Border planting ideas surrounding patio

Good evening everyone!

I hope you are all well. I come here again seeking recommendations/ideas/expert advice....

After almost 5 years I have almost finished the hardscaping in our back garden. Now we are turning our attention to planting. Thanks very much for all your advice regarding trees in the past. We went for a couple of multi-stem Amelanchier Lamarckii's, a crab apple and an ornamental pear in the end. That should provide some interest and some privacy in years to come. We are now turning our attention to the planting...slightly daunting with the number of plants out there.

I'm trying to come up with a planting scheme for the borders surrounding the top patio. Here is what it looks like....



We live in Hampshire and the soil is slightly acidic with a clay subbase.I purchased some topsoil and have also dug in lots of well rotted manure. The garden is south facing (see pic) and the border is quite narrow running around the patio. I'm planning on planting Salvia Nemerosa Caradonna, Stipa Tenuissima, Erigeron karvinskianus, Euphorbia Amygdaloides and Nepeta along the sunny south facing border (included in pic). I have also just planted a Climbing Rose - Wollerton Old Hall at the base of the left most screen post (near the pizza oven) and planning on training it up the post and along the top of the overhanging screen beams.

Does anyone have any ideas/recommendations for the rest of the border? The border depth is only about 40cm next to the cedar screen. Given that we will have seating on the patio, plants that fill the gap at the bottom and also provide some height to about 1-1.2m would be good maybe? We don't want to completely obscure the cedar though, just to compliment it as we love the colour of the wood.

Also, we will mainly be sitting here from late spring to early autumn (when weather allows) so maybe plants that look their best then? To the right hand side of the screen there will be a shadier border. There is a Sango Kaku there at the moment and we have just planted a smallish crabapple so there will be partial shade here. We are going to have a water feature and I really like lush planting around that.

Anyway....as always I'm interested to what people think might be good?

Many thanks for reading,

Ed

 

I’d keep it quite simple @machtucker to complement your other planting with a similar mix, using the columnar grass Calamagrostis Karl Foerster interplanted with the Erigeron and Nepeta. Although they prefer sun, all three plants will grow well in light shade and the limited space that you have. The grass will grow to about 1.5m and can easily be divided when necessary. Erigeron can flower until December and the grass just needs to be cut to ground level in late February.

 

One other point to make is that the three plants mentioned don’t lean towards the sun which can be annoying in that sort of location .

 

I'd tend towards small evergreens and scented plants Lavender, Cistus, Hebe, Dwarf Pittosporum, Daphne (for shade), Kleim's Hardy or Crown Jewel Gardenia, Raphiolepis, Salvia officianalis purpurescens or Icterina.

 

Just to add, some orange and peach coloured flowering plants might work well with what you have already planned, and it looks as though your upper patio is quite west-facing. I always think warm-toned flowers or foliage can look particularly good in afternoon/evening sunlight, and would be a good contrast to your purple plants (nepeta, salvia?)

 

There are some zingy orange leaved Heucheras that would work well with the other suggestions. They are evergreen, prefer shade but will tolerate sun and also flower but they are not scented. Lavender flowers best in full sun and may be better in your other bed, otherwise it might lean like mine did.

 

Perennial Echinacea can be found in warm peachy pink hues and flowering is approximately July to autumn, to keep the colour going until the weather turns.
By the way, I love Rosa Wollerton Old Hall - gorgeous!

 

Thanks very much. Yes I like the idea of repetition to link in each of the borders. I also love geraniums, maybe I could incorporate those too. My fear though is that they won’t be seen too much as the garden furniture will obscure them. I love alliums and foxgloves too although maybe they will be over too early for a mid summer display.

 

Ahh yes, someone was mentioning this about a rose that I was thinking about getting.

 

Fantastic, I will check some of those out. We were considering Lavender too.

 

Yes! It’s a sunny spot in the afternoon/evening, well until the crabapple grows a bit. I will have a think.

 

Had a play around with some ideas for the west facing border, it's a fist stab (see pic). I notice a lot of the the plants mentioned like full sun or partial shade. I'm now turning my attention to the north facing border which I think is light shade. Any ideas there to complement what's in the other two borders?

 

That is a great 3d visualisation, @machtucker. It is really nice to see how the rose Wollerton Hall, fits in to your plans too. The echinacea go well with the ornamental grasses and purple flowers, I think.
Do you know if your north-facing area will become very shady or perhaps more partially shady? I was thinking, you could put in some spring flowering woodland plants, maybe between any herbaceous perennials or some more ornamental grasses (the ones that prefer shade). Those foxgloves you like might work from late spring to early summer too. For later summer to autumn, you might find a well-behaved Japanese Anemone (the white ones are often more content not to spread so much). My other thought is that certain colours sometimes show up better in more shady areas. In my experience, blues/purples and whites/creams do, and pastels generally. I am sure others will have some very helpful ideas.

 

Thanks! It's a piece of software called Sketchup, I think it's produced by the mighty google. I use the free web version but the full version is a professional grade bit of 3d software. I just did a bit of shadow analysis with it and I think most of the time that border will be in shade, however in may get some direct sunlight in the afternoon during the summer. However we have planted some trees in the central border which when reach their full height will probably block it out. For now though they are small.

Thanks very much for the ideas I love hearing these and it gets me googling and researching. I love it as I sometimes get tunnel vision and can't see the wood for the trees. I know what I like when I see it but I find visualising how things are going to look difficult, hence why the software really helps.

 

Whites and pale colours are always good for shadier spots.
It'll also depend on how moist the soil stays and what room there is. I'm not sure which area is the north facing part in your pic.
The more plants you have, the drier it'll tend to get, especially through summer. Having said that, many plants are quite adaptable.
Things like Polemonium [Jacobs Ladder] will give some height, as will Polygonatum [Solomon's Seal] and both like some decent moisture. I grow Hylotelephiums [the new same for Sedum spectabile] in quite shady sites, but they'll tend to lean a bit more. If there's enough room, you can always have something woodier in front of them though. They don't tend to get so big and lax here, because they don't get in to growth so early, but you can cut them back to keep them sturdier. Chelsea Chop is ideal for them. Foxgloves and Dicentras are also good. Fuchsias - there are hardy ones as well as the annual types. Sarcococca is fine in quite a lot of shade.
You can also have clematis - many are perfectly happy in shadier spots, and cotoneasters don't mind quite a lot of shade. You can get evergreen ones which are happy to be wall/fence trained.
Variegated foliage is also useful for shady sites. There are loads of lower growing plants which are happy in shade - Geraniums [and some of those can be quite tall] Heucheras, Pachysandra etc.

I've also grown Hebes and Phormiums in shadier sites. The flowers will be fewer on the Hebes, but they give interest over winter, so they're useful if you're seeing the area a lot from indoors.