front garden ideas please??

my front garden is the usual suburban type- garden , fronted by hedge, bushes under window and a tree in the middle. There is a triangle of garden the other side of the drive , which goes from the apex at the garage to 8 foot wide at the front and about 18 f long in total. Its a mish mash right now and when i get a new drive intend taking everything out and re doing but havent a clue what to do. a house round the corner has this bit laid to shingle with a couple of spiky plants and it looks really nice but will this look a bit odd if I do this type of thing just on one side with grass/shrubs/perenials on the other? have just borrowed 8 garden design books from the library to help in my designing of this bit but thought I would ask around!

 

Hi L-G, how about a few piccies to see what it looks like now then we can all have a think for you. Also which bits are in sun/shade etc.

 

well you asked for it! I really dont like showing piccies of the garden as its so yucky and other peoples always look so nice!! but here they are anyway (hpefully)
and


its not very inspiring. at the front by the road is a viburnum tinus about 8 foot tall, a very poorly pple tree which was moved to there and isnt doing well, a scraggy old lavatera and a bush i think its lonicera. The bush with red on is an encrachment from next door but it looks nice so i just leave it.

the sun comes up here so guess it faces east. it gets the morning sun til about midday i think.

 

It looks like there is quite a lot in there, can't see enough to tell exactly what.
Probably the best start would be to remove any shrubs that you don't want, then cut back those you wish to keep.
I would probably be tempted to lift the smaller shrubs and heel them in somewhere then fork over the soil and add compost to rejuvenate it. At the foot of a wall the soil can get very dry and impoverished.
There are probably other things like perennials or bulbs underground that will not come up until spring, you can lift these as well and bury them somewhere temporarily and split them before re-planting.
This will then give you a more or less blank canvas to plan with.
Maybe others will have more ideas for you.
Good luck

 

LG we are away to have our front garden revamped before end of the month plans drawn.Back to a blank canvas.

Low maintance for my container it will incoraprate plum slate york stone and isle of ske marble and pebble still be containers and plants anda raised bed and a curved path.

Shall post before and after photos soon.