In message , Klara
writes

Our daughter's new house is some 2 feet above the pavement; the front
lawn starts atop a stone retaining wall. There is a strip of flower bed
on top of the wall, and then a lawn (about 4-5 m) to the house. The
idea would be to replace this bed with a sort of hedge, or maybe more
of a border, that would act as a kind of lace curtain. Obviously at
night one would have to draw the curtains, but she would like to be
able to leave them open during the day.

The plants/bushes would need to be evergreen (as they are more
necessary in the winter than in the summer), would have to grow to a
height of some 4-5 feet and be relatively self-supporting, and they
need to be happy in Surrey clay on a very dry slope. And it's a very
pretty street, so they should be more attractive and welcoming than
impervious. (Oh, and daughter is a complete newcomer to gardening, so
they can't be too difficult either.)

I think the way to go might be to have a range of plants that go well
together, as in a border - but I just can't picture what these might
be, and would be grateful for suggestions!


Apart from them not being reliably evergreen an informal hedge of
shrubby Lavateras might do the trick (improving drainage might be
advantageous). The same holds for hardy Fuschias (the sort used for
hedging in Cornwall and the west of Ireland).

Pyracantha and Cotoneaster fall more into the impervious category, and
still aren't reliably evergreen.
--
Stewart Robert Hinsley