Horrible Old Flowerbed Suggestions Please

Dig it over and get rid of all old plant material. Add bagged topsoil and compost - put in a good bit as the soil looks exhausted. Plant with ferns, Brunnera, Heuchera, a japanese acer would be ok towards the corner - they like shelter and shade - acquilegia will self seed and is pretty, but can be invasive due to seedlings, it gives a nice bit of height though. Berginia - get a named variety, the cheap ones can be a bit insipid. Cover round them with a good layer of bark mulch or wood chip.

I am a fan of clover, but it depends on how shady the area is. If it gets a few hours sun in the day you should be ok, its fairly shade tolerant. If there is no sun you might not get the results you want.

I have an area sown with clover and have not found that it particularly keeps other weeds down, we have had to dig out some dandelions and buttercup. Its an area we keep mowed (wide spaces between paving flags) and it responds well to mowing, though it may affect the flowering of some of the taller red clover.

Don't put top soil on without digging out the existing weeds, the buttercup will still come back to some extent, but it will completely ignore a layer of soil and come through with great enthusiasm!

Well you're going to have to dig out what's in it first, so that's half the work done - if it's ancient, compacted, dried out soil then you'll need to refresh it - or better, replace it altogether.

Sounds like there might be disintegrating lining, weeds, stones and all sorts there - you could spend a fortune on plants and they'll all be struggling or dead in a year or two.

It's not a huge area, go at it bit by bit with a view to having it ready to plant by next spring - and do lots of research into what you like the look of, and what will do well there

Plant food isn't magic, you also need organic material and oxygen to keep the soil 'alive'. What you have there is a solid pan of dead soil which is why it will grow creeping buttercup, they will grow anywhere, and as long as they rule the roost nothing else will have a chance. wildwillow's suggestion of bringing it back to grass, or just cutting it is about all you can do if you are not prepared to work on it a bit. Lots of my grass area (I don't call it lawn) is buttercup, it just gets mowed and looks green - but there is almost an acre so you don't notice the details. In a front garden you need to give it a bit of attention.

In short, no - if you feed the plants like that, the roots will have no need to "go down deep".

The planted areas in industrial estates & shopping centres are generally maintained by a utilities company, they're usually not just left to their own devices.

Is that a rose bush to the right of the front door? How well does it grow?

You'll probably get better advice from others on here but I'd say prune it back and then feed it in late spring or so.

If that was doing reasonably well, you could try planting a few more of them, lots of roses are fairly bullet proof so it might help give the place a bit of colour. You'd probably get them reasonably cheap as bare root plants over the next few months

Edit: if it's quite a shaded area, roses may not be suitable