New to gardening – need boarder ideas

Having purchased our first house, the first task was to remove 15 tonne of chuckies from the garden, put down top soil and lay grass seeds.

I now need to make a boarder between the grass and the driveway but I have basically zero gardening knowledge!

We thought about lavender, but it seems to take a long time to spread and ‘hedge’ and doesn’t flower for too long.

I thought about going really basic and planting daffodils, snow drops etc. I thought I could perhaps get a range of bulbs which will flower at different times so I have next to no maintenance and I can just leave them to do their thing, giving us the maximum duration of flowering plants.

So,

1) Any ideas for an easy edging that even I could manage?
2) If we go for the latter, what array of bulbs will give us the longest period of flowers?
3) Can I just plant snow drop (for example) bulbs next to daffies and let them flower at different times? or will they fight for space even when they are not flowering? I like the idea of this as they grow then vanish on their own. But I realise I am maybe being a little too basic here ?

Any help appreciated, though remember, I am very new to this!

 

Hallo Rorie,
may I be the first to welcome you to Gardeners Corner. How exciting, your first blank canvas to work on. I understand your desire to fill it with "flowers of the moment" ie. the Spring garden collection, but they will only be with us for a short time. There are so many bright annuals that, with a bit of dead heading, can give you colour and variety through Summer and Autumn too. Others will be along during the day to say hallo. Meanwhile, you are welcome to have a wander round and see what others do,

Jenny namaste

 

Thanks for the replies.
I want something with a bit of colour, so not so keen on the normal hedge type thing.
If we went for the tulips etc (i do like tulips!) can you guys give me a suggestion of what to get that will mean i have a range? i.e. in Feb/March there will be snowdrops, March/April get ..... Or am i best going into the garden centre and looking at the boxes and just buying what ever?

Daft question, how do i know if they will retreat underground like snowdrops? The boxes say 'flowers in X month', but how do i know if the plant will stay there but with no flowers, or if it will vanish and only apprear, flower, then leave?

Jenny, you mention annuals that with dead heading will give colour - i guess you mean plants (?) that stay all year round, and when the flowering part dies, chop it off? Sorry! Very much a novice haha. Any examples of these?

I also wondered about heather....is that simple enough?

 

Its all starting to make sense now haha. I appreciate the help!

Maybe i have said the wrong thing by 'hedge'. I read that you can 'hedge' lavander....but all i mean is something which runs the length of the driveway, making a nice transition from grass to the drive.

I think i would stick to spring bulbs and perrenials then. The ones which die after a year means more maintinance i guess haha.

So, in homebase just now they have various boxes and packets which say when to plant and when they flower. Will the boxes state 'corms, tubers' 'perrenials' or 'annuals' on them for me to know what i am buying?

One box caught my eye that said '100 days of summer' and had a range of flowers which is why i started looking at these type of flowers.

So what about the following? Will this give me an almost year round display of flowers? I gather i can just plant and leave these and they will do their own thing year after year?

If i beef it up with some perrenials, what would the suggestions be?

snowdrops and daffodils & bluebells.
Then some tulips
some poppy seeds
allium
lilies
irises
gladioli

 

Hello and welcome

Lavender has one of the longest flowering periods of any plant I know. It's new blooms appear around May and then stay until you cut them off. It's evergreen, few pests or diseases bother it, and it keeps its fragrance all year round too. The only downside is that after a few years it becomes leggy, but you can get round that in a number of ways.

There are different types of lavender. The ones with the bigger flowers are, in my opinion, not the best choice, as the flowers look a bit tatty after a while. The narrow flowering ones are more fragrant and when the flowers go over, they just dry on the plant and still look ok and smell divine.