Desperately in of need help choosing plants for garden border

If you go with a trellis to hide the shed (as suggested) plant it on the decking side and let it go along the shed trellis. That should work well with just a metre arch. The one in my photos was eleven or twelve years but had been cut back many times since planting. Buy a good plant and have it in by the summer equinox and it should be established enough to survive the coming winter easily.

More plants to think about. More exotic looking than strictly Mediterranean but all are low maintenance ;
Iris confusa is evergreen, hardy and slightly exotic looking.................


That is the variety Martyn Rix and in late spring it will produce sprays of pale blue flowers.

Aloe striatula is another evergreen. It is a hardy succulent..............


Bulbs are a good way to cram more in to a confined space. Allium christophii and Allium sicilum are late spring bloomers.............




Crown Imperial Fritillaries are another late spring bulb................


Hermodactylus tuberosus is a Mediterranean bulb..............


Finally for this post Erythronium grows from a tuber instead of a bulb but the principle is the same. This like all the other bulbs in this post blooms in the spring and dies back in the summer to make space for the other plants you decide on................


The only one that is not reliably hardy is the Frit but take care planting it and it'll last for years.

 

Them plants are fantastic! I've been talking it over with the missus tonight and she's not really keen on the idea of trellis and archways :( so I think I will have to leave that idea, with regards to the border she has been looking today and likes the look of lavender so maybe I could create a border with some lavender and other plants that compliment it and provide all year interest? So may not be best to go with a Mediterranean theme now, I think I will just have to stick with a border of no more than a meter wide and curve it round the corner as it meets the decking, could I possibly add maybe climbers for up parts of the fence? To give some vertical interest and break the look up?

 

Lavender is very much a "Mediterranean" theme plant, so that would be great! Also, the lavender with your slate stones would complement each other. You could add some Rosemary because that also fits with a Med theme and is evergreen, so would have that year round interest you would like.

Absolutely!
At the moment, I'm having a bit of a thing for clematis (but only because they are selling at Morrisons supermarket for £1.77 and they have a reasonable range available). But, they are deciduous, so would leave the fence looking a little bare during the winter months. So, I'm biased in that direction

 

That's brilliant, so let's say maybe I start by planting rosemary in the large corner where the border meets the decking then work my way down the fence would I plant more than 1 rosemary together? Or would they be separate along the border maybe a couple of plants away maybe? The same with lavender would I plant more than 1 together?

I'm thinking to either keep the colour scheme blues and purples or go blue, purple and yellow and orange.

Would I need to space plants a fair bit away from each other for growth? Am I right in right in thinking guidelines would be on the plant tags when I buy them?

 

How you choose to "design" the planting scheme is going to be down to personal choice. So, someone might choose to have just two plants (say lavender and rosemary) and plant them alternately down the length. Personally, and from experience, I would say that gardening is a bug and it wouldn't be long before another plant takes your fancy and then another and then another ad infinitum
Not all plant information can be found on the plant tags, some are far more informative than others. So, for that, my suggestion would be to turn to the RHS website (which gives some comprehensive information on a great deal of plants).
A colour scheme is a great idea.
Rosemary can grow quite large if not pruned. When I moved into my previous home, there was a very old rosemary plant in a small border beneath the kitchen window which had over spilled the border, and the path, and onto the lawn area. As a novice, I just hacked it back. Poor thing looked incredibly sad for quite a while (although the bonfire of its haircut smelled fab!) but, it did recover: eventually So, I would say one is enough unless you are thinking of going the alternate plant route. Likewise with lavender. Having said that, there are different varieties of lavender and it would be possible to play with each variety and have more than one. For my own preferences, I would stick with one though. You may feel differently
Spacing of plants very much depends on each plant, allowing them to spread to their "best" width. Again, refer to the RHS website.
Lavender and rosemary will give you the blue/purple colours of their flowers. But for a punch of yellow and orange, don't overlook "annual" bedding plants. Annuals being the ones which only survive one spring/summer. Then, you could really change the look year on year.

