Bit of fun ... help me design my new Purple border

Thanks for the prompt, "dim"! I found some red and compact grasses at a local nursery, so I will definitely obtain some this spring.

theruralgardener, I read your post very thoroughly and really found some possible and interesting ideas (Calliacarpa bodinieri and the white variegated euonimus). I have a calliacarpa, haven't seen those mythical violet berries yet, but it is against the background of a dry stone wall with euonimus and I feel encouraged that the effect will be enjoyable wihtin some time.

Garrya elliptica looks awsome, but I will never be able to overwinter it here.
Oh, and I found another grass to hunt after: Ophiopogon!

 

I'm loving some of the feedback and ideas I'm getting guys, thank you all

Thank you Angelina and rural gardener ... plus Dim for the mock up rural gardener I'm liking your freehand pic, that must have taken you ages !


Angelina : Lilium "Netty's pride" is very nice, unusual. Azalea japonica needs further investigation too. Tulips and crocuses, that's an idea I'm going to use, scatter them around in small clumps around the whole border (in amongst the other stuff) to come up early in the season.

Dim : hmmm grasses grasses. I still have mixed feelings about the current fashion to have grasses, cant make my mind up whether I like them or not ... though the 'nicolas' looks nice (but is that just its autumn colour?)


theruralgardener ...

Hmmm. You got me thinking now. About the shape of this border. I like what you've done there, not thought of that. It certainly gives me more planting space. And the curve up by the decking would mirror the curve (kinda) on the other side of the decking (see first pic attached). My only concerns/things to be resolved are ... it about doubles my planting space, for someone whos a bit new to all this, is that a step too far in one go. And with regards to the gravel path bit, I'd have to leave some way of getting to the conservatory for the window cleaner. Or do you mean you'd gravel the whole lot, and plant through the gravel ? Yes, I guess you mean that. Presumably you'd membrane under it (and cut holes for plants ?) What about where the gravel, meets the 'normal' planting, I guess I could use the square blocks (if I could find any) for an edging to stop the gravel spreading. Great great idea, but I'm wondering if that's too much in one go, there's a lot of work in getting the trees and stumps out, the fence replaced, and the earth dug through ... dont want to spend my whole 2012 going this one border, lol (Im a slow worker). But a future project, when I want to extend ....

I did consider a lovely Continus I saw, but I wondered if it would grow too big ... one thing I want to try and avoid is blocking too much of the view out of the back windows, which is already framed on the left by the conservatory and on the right by the fence. One large shrub might have a bit of a "blob" effect on the border ?

I'm wondering now if the superbum are too white / too big ... love them though, maybe some other place in the garden, but not this border. Good point trg.

I'm liking the Calliacarpa bodinieri

Question for people who grow things up the fence itself ... how do you then stain the fence ?!?

(possibly did too much gravel area on the pic)



Aaargh ... too much to choose from ! (well, I DID ask lol)

 

Angelina, I'm sure your C. bodinieri will berry before too long. So, how cold do your winters get, just out of interest?
Here is a garden in York, U.K. and I love the Calliocarpa berries with the pink Nerines, not in focus but you get the colour idea...but I must admit, they need a sheltered spot!
Future Prospects | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Ophiopogon is luckily as tough as old boots and fully hardy. Just for interest, this link here is of a purple/silver garden area, the silver Euonymus is on trellis and there is also a Cotinus Royal Purple here too! (I love purple myself Len!)
Order amongst the Chaos | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Len, you're right - having lots of ideas is always the easy bit...it's deciding which bits of all the ideas to do do that's more difficult. Doing those garden doodles is very quick, I usually spend ages staring at a new garden site or photo and then quickly make a doodle and then it obviously takes a bit more time and effort to finalise things.

I do see your point about not taking on too much all at once. It would be silly to give up through being over faced. Removing that hedge is the boring hard work bit. Get that done and then if you feel a smaller border is a good idea - you should do that.
Borders can be widened and added to in the future :wink:

Wherever it's possible to do it though, (and I realise you have to weigh up everything) Deep borders and generous island beds look pleasing to the eye and allow for more scope with planting too.

The gravel bit of the idea was mainly in consideration of the fact that you wouldn't have to mow a funny little bit that didn't actually add much to the design and to give access to your conservatory for washing windows etc.
It's only one idea, it might be that you think leaving some grass for now is fine anyway. If you did extend your gravel, either hardcore, then gravel put down and firmed with a whacker plate or roller in two or three layers...or a membrane. Membranes have made landscaping so much quicker and cheaper over the years.
(if you want to know a secret...I have used them often, but when I get around to doing my own garden where we've just moved to, I won't use one anywhere. I hate the way they seem to move to the surface!)
Yes, you'd cut a cross in the membrane and plant through it. I'd pictured an edge of the same sort of blocks you've used before.

