stylish solution for front garden - victorian terrace

[waivering]

Hi, I'm a complete garden idiot! Really clueless...
but we need to do something with our front garden. It's a typical victorian terrace with a white wall (about 60cm tall from garden side).
We have a patch about 3.3m x 1.5m which I am going to put crushed slate on. We have a little bed in front of the wall and can't decide what to do.
We could always just get some hedge, as it would be quite nice to have a bit of screening anyway. Can you buy hedge that's already about 80cm tall? Is it really expensive - our wall is about 3.3m long?

Or we could be bit more creative and get rid of the bed and cover it all with slate and then get 3 giant pots or those nice square tongue and groove style planters (which we would paint a sage green colour). But I have no idea what we would put in them. Something that makes a bit of a statement! Box trees that we kind of trim into a shape (would have to be idiotproof)? They also seem expensive. What else could we have that would look good?

Any great ideas? I'm finding gardening websites a bit confusing if you don't really know what you're looking for.
Thanks!!

A hedge would be easier than pots in terms of watering.
How much sun does that bed get? Presume you woudl want evergreen?

You could plant a hedge of Portuguese Laurel? Its much nicer looking than ordinary laurel (darker and more elegant leaves), it grows almost anywhere, flowers in May/June, looks good in Victorian gardens and is easy to clip.
You can buy it in decent sizes too,
www.shrubsdirect.com/shop/portuguese-laurel-hedging.html

Thank you - that's a great idea. It looks great and also much more affordable than something like box (I can't believe how much that is!!).
Fab.