You can get small Skimmias which would be fine for the upright central plant, and variegated ivies are always useful. Why not look ar ferns too - a 'ferny' basket would look wonderful. Garden Centres sell a range of small evergreen plants for baskets - I've had a Euonymus in a container for two years, and next year it will be planted out in the garden.

There are also Heathers, Gaulterias and Euphorbias and I've just used a small Lonicera nitida in my gate trough. Obviously that's a temporary resident too.

Hardy trailing evergreen = ivy for me! I think the variegated ones look lovely and the lighter parts of the leaves enliven duller areas. You could add some hardy plants to go on top such as polyanthus to add some colour.

Put another basket on top (upside down) and train ivy over it. Hedera Helix 'Gold Heart' and Hedera Helix 'Marginata' both have quite a bit of yellow in them.

I'd combine both ideas - use an upright something like a Euonymus with variegated leaves (as Spritz mentions, available now in small versions at the garden centre) or a small conifer, ivy plants round the edge with a few pansies for a bit of colour. All will tolerate shade well.

As some have said before me, ivy is a good evergreen to use. It grows great and is a devil to kill off.

A good small fern to use would be blechnum spicant. It will take quite dry conditions as well as any amount of shade

also ajuga's are good in shade etc, as they also evergreen they will last all year if you want it.

Thanks for this, in all honesty the issue of being overlooked has ruined my enjoyment of gardening near the house, e.g. just now I was about to plant my violas and looked up and there was someone there staring right at me, about 1 metre away, pretty hard to ignore.

Anyway, ferns and ivy it is, as much as possible. This will be the one time in my life that I will be willing ivy to grow!

Good for you, Bryony - keep your chin up. Neighbours can be very difficult sometimes.