New to this, need advice on what plants!

traceyhw1

Hi I’m in the process of doing up my first garden and I need some advice on what plants to put in a flower bed. I’m ideally looking for shrub/bush type plants that look pretty, are evergreen and require not too much in the way of maintenance. I thought it would be nice to have some flowers in there too but wondering if these would be something that I would have to replace each spring or do any last for years? 
Apologies for my complete lack of knowledge but any advice appreciated! 

traceyhw1

This is what I want to put the plants in 

Posy

I can see some plastic liner in there, Tracey. Does it go underneath as well or will the plants be able to get their roots into the ground? How much sunshine does the bed get during the day? What sort of soil do you have - you can tell by looking at the sort of plants in neighbours gardens. Lots of azaleas and heather is acid, lilacs and pinks more sweet. A good mix is neutral. And most important, what do you LIKE?

traceyhw1

I’m not sure about the liner actually, good point. My husband dug out all the weeds and found lots of loose crockery in there, for drainage maybe? It gets a fair amount of sun all afternoon. I’ve stalked on zoopla for photos of the garden years ago when it looked a lot nicer, I’ll attach a photo maybe that will give you an idea of the sort of things that have grown before... 

purplerallim

Under plant with bulbs for spring colour, then maybe clematis to climb the fence or a couple of fruit trees trained against the fence or even a twisted hazel ,which is slow growing, to give hight. Or maybe strawberry plants so you have something to pick. These are just a few ideas to get you started.😁

traceyhw1

I like the idea of clematis, there is another one in the garden that seems to be doing well! Thanks for the advice