Some plant ideas please.....

On garden edges - aubretia mixed with varied polyanthus - lovely in the spring. My polyanthus seem to flower all the year round - some out now. For later in the year, pinks and wallflowers, for a lovely perfumed garden.

"Drummond's Pink" creeping phlox. Covered in beautiful pink flowers in spring and stays evergreen throughout winter.

Hardy geraniums, all sorts of shapes, colours and sizes look gorgeous in spring and summer

Oh how lovely to be able to choose for a new garden... I am an Acer lover - have 11 in my small garden, very easy to care for a beautiful small tree for height: plus heucheras, rosemary, thyme, alliums, penstemon, clematis, rudbeckia, climbing rose "Mortimer Sackler" pink with lovely perfume and Sweet Haze a "shrublet" rose which the bees love as single flowers grows well up and over a fence, Jasmine, campanula "Iridescent Bells", Hellebores!

Prostrate Rosemary is beautiful, is great with roast potatoes, smells wonderful and the bees love it. However, it does grow very big!

I find rosemary very good and it has kept well all winter, my lavender hasn't faired so well. I've clumps of rose campion in my gardens, the silver leaves stay all winter and then the lovely taller cerise flowers arrive in summer. I also use periwinkle that clumps really well.

Make sure most of the flowers are single not double, to attract all insects but bees in particular.

Rosemary is good, scent, flowers and for flavouring. If you want to let it grow taller, put it in corners.

Good luck and have fun!

Lemon Thyme, ajuga (blue flowers), alpine campanula (pale mauve flowers), snowdrops for early colour and they form lovely clumps of flowers.

Low growing Campanulas, pulmonaria, various euphorbias…

That probably explains it Coastpath

I remember Monty saying that self seeded Hellebores don't come true to type and become increasingly less vibrant and pretty. His suggestion was to add a few new ones to the mix every couple of years. That was all the excuse I needed for a trip to the garden centre.

I must buy some more hellebores, the ones I have are the rather boring ones which seem to self-seed but there are some beauties out there.

Sarcococca hookeriana Winter Gem (Sweet box) is evergreen, has beautifully scented white flowers in winter followed by berries.

I'm with Callistemon21 on Hellebores. I keep popping out to look at this one in my garden.

Low growing Euonymus and creeping Juniper might fit the bill too.

Prostrate rosemary is pretty and useful.

Ro60

Thinking back to my last house, I had alpine strawberries in my raised bed.
Also thyme, variegated mint & golden marjoram for year long interest.

Alpine strawberries are thugs here too.

If we did nothing in the garden it could be a paradise of trees from the nuts the squirrel buries, alpine strawberries, oregano, feverfew, dandelions, convolvulus etc.

My list is growing!

Thinking back to my last house, I had alpine strawberries in my raised bed.
Also thyme, variegated mint & golden marjoram for year long interest.

That reminds me - something has nipped all the flowers off my crocus and left them lying on the lawn!!

Don’t forget the spring bulbs! I just bought some extra potted tête-à-tête daffodils from Crocus as I always want more. Instant clumps of sunshine, more expensive than buying dry bulbs but they have 30% off at present. Also perfect time to get some snowdrops and aconites in the green.

Last summer I tried marjoram at the edge of a path. The flowers were beautiful and the bees loved them. It’s survived well over the winter (mild midlands winter). I’m hoping it remains compact, and planning to add more plants to it this summer. It could prove to be a useful low edging plant.

I have marjoram and oregano in the herb garden and one of them (or both) has spread all over the garden, in the lawn, flowerbeds, everywhere. It's a thug.

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202202/medium-561952-geranium-rozanne-1.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202202/medium-323163-0a04095ccfd631c8977fedb6166af2a8.jpg

We're going to have to take out our lavender hedge as it looks such a mess, half dead in winter and it flops all over the place when flowering. It was supposed to be Hidcote which is neater but was wrongly labelled.
My heucheras got eaten at the root. A pity, because I really like them

Hellebores?

We like fuschias but they aren't evergreen. They can be used as low hedging and will flower right up until about December.

Penstemons unless they're too tall?

Geraniums (not pelargoniums) such as Rozanne are long flowering and colourful - thanks shysal, I've planted some since saw them in your post ages ago.

I love Rozanne too but it disappears without trace in winter.

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202202/medium-765435-heuchera.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202202/medium-436371-rozanne.jpg

Another lover of Heucheras here, along with border geraniums, my favourite being Rozanne for its long flowering season.

Last summer I tried marjoram at the edge of a path. The flowers were beautiful and the bees loved them. It’s survived well over the winter (mild midlands winter). I’m hoping it remains compact, and planning to add more plants to it this summer. It could prove to be a useful low edging plant.

I’ve also used alchemilla mollis (lady’s mantle) as an edging plant, and love it but it disappears in winter.

Heather is nice too, but my garden is so full of clay that it really only does well in pots here.