Beginner Gardening: Small water garden, japanese inspired - stuck!, 1 by CrimsonTide

CrimsonTide wrote:
Hello,

We've got a small garden that my boyfriend wanted to be designed as "japanese inspired".
The garden has a trapezoïdal shape, 11m on the longest side, 8 meters on the smallest and approximately 4,5 meters large.
We've built a pond with a few plants (Pontederia, Caltha, Myriophyllum, some grasses, nympheas...), a japanese fountain and two ides.
The side of the pond is made with rocks, Juniperus (left side), there is a japanese maple (bottom side) and a small weepy willow (right side).
In the rest of the garden, there are two beds of 2-3 azaleas. The soil has to be planted with Sagina subulata (Irish moss) that I will sow as soon as the weather enables it (the path in the garden is made with japanese steps).
We had temporarily made a terrace with teck tiles next to the pond, would like to replace it with gravel, but are completely lost when it comes to choosing the stones, any advice?

The biggest problems are actually the outline and the bottom of the garden.
The garden is surrounded with an old and ugly privet hedge, we would like to cover it with a fence, maybe bamboo, or cane, what would you suggest?
We don't know what to plant to give some texture to the back of the garden, especially since it has to fit the style of the whole garden, and appreciate half-shadow...maybe some grasses?

I enclose old photos (a general view of the garden before any work!) , I'll take new ones as soon as I can.
Thank you very much for any advice!