Blank Canvas

Roddylarge

Hi All

Im currently in the process of building my garden.
I have a man coming in to lay the paving at the start of june and when he leaves i want to be in a position to do start planting.

Thats the problem, I've no idea what plants/trees to get or where to start even.

The back garden is South East facing (roughly 12m Long and 10m deep) and gets a lot of sunlight during the day.
Obviously some areas get less because of the shadow cast by the shed/fence.

Ive attached the plan for the garden, and the only thing i know for definite is that we are going to lay turf in the middle and plant a buxus hedge around our patio area.

The areas i need help with are

1) Raised bed to the right, this area we would like to be pretty colourful with some evergreens and pops of colour. This side of the garden gets sun early in the morning but is shaded from lunchtime on.

2) Beside the shed at the back of the garden, we would like to plant some trees at the back to add privacy to the garden and then some lower growing plants/shrubs in front of the trees. Ideally things that will flower and add colour during the spring/summer. Maybe the odd thing that will flower in winter would also be nice

3)To the left we are going to put wood chip down and have an are where our son can have a swing etc. However we would like also to soften the area with some planting and maybe a tree to add a bit of privacy. This area gets sun all day, until about 6pm

So like the subject title says its a blank canvas, I really know very little about gardening but now i have my own garden its something that id like to get into. Any suggestion on what you would plant if it was your garden would be brilliant.

As for budget, i haven't even though about how much trees, plants etc cost but I'm happy to invest a bit if it transforms our garden from a rectangular grass plot into something special.