Hi Bern and welcome to GoY. Lucky you having blank canvas to work with. To give you any useful advise we need to know where you are in the UK, which way your garden faces, and what your soil is like.

A good way is discover what will grow well where you live is to look in other folks gardens, great way to get to know your neighbours too!

So much depends on how long you have to spend in your garden, and how much you want to do.

Veg & fruit growing is really back in vogue these days. Do you want to do that or do you want something that you can plant and leave alone? (After the first year or so of TLC and well-timed watering) Do you have kids who need play space? The strip of grass could be just right for them if you do, then you could plant tough shrubs that take footballers in their stride down the sides.

Have a think about what you want and like and need from the garden and have a look at the ideas to be found with the links from the alphabetical links at the bottom of each page.

I'd echo Moongrower's response - which way your garden faces is important, and how much sun it gets is critical, as well as knowing what area of the country you're in. Also the size - there's big difference between a 90 foot by 45 foot area and a 15 x 10 area, obviously, and that makes your choice of plants different too.