Hello everyone, I'm after your expertise and extensive knowledge for my little sunny plot. We have just layed a decking area in the sunny spot in our garden and have a small square between the shed and the decking which we would like to plant up. We are novices and have very limited gardening knowledge and I browse this forum often searching for ideas. What would you all reccomend? I know you will probably all ask about soil type etc and all I can say is it's brown!!!!!!! (did tell you my knowledge was limited). We want to have colour, scent and some evergreens. I am a childminder so have to bear that in mind, don't want to poisin any little people. I hope you can help.
Yep, that dirt is most definitely .... brown! For a really sunny spot, why not start with something which is fairly easy to grow, something like Euonymus or Choisya - neither of which, so far as I'm aware, are poisonous. Both are 'evergreen' and I put that in quotes because if you google them, you'll see that they range from plain green to yellow/cream or variegated. Both are easy to get, inexpensive and will increase in size - there's no 'difficult' pruning (or indeed any pruning at all), they won't suddenly shoot up and and take over and they're both drought tolerant, so once established they'll pretty much look after themselves. Euonymus doesn't flower but then it's variegated foliage is pretty enough, Choisya has clusters of white flowers, although they aren't noted for their 'fragrance'. In addition, why not put in some herbs (most love sunny spots), so perhaps lemon verbena, or a rosemary bush, for starters - they'll both flower - or perhaps some dill because of it's 'frondy' foliage and of course you can use them all in cooking and/or maybe some lavender as well? So, for my twopenn'oth, these are some suggestions which will give you what you want colour, scent, evergreens and no poisoned little people. You could also pop in a few bedding plants along the front just for an 'instant fix'.
Hi Nina, Can't really help with the shrubby stuff as i'm a native wild plant & veg man myself. But do have a look at our poisonous plants thread just to be on the safe side with the little ones, http://gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/general-gardening-discussion/678-poisonous-plants-summary.html I used to take primary school kids out on rambles to show them what was edible & what would kill them, got it right most of the time.
A tree towards the back corner by the shed, 5 or so evergreen shrubs and the rest could be left to flowering annuals and perennials. I think Jow Swift did a piece on planting schemes for sunny areas in GW magazine some time ago. Will see if I can dig it out.
Thankyou for helping us out. Euonymus was something suggested by my dad and we have a Choisa at the back of the garden already and its lovely. We planted it about 10 years ago and as you say Fidgetsmum hardly needed to prune it at all. Its huge about 6 ft tall and produces beautiful flowers every year. So the "brown stuff" we have must be good for it. Think I'll go for the lighter coloured foliage. Will def plant some herbs, have been looking out for a bayleaf and would like to plant Basil although I know it can spread like mad but we use a lot of it in cooking and would love to grow our own! Not really keen on a tree Loofah as don't want to put the decking into shade Apart from the Choisa and Eunoymus can you reccomend a few more shrubs? Was thinking about Hebes?? Thanks for the Link Ziggy will have a look. I do have a list of poisonous plants but not sure how extensive it is. I'm quite excited and can't wait to get going. Funds are a bit limited so we are carbooting this weekend to raise some cash and you never know I may find the odd plant or 2 for sale. Thanks again
Hebes always good. I plugged in a couple of search items here BBC - Gardening: Plant Finder - Search results forsome shrubs. Would still encourage an open type tree as it give height. Have you thought about climbers on the back fence?
Maybe a Ribes - this is a low maintenance - there are more experts here that could say if this is a good idea or not - but I just love the maple leaf shape and gorgeous dark pink flowers - AND they do get big and you can just hack it back - no problem. Nice upright stems. Had one in my old garden, it need no maintenance. Bought one to plant at end of garden as a sort of 'hedge'/windbreak (though ground is hard as a rock just now!!) The area you have looks good! love the decking!
Thankyou everyone for your helpful replies and apologies for my absence....you must have thought I took your advice and run!!!! Not much has happened to my sunny spot, wasn't able to do the carboot to raise funds as Hubby was working and I couldn't get my son to footie training and go to the carboot at the same time.....I wish there were two of me sometimes. The plan is to do it this weekend. I did buy some willow trellis for some climbers on the back fence as you suggested Andy and have a honey suckle waiting to be planted. I like the look of the Ribes Babafang I have seen it in a front garden locally and it is very pretty. Will look out for it when I go plant shopping.
