If you want privacy at the front of your home to stop people to seeing in, then you could either change your gates to completely enclosed the area and have a CCTV system set up so visitors can alert you when they arrive. Or preferably, you could separate the two drives by erecting a fence between the two garage doors and plant a nice tall hedge 3/4 of the way along the front boundary to obscure the view of the main house. You could then reverse round the hedgerow and park the car at an angle so it is partially obscured by the hedgerow, with CCTV and security lights shining down from the top of the garage to give you peace of mind. It would be lovely to remove the gates and be able to look out of your front door and see the hedgerows, and they would also help to muffle the sound of the traffic

Personally I think the grass, yellow bricks and the fence are a bit too uninspiring. How about trying to break it up a bit - thin beds with climbers against fence and extra beds / pots / paths to add different levels. Think of cakes on a cake stand, the more levels, the better it looks. Red cedar slatted fence to replace the existing, trailing plants over the walls. Talk to a good gardener to talk about the right plants for their position and also consider doing a watering system to make it super low maintenance (they don't cost the earth). Good luck with it - post some photos of the project!

Hello donned2004, Well you could remove all the things from the hearth.. So it has more space.. Hang the mirror and paint the chimney breast a nice colour to bring the fireplace into full focus.. If you wanted to have an even bigger recess.. you could open the fire out up to the sides of the wooden surround.. So taking out the 30's tiles.. Make sure the lintel is in place or doesn't need replacing and keep the surround it's rather nice.. Remove the current tiled hearth if you chose to open it out more.. and install a flat piece of slate.. So then you would have an open brick recess and a lovely iron basket could sit nicely inside for logs! Another idea to continue into the room.. might be to look at painting the woodwork a colour to compliment any wall colours you have.... Some lovely painted floorboards, or parquet or a natural Jute or Coir flooring if you have not already decided upon something.. : ))

I have white hydrangeas at the moment and love them but they haven't done very well (but it's a different climate where I am just now). Yes, I'll give them another go if they're ok on the edge of the Pennines - the new garden is in the Cairngorms. Perfumed flowers are a nice idea so I'm going to add the mock orange to my plant list. I've succeeded with cornflowers, forget-me-nots and love in the mist but funnily enough never had success with heather. To be honest there's plenty of the natural stuff all around so I'll probably give it a miss. I've a question about tall grasses? How would they cope with the weight of snow? Presently I have bamboo (about 1m tall in pots) and it manages to cope with big dumps of snow but I do shake off whatever snow I can before it freezes and the sun is out. I'm also considering alliums along with the tulips, crocus, snowdrops etc Other plants I'm thinking follow but I'm stuck for ideas for other times of the year. I've grown some of these from seed before and don't mind so much if they fail: roses lupins delphiniums solomon’s seal lily of the valley phlox peony Japanese anemone campanula grannies bonnets foxgloves helibore lilies gladiola dahlia geranium hosta rhododendron foxgloves agapanthus moon daisies canterbury bells