Delphiniums and or Lupins

We have a border round the side of our house which has sun all day, and also half way in the front which has sun most the morning. This border being at the side of the house (front and side) is 1 ft in depth then there is the path.
Hubby reckons it is too narrow to put in delphiniums or lupins, which I really would like to put in so please any advice would be grateful.