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

They paved paradise and out up a parking lot. Then when it rained hard the toilets all overflowed. Permeable paving and planting to soften and break it up could avoid widespread catastrophe. If the space in front of house where big enough I would create something with planting around and amongst it. It isn't big though. It might just fit a tiny electric car but that wouldn't be adequate for work.

Yes, I'd thought about a sign, the new space will be like a mini lay by, sort of scooped out of the Devon bank that the garage is built into. We're also on a hill, and just before a bend, tho the lane does open up a bit both above and below our cottage. It really isn't "normal" light traffic that's the concern. It's more the impact some heavy farm machinery might have if it tried to squeeze past oncoming traffic. I don't think that planters or pots would work very well, they'd have to be very visible at night .. no lighting hereabouts ... and my neighbour's terracotta planters opposite haven't fared well! Thanks for all the suggestions, much appreciated!

I do like Sven's idea of the blue palm ( chamaerops Humilis cerifera ), but maybe not in a pot as they do get very large. It would have to go in place of the tree as they can reach heights of 3 m x 2m wide. However, it would look nice with your front door, but maybe in a stone circle. You can't really put honeysuckle ( lonicera ), in the borders unless it's against the fence and you run wires for it, but i think your fence is probably too low. Lilac in white and pink or mauve would be better Depending on variety again, they're prolific growers, but will cover a fence in no time and smell fabulous. I'd have a stone circle in the middle and then a curved bed at the front with some higher plants, foxgloves, Iris, Japanese Anemonies etc at the back for height, some giant double pink poppies, weigela, candytuft to break it all up and get some white in amongst the pinks, purples and blues. All would look lovely with grey stone and your front door. All of the pics are of my own plants, I'd like to take credit for our garden, but it's my wife's domain, she's passionate about her plants and loves Pink, white, blue, purple, mauve etcWigela