planting problem

I have a small gravel garden in front of my house. It is not north facing like yours. I have posted a picture on this website so that you can look. We have to provide access for the water company to get at the manhole in the middle so we cannot cover this up.I am trying to grow things around it so that it is not so obvious. I have majored on grasses especially blue Fescu which is planted all round the edge. I also have Zebra grass and another tall grass too. There is Lavender which will grow bigger and we had a lot of seedlings. There is a small fig in there and also a nice rock that we found when we bought the gravel. It was only made at the beginning of 2007 so I hope things will grow further to disguise the ugly drain cover. Maybe this will give you ideas.