My idea for front garden

Arfan

So this is my front garden


My plan is at the top where the lawn is raised to cover that in with gravel of some sort with edging along with few large rocks. Currently edging the lawn making the edge more tidy with bark.

Also in the middle of the lawn i want to have a centrepiece of some sort. I thought of this plant (anyone know the name?) or similar if anyone has any suggestions 

JoeX

Sounds good.

Any reason you want to gravel over rather than plant?

Arfan

Maintenance really 

wild edges

You could make the centre piece a water feature with yellow flag irises which would give a similar look. Not evergreen but evergreen is boring anyway.

hogweed

Gravel will just travel down that slope and you will be continually topping it up. 

josusa47

Gravel isn't low maintenance!  Unless you're happy to have it full of weeds.  Laying a membrane under it just postpones the weeding for a time.  Various kinds of dirt accumulate in the gravel, weed seeds blow in and get dropped by birds, and the roots penetrate the membrane.  Grass is just as good.

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Fairygirl

Alternatively - shrubs for the slope [easier and more attractive than grass or gravel if you choose wisely ] and a decent, small specimen tree/shrub for the centre, underplanted with spring bulbs.
Gravel or grass on that level part, depending on how much time you have for maintenance. 

Lizzybusy

Totally agree that gravel is NOT low maintenance. It will become full of weeds and very difficult to weed them out unless you spray or use watercan full of weed killer. Likewise, bark chippings have the same problem unless it is about 8" thick! It looks awful too. Just plant with loads of fast growing ground cover and that will be far more effective, better looking and better for the environment and wildlife.

My 95 year old mother in law has a gravel garden full of weeds that she cannot deal with. They are all going to seed and this is very anti-social. She won't use weed killer as she thinks it will affect the dog.

Wayside

I can't really work out how large the area is.
But we ( us and the neighbours) have small sloping front gardens, and I'm really glad we planted a few shrubs.  It pretty much looks after itself.  And gives a little all year interest.  It's the only view from our house to a garden (boo), so it's nice to see bees, butterflies and birds doing their thing.

Hosta get ready...

The grass and bark gardens, get plenty of visitation from cats and are used as a toilet.  There's no room left between plants in ours.

If you like rocks you could do a shrubby rock garden thing.

wild edges

Lizzybusy said:

Totally agree that gravel is NOT low maintenance. It will become full of weeds and very difficult to weed them out unless you spray or use watercan full of weed killer.

I'm not sure I totally agree with that. If the gravel is laid on a decent weed barrier then all you have to deal with is self seeded weeds growing in the gravel itself and normally just raking the gravel on a dry day will disturb those enough for the sun to kill them. You have to be careful of mud and debris building up in the gravel though.  It's probably more of a problem in damp, shady areas.