How would you design this gravelled garden area?

Have a garden which is too big, green, mossy and lifeless.
So to add some life and colour, last week I put down this gravel area with area at front on either site left ready for planting then bark.
Have dropped in 3 palm type small trees, hopefully they'll start to grow.

The problem with all this area is there is only a depth of 1.5 - 2 ft of topsoil then its sheet rock.
I need shrubs/trees that will survive in this depth.
This area is east facing and currrently gets sun all day up to 6pm, don't know the ph of the soil, (must find out)



I've ordered the following trees/shrubs and originally hoped these would be good enough to try and dress up this area.
2 x Salix flamingo (delivery size unknown)
1 Japanese Acer Orange Dream (70cm)
1 Japanese Acer Phoenix (70cm)
1 Japanese Acer Little Princess (70cm)
6 x Hostas ( 2 francee, 2 blue angel, 2 wide brim)


My plan although I aint got much of a clue was

Acer orange dream front left beside palm tree,
acer phoenix front right beside palm tree and maybe a hosta on rhs
acer litte princess in middle circle gravel

1 salix flamingo on each side of curved gravel area and maybe 1 hosta in each side also. 1 slot left then for something smaller on both sides

I then read about the acers not liking full sun and wind, so now I'm not so sure, and Kristen on the forum tells me these 70cm acer will be very slow to get to a decent size.
Thought the two larger acers at the front entrance area would be nice

Don't really want the hosta to spread over the gravel edge, are these big spreaders?

Now thinking the salix on either side of entrance might survive/look better ?

note there is hedging to the back and side which will hopefully beef up a bit soon.
any tips or thoughts would be grea t.

 

I think it looks nice

The grass looks a bit rough ("feel" rather than unkempt!!) and might benefit from improving as it would then set the rest of the garden off well I think. Frequent mowing, kill any weeds (e.g. using selective weed killer) and maybe overseed in the Autumn with a seed mixture aimed at giving you the most desirable grass varieties - they will then out-compete the rougher ones, and regular mowing will reduce the strength of the rough grasses too.

The hedge plants look a bit uneven - that might be the rock under your topsoil (although 2' depth of topsoil sounds OK to me, I'm into modelling-clay after 9"). They might be struggling though ... were they planted into a well prepared trench, or perhaps just into individual holes? What sort of hedging plant is it?

Palms, Acers and Hostas could lead to an Exotic Theme. Might be worth chucking some Bananas in, watering and feeding them well, and they should put on a goodly amount of growth during the summer. You may be able to find them cheap-as-chips in the Sheds about now (they were last year ... maybe the race-to-discount has put them off ever selling them again!). They won't survive the winter outside, so unless you can be bothered to bring them in best to treat them as an annual. You will probably find Ensete ventricosum in the Sheds, but if you see a Musa Basjoo cheap (under a fiver, say) then worth getting one or 3 or those as those should be hardy (1st winter may be a bit touch-and-go though, until the plant gets a bit bigger, so worth covering with straw / leaves / something like that to keep the worst of the frost off the roots).

If the Big Leaves "thing" appeals to you then perhaps Fatsia japonica - that's hardy-as-nails and has a handsome large leaf. You could grow Ricinus from seed next year - they are annuals, have huge leaves, grow like stink, but are poisonous (if that bothers you ... lots of plants are poisonous so I think just important to know what is/is not and stop tiny children trying to eat them!!)

You might put some Eucalyptus in for a bit if shade. They grow quickly, do NOT buy large pants of them, they are much more successful planted out when small; perhaps put a bit of clear plastic around them to keep the wind off for the first year so they get established. You can cut them to the ground (more or less) if you want to maintain a low height, over all, but I think you could do with a bit of light canopy trees - if not Eucalyptus, or in addition to, Silver Birch perhaps? Other small trees include crab apples, mountain ash, and perhaps Prunus serrula or similar with fancy bark.

Back on the big leaf theme you could "stool" Paulownia tomentosa, or Catalpa bignoides (let it grow for about 3 years until it is between waist and shoulder height, then cut it right down each February and only allow one bud/stem to develop. You could also grow a Tetrapanax papyrifer rex ("T Rex") for large leaves, They need their growing point wrapped for the winter though as not totally hardy - but if the frost knocks it over it will normally sucker from the roots)

My "Exotic Garden" was created last year, so I'm not sure its a good example of what can be achieved, given a few years tinkering, but it does show how much growth you can get in Year One Some pictures on my blog:
http://kgarden.wordpress.com/projects/exotic-garden/2/

I particularly like Jungle Nuts garden on this forum:
http://www.hardytropicals.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?p=223076#p223076
and Will Giles exotic garden, in Norwich, is amongst the most well known; some nice photos here:
http://www.exoticgarden.com/exotic-garden-photography.php

 

What are the dead looking "sticks" in and amongst the hedge plants ?

 

The excuse for a hedge is laurel, bad frost few years ago nearly killed it off, but most are coming back to life. This hedge was around the whole perimeter of garden, so I'm breaking down the dead branches bit by bit, this is why it looks patchy and uneven. I've just moved in this spring and was unoccupied for 1.5 yrs so the tidy up continues.

The grass is very mossy/poor and the drainage in this area was bad, part of reason I graveled it. Will need dosed in feed n weed and patched up I agree.

Thanks for all the options posted there, some nice exotic work going on. I think I would like the less is more approach for this patch though with maybe up to 10 individual shrubs/trees in the whole area so that over time much of the gravel is still visible and trees are on the smaller side to not block out the sun

 

Rectangular graveled bit at the back is for two seats

 

That's surprising as Laurel is tough as old boots. If it was first winter after planting that might explain it. Give it some fertliser to hurry it up, and water well during dry periods (best to put some leaky hose down so you can water the whole length of hedge for, say, and hour x twice a week). I would also mulch it (over the top of the leaky hose) to keep the moisture in. Those acts will probably rouble or tripple its growth rate in the early years.

I think that is the "long game" and will looks biity, even then. Shrubs are 7 years until they are "really something", a dozen "dot plants" will look just that I reckon ...

 

I have stripped back the dead branches partly out front and around part of back and looks much better, mulch sounds good cos I've weeded twice in past few months so might postpone that weeding job a bit longer also. Didn't think about fertiliser, will dose some of the struggling lowly hedges to try n get them to catch up with the rest.

Ideally I would buy nice specimen well matured trees etc and plant them in place and it would look grand but I'm trying this on a budget and because neighbour tells me nothing much grew in this area for previous owner, so spending big and things dying off is very probable.

My vision for this was like pics I've seen with gravel borders with not a lot in them, things spaced few ft apart and smallish in size.
Where would you place the 2 salix flamingos if you had to put them somewhere here?
What about circular spot?
thanks

 

updated pic