Proposed Gravel Garden - ideas and advice appreciated!

You told me to ask, so am askin - This horrible grey gravel is my front garden and I hate it!!
Looking only at the area to the right hand side of the path - it's shared with next door so only half of it. (Left of the path needs to be kept for the car.)
I want to turn it into a gravel type garden or at least a garden full of plants that will look good there. Faces south west and gets full hot sun from noon on. Fast draining as we're on a steep hill. Has a membrane and soil under it. Lastly, it has to be relatively easy to do as we're pensioners - although I could lean on sons to help if need be. If you think something else would be easier or nicer than gravel, then tell me.
First question is the basic one - what shape should it be and where would I start?

 

I'd say the first thing to consider is what style of garden you would like. For example, do you want a formal look, with neat straight lines, or would you prefer a more natural look?

Do you want it lush or minimalist?

How much time, money and effort are you willing and able to put in?

Does the gravel have to go completely?

For a minimalist approach, you could just get a few nice taller plants in containers, dig holes exactly the size of the containers, cutting through the membrane as you do so, and literally just sink the pots straight in.

It depends what you want. Whatever you choose, you're the one that has to live with it, so while it's great to get ideas from others, be careful not to fall into the trap of creating something that will be a nightmare to maintain unless you're Alan Titchmarsh.

 

Great help already - showing me the choices - TY! I think probably more formal would fit in with the whole area and also might be easier to plan out. I'm finding it hard to envisage really because it's such a basic horrible patch just now.
I hadn't thought of plants in containers but to be honest pots drive me mad, so probably not.
Got plenty of time and enough money as long as we dont go for pools etc and just stick to plants.
The effort bit is a problem, but I think if need be I can try the local fb for people who would help.
And I def think a lot of the gravel will have to stay, just have nice plants and grasses etc to break it up and stop it looking like the local health centre carpark..

 

I just wish I could look at it and see a garden - not an ugly bit of gravel..

 

( step 1 )Going for a formal look I'd look at adding some good structure with Bux or other type of shrub possible choyisa goldfingers or sundance just something for all year round interest and structure , I'd add 3 plants all in a line in the middle .

( step2 )Bit of vertical between the Bux like Berberis orange rocket or helamnd pillar or maybe rosemary may be of interest you could even do roses or bearded Iris or upright phormiums lots of plants to go at.

( step 3 )The the bit that meet the path I'd look a edging it with either 1 or 2 species of plants like Carex evergold / Lavender or Carex evergold / festuca elijah blue or may Berberis nana / carex or Nepeta Walkers low / alchemillia mollis ( if your feeeling brave ) or replace the Alchemillia with Sedum jose aubreigine .

Last step the space that's left between the structural plants in step 1 and 2 and where ever they is gravel uncovered . I'd keep it very simple here and use one plant Geranium rozanne or Ann folkland they'll scramble across the gravel with colour for half a year. Like a sea of blue or magneta .

I've left the bit between you and next door in hoping they might do something similar

 

It screams out for Lavender (Hidcote or stoechas wouldn't get too big), Rosemary (Tuscan Blue or Foxtail have better, bluer flowers than Miss Jessops Upright, or Pointe du Raz for a prostrate one), pink Cistus, a purple-leaved Sedum and Stipa tenuissima

 

Have you mentioned what you want to do to the neighbours.

 

WOW YOU LOT ARE GOOD - very happy now. Gotta plan I'll be ok once I get started, but I didn't know how or where to start. TYVM!
Pete, the neighbours are a nightmare. We don't talk and have just had to do a lot of work to privatise the back garden. They're very intrusive and very nosy. Re that gravel out front - she makes her husband park out on the road because she doesn't like ruts in the gravel from the wheels...

 

Some good ideas given already but have you thought about putting trellis or wires up the front of the house to plant climbers.

 

Reason I asked was maybe a low divide of some kind between your part and theirs.
Perhaps sleepers on edge or similar just so your plants don't stray over their side and cause friction.

 

Would it be possible to frame the path on both sides with narrow, full length raised beds? You could fill them up with (fragrant) draught tolerant evergreens such as Rosemary to make a formal looking "entrance".

Full length raised beds could even host small solar powered water features and many bulbs will enjoy a fully baked summer. Endless wonderful opportunities...

Does the car parking require every inch so that no planter fits on the other side of the path? Symmetrical, formal-ish planting on both sides would look good but if that's not possible, one sided could be a bit more relaxed and varied in shape and form to create interest.

 

Not really got the room there for planters, the bike sits there in summertime and takes up all the space

 

I would definitely have to do that before anything else. They complain about everything in the street, even gardens several doors away that they can't even see. Not feeding them lol so will mark out a boundary first.

 

I think some sort of clear divide would be good, otherwise it will just look like half a garden.

Unless you sort of plant up just one corner, in a sort of quarter circle perhaps, but I think it will still look like a shared space.

Is there an option to put a low fence down the middle, just to demarcate your side from the neighbours, but without looking like it's just sliced in half?

 

Get a planter with some well behaved but low value plants in it. Measure exactly where the boundary line is and put the planter so that it's edge is exactly just inside your space. Then every morning, get up before your neighbours, go out, and push the planter half an inch into their side. Repeat daily, and see how far you can get it before they spontaneously explode.