Hi there, a lovely climber that needs little or no attention is an evergreen honeysuckle called 'Fire cracker' which grows in sun or shade. One tip for more flowers is train the plants horizontally not vertically. White jasmine is another evergreen climber that smells wonderful and again needs only to be tied to the wall. It has white flowers that give off a heady scent at night from June to September and in winter the leaves turn a glorious red colour. Cotoneaster is also a great evergreen shrub that looks great all year round and the bees love it. Mine is now climbing a wall but started off as a standard shrub. White flowers in the summer and red berries in autumn. Good luck xx

Trying to create a bed that looks good in winter and flowers in summer needs careful planting. Aspect is crucial - sun lovers will hate shade and shade lovers will frazzle in the sun. I think a few small evergreens such as Hebe or Euonymus would be a start. They are short evergreens and the Hebe has white or purple flowers in the summer. They come in various leaf tones. A row of lavender always looks good, but they need a sunny border, and they do look a bit dead in winter. You can also plant groups of bulbs such as miniature daffodils and grape hyacinths ( ideal time to plant is now) which will give you lovely yellow and blue colour in the spring. Then I would fill in with short summer flowering perennials such as Geraniums, Geums and Erigeron - these do die down in the winter, but regrow in late spring. Dig the soil over and add a good helping of compost which will help them grow and water regularly until they are established. Don’t forget your local nursery or garden centre staff will also help you choose plants if you are unsure! The plants below are Hebe, Euonymus and Mahonia, all are evergreen.

Photinia Red Robin..............great Evergreen shrub / bush. Lovely red leaves on the new growth which then turn green. You can buy these as larger or smaller shrubs depending on your budget. Pear Trees won't work, for one thing they're not evergreen and another it's a tree. Don't be fooled by this 'patio / dwarf' variety, all poppycock, they will reach their normal height if not constantly pruned. We keep all of our fruit trees to around 9 feet, but that's too high for outside a lounge window. We have our Photinias planted for privacy reasons, but we've got them as standard plants. Therefore, the light comes in over and under the head of the plant, but the head is around 5 feet high and stops people seeing directly in. This is exactly what ours look like except this is in a pot and ours are in the ground. I would have gone outside and taken pics ( maybe later ), but it's tipping it down again!

Hi Michelle These are both relatively tough spots for many plants as they are shaded and in the case of the one by the house will tend to not get much water as the house 'shades' it from the rain. Therefore the first thing I would recommend is improving the soil by digging in a lot of well rotted farmyard manure or similar. This not only feeds the soil and plants, but also helps hold water in the soil. In relation to the 2 beds - firstly the one by the wall. Lavender needs full sun to look good and quickly looks leggy and flowers poorly in spots like yours. The key message is 'right plant, right place'. Medium size shrubs like Pittosporums cope with shade and are evergreen and give year round interest and structure. One call 'Golf ball' stays a nice rounded shape for below a window. Flowering perennials that give good value in part sun are hardy Geraniums - one called 'Rozanne' flowers all summer and also Astrantias which give 2 rounds of flowers (spring and autumn) which last for a long time. The latter do prefer not to dry out though so they would need to be kept moist. It would be nice to screen the wall a bit, so a wall shrub that you can prune to keep in order like Pyracantha would serve well. Again it is evergreen and has spring flowers and autumn berries. The other perennials listed below would also work. On the second bed I am going to be annoying and say 'you don't want to do that', in relation to planting the common laurel hedge. These are big bully plants that will quickly fill nearly the whole depth of your bed and will really compete with any shrubs you put in front. Because of the big leaves they are also hard to clip to a narrow hedge that is more controllable. You might try Prunus lusitanicus, Yew or even just privet. Again as regards plants you want shrubs that can tolerate being in the shade. Good evergreen ones are Chiosya (white flowers twice a year), Viburnum tinus (white flowers in winter), Pittosporum Elizabeth. These shrubs do get big, so you could just use them and not plant the hedge at all. A good small shrub is Sarcococca confusa which has very scented flowers in February. Deciduous shrubs might be Viburnum plicatum 'Kilimanjaro' (white spring blossom and good autumn foliage), Viburnum opulus compactum (white blossom, berries and good autumn colour) or Fothergillia major. Consider using perennials like Hellebores, ferns, hardy geraniums, heucheras and euphorbias to underplant and fill in space at the front of the bed. Good luck with it!