Front garden beds

Hey,
I've recently moved and found myself the owner of a garden, it was a bit of state when I moved in but with the help of a bit of sun yesterday and a trip to bnq I've managed to dig out the beds and cut the grass.


I want to put some plants that require little attention but look nice year round in the beds.. I was thinking wild flowers. But really have no clue on the subject, so am open to suggestions. Please find attached some images the garden is east facing and has a normal / slightly clay soil.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!






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I would dig out the corner too as it will be a pain to mow. How deep are the beds? They should be at least 60cm in my opinion, unless you are just having a row of small annuals like marigolds.
If you can let us know your soil type and which way the garden faces we can suggest some plants.
Welcome!
Charlie

 

Thanks charlie,
Yeah I the beds are pretty deep. I was planning on digging out that corner and putting a sandstone slab there as it's just in front of my front door and gets quite a bit of traffic.

The garden is east facing. And the soil is very dark almost black when I've done a web search the term seems to be 'normal'. I was thinking I would plant some hardy colourful bushes along the left as that area is on a slight slope and the neighbours garden is slighty higher. The rest of the garden is fairly even.

Any suggestions welcome!


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Hi,

Red dogwood will give you all year interest. Maybe hardy fucias, sedum and there are many varieties of heucura. Then maybe plant summer flowering bulbs in between.

Rusty

 

I love dogwood, we have 4 different ones here.
Midwinter fire is my favourite.

I also like choisya sundance.

This does very well in my garden, quick growing and beautiful in early spring. Forsythia.

My mum got me one of these for 99p from b&Q. Caryopteris.

And you can't go wrong with weigela. Twice flowering too if gently pruned between. (Spring and late summer)

Fuschias were mentioned so here is my favourite, deltas sarah.

The range, Morrisons, poundland and B&M bargains stock all of these. You can get most for £2-3. They would be quite small but still ok to plant out in a week or so.
You could also try herbaceous perennials but that's another post!

 

Wild flowers require lots of attention. I would go with a variety of flowering shrubs. Since it is in the front, in shrub selection focus on 3 to 4 season interest shrubs. Plan your list with knowing the height, and the width it grows to pace it out. If your planning to do something with that fence, give it a good painting first, and try for two to three interesting climbing flowering plants, a thornless climbing rose, that twice blooms would be nice with clamatis growing through it also.

 

I agree with Redstar. Wildflowers are fine for a meadow that you want to leave to its own devices but not for the confines of a domestic garden.
Where in the UK are you?

 

Super! thanks, rusty and charliebot,
Not sure about the dogwood, but the other plants look great, I like the heucura and choisya sundance particularly. Is the sundance evergreen? Can these plants be put in the ground in feb or do I need to wait?


Thanks redstar, I figured that wild flowers would be the exact opposite of high maintenance. I am planning on painting the fence and replacing the broken one to the side as soon as the weather
Gets a little better.

I am in Newcastle upon Tyne longk

Thanks again guys!


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Nb charliebot, my 3 year old likes all of your suggestions!


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Haha that made me smile.

I spent all year looking at the dogwood and scratching my head thinking, "why did good old Ernie* plant that?" As its just a green shrub with some Lacey white flowers in summer.
Then, winter came and for over 2 months it was the biggest block of colour in my garden, 3 in a row like proud red soldiers in the deep midwinter! It's my others half's favourite and he points out dogwoods wherever we go.

*Ernie is the gent that created my garden over 50 years ago. His wife, Brenda, is credited for the topiary llama. I've been fascinated and overjoyed learning about (and adding to) his plant/shrub choices, everything was and is done on a budget.

Anyway, for low maintence flowers you could try perennial phlox, crocosmia, Leucanthemum, acanthus and hardy geraniums (cranesbill) as these all come back year after year and cover the ground thus preventing weeds. Crocosmia can be a bit thuggish (I have lucifer) but I love the tropical looking leaves.

 

Acanthus and hardy Geraniums are thuggish too although I do like Acanthus...............


Salvia microphylla is a shrubby Salvia that should be hardy in the NE and readily available. It has a very long flowering season.




The white form................

 

you have to ask yourself how much weeding and mulching do you want to do between plants/shrubs. Until plants are filled in enough to crowd out the weeds, you have to weed and mulch heavy, some do not grow dense enough right away to help with weed control, so your mulching around etc. the hardy geranium is decently dense right away, and a good edge ground cover, and it grows nicely wide in a few years.

 

The trouble is that I have always found the blue one that is the most commonly available species in the UK to be highly invasive.

My two favourite hardy Fuchsias are both F.magellanica cultivars.............


"Hawkshead"...............


"David"

 

There's a fuchsia called David? I never knew that! Thank you @longk

 

Avoid the blue Hardy Geranium. But, if the ground is clay, sometime you want a more vigorous plant to be able to grow in poor soil.