In an ideal world, the first plants you choose should be the trees and the shrubs which will reward you year after year. They form the "backbone" of any planting scheme and keep the look holding together. Then, you choose the perennials (come back every year), then the annuals (just for *that* year) then the biennials (plant one year and flowers the next). Then, you get the fun of bulbs: spring bulbs and summer bulbs.

All sounds very complicated, but its not really. Start with your (trees?) shrubs. Then you can play with the rest.

Just to clarify: if, as a family, you have decided against trellis/arches and are keen to just keep a right hand border along the fence, then a 1 metre width would be the better option

I've recently planted a new border which is 1 metre "wide" and four metres long ...


It is not "themed" or colour co-ordinated, but you can see a rosemary in the front/middle of the picture. I won't scare you by telling you how many plants I have put into that space since that photo was taken on the 18th March but, there are enough so that, by the time they have matured, I won't see any bark chips There are a variety of shrubs, climbers, roses, sun lovers, semi-shade lovers, annuals, perennials, succulents and bulbs (with a few annual seeds thrown in for good measure for this year while it matures).

Hope that gives you a little inspiration and hasn't been information overload

 

M, you have been more than helpful thank you so much.

I have been looking and I think I am going to go for something like this if possible?..

I was thinking could I put a lowish row of trellising across the bottom of the fence then space Mary Rose climbers like the photo around about 4-5ft apart, then have lavenderin front, I'm torn either between imperial gem or hidcote as I read these seem to stay sturdy and upright, and alternate this with golden creeping Jenny. So will look similar to that photo except they have may night salvia instead of lavender.

Could that combo work? That would provide all year round interest too while keeping it simple with just the 3 different types of plants.

 

It's absolutely possible to have something like that: and isn't it a stunning photo! I may be very much mistaken, but, is that a photo from Better Homes & Gardens?

Unless you are already aware of it, and apologies if you are, BH&G have lots of ideas for planting schemes on their website which might give you a better idea of visuals: look here Every plan gives plant alternatives too.

Spacing for the roses is 4-6ft so you are quite correct, but it is not a rose I have any experience of. Sounds (and looks) a beauty though
I have experience of lavender Hidcote (it is my favourite of the lavenders) and I have creeping jenny in my garden. Creeping Jenny spreads well but isn't a tall plant, more of a ground cover. So it wouldn't have the height of the yellow plant in that photo example.

 

It was from a website called houzz I somehow ended up there from Google haha.

Oh brilliant I will look at that website then thanks.

It does look a beautiful rose so I am keen to go with it, is it possible with clinbing plants to limit there height? So say I wanted them roses to climb no more than 4-5ft do I just keep pruning them when they reach that height?

Yes that lavender sounds wonderful when I read up about it, Ahh with regards to the creeping Jenny it may not be what I am after then, do you have any idea what that yellow plant is in the photo at all?

 

If you go for the shrub rose called "Mary Rose" it won't grow higher than around 4ft anyway.

See here: Mary Rose: English Rose - bred by David Austin - Shrub Rose

 

No idea what the yellow coloured plant is in the photo, sorry.

 

My guess is Lady's Mantle is the yellow/green one.

 

That's perfect then

I just looked it up and that looks pretty close so I could go with that, thanks

 

Just an update..

The weather was nice today so I got out in the garden, dug the border out and prepared it, then shot off to the garden centre to get some plants.

They had no lady's mantle so I could only get the hidcote lavender and the roses. I bought some fan trellis for the roses to climb and planted the lavender, here is how it looks now..



I will have to order a the lady's mantle online, question I have is would there be enough room inbetween the lavenders to plant? I planted the lavenders at 80cm apart thinking that would be enough room inbetween for the lady's mantle but looking at it once I completed I'm worried incase it's not? If not I suppose I will have to settle for a row of lavenders with the roses.

 

There will be plenty of room. Lavenders are not very fast growing in my experience, will just need a light trim (not back into old wood) after flowering each year. The lady's mantle will die back completely in winter then reemerge in spring.

 

That's good news then, I will order up the lady's mantle tomorrow. Thank you.