I can see what you mean now about wanting to keep your view up the border. If you had your Magnolia there, it would make a bit of a fullstop at that point from the window anyway in the summer. I suppose you could go two ways here.
Either, have only the Magnolia then use low growing shrubs/perennials etc for the rest of the bed and add in 'airy' perennials like Verbena bonariensis to give 'see through' height and interest. You could still have height along the fence.
Or, have some height in the form of e.g. a Cotinus cogyggria which you could prune to suit the space and would be deciduous anyway, so in the winter you would see through the framework of branches. Pruning can be used to 'open' a shrub as well as to reduce it's size. Then in summer accept that you need to sit in the conservatory or the garden if you want to see the whole border! You could stick to lower and airy plants at the bottom end of the border so you don't feel dark and closed in.

Fence maintenance can be tricky with plants all over it! Good quality treated and left....then replaced when it rots or battle with your plants every few years and try get a brush behind them...I've put big plastic tillage (fertiliser) bags or silage bags over wall shrubs before to put preservative on a fence!!
For true fence lovers I suppose you would only plant things which can be cut back hard every year or now and then, or plants with bendy stems that you can grow up a trellis that can be attached at the top with a catch and gently lowered down for fence maintenance.
Not very helpful that I know :cry:

 

You can prune cotinus really hard in late winter and it will come back. You don't get the flowers that year, but you do get really big luscious foliage instead, which I like even better. So if it did get bigger than you want you can just give it "the treatment".

I'd be really worried about someone who preferred to have a lovely fence rather than a lovely garden!

 

But each to their own, at least you wouldn't take a fence.

 

This year we seem to be having a Siberian winter around the country and yesterday temperatures of -31 C were reported for some lower-altitude locations. Where I live, the absolute minimum is about -16 or -17 degrees due to temperature inversion.
By the way, is Callicarpa a dioecious plant? I remember to have read somewhere that you need a male and a female plant to get the berries, except for the 'Profusion' variety. And I'm not really sure if mine is a 'Profusion'.

Very beautiful, I saw the whole album! That secluded place with the ophiopogon, however, seems gloomy for its silvery, patina bluish and black shades, and I would have a singular, large-flowered and warm-looking plant, with an upright slender silhouette somwehere far from the centre of the composition (don't know which one will be suitable for this climate...).

Len, unlike you, I could spend my life in the garden, dream to reshape it all in one season and never really catch up with my intentions.
You sound so cautious and wise! :WINK1:

Some quite valuable ideas have been poured in the thread, though. It has become worth revisiting!

 

Agree, very much so, and I thank everyone for their time.
Havent got the time at the moment to think about the reworked design, but when I do I'll post it here. Similarly when I start working on this in the late spring (is that a good time to start ?) I'll post piccies

 

" It has become worth revisiting!"

In that case ... :D

Shocking how the quality of Latin teaching has fallen over the years ... its "Superb-um", not "Super-Bum" .... Dear-oh-deary-me ...

Or take cuttings in the Autumn. Very easy to propagate from from cuttings, and keeping a few Mother plants (on windowsills) to start off in the Spring should provide enough material for the coming season.

I'm inclined to think that the named-varieties (i.e. have to be grown vegetatively, as they won't come "true" from seed) are better - they are less inclined to run-to-seed. More expensive outlay in the first place though. Either way, pinch-out any flower buds that appear

If you are growing from seed have a look at Moles Seeds - they'll be cheaper if you need to grow quite a few than a packet of Suttons or similar brand - their Wizard range may get your mouth watering

Yup ... often sold for that purpose. They do well as a bedding-out plant though - and then bring some in for the Winter (whether as your Mother-plants for the next year, or just "throw aways") they do double-duty as house-plants too

Cotinus and the purple leaves Elders are happy being "stooled" - cut them down to 12" - 18" in February, and they will throw up some strong shoots - and that will keep them contained in size. Particularly useful if they are there primarily for contrast. East Ruston Old Vicarage last year had a long bed of Dahlia interspersed with a Black Beauty Elder which looked stunning. its pretty hard to see the stunning contrast in this picture, but you can just nmake out the Elders peeping out of the top of the Dahlias - but you'll get the idea

Dibleys have a nice selection - if you want specific ones rather than rainbow mix.

I can't find suppliers for the ones that I want - like Julie Quartermain (well, I can, but minimum order of 10 trays or somesuch ...)

Picture of Julie Quartermain lining a path at Urban Jungle

 

Looking at that picture of Dahlias I reckon that is Black Lace, and not Black Beauty.