloping lawn

Need good drainage to avoid water run off toward the house

I'd cover the slope with something like Vinca which is a tough easy ground cover plant with nice flowers. And definitely camellias at the front. Sarcococca and choysia are also good shrubs.

Could you afford to landscape it (steps with retaining wall?) That would look fab

We have a reasonably similar front garden, north facing and possibly not as sloped. Be aware of plants that will grow and block your light, which bushes at the top could do. We have concentrated on low level hardy bushes that flower in the summer that die back in the winter when you need the light most. Fuchsias and azaleas have been great but so have trailing honeysuckle and geraniums.

We have basically gone for a low level cottage garden feel. It's a bit unruly sometimes but that adds to the 'theme'. I would also advise putting in some small slabs so that you can access each part of it as it's more difficult on a slope.

@BlackboardMonitorVimes I was just thinking the same thing - something big, dark, and evergreen like a camellia could block a lot of light from the house windows at the lower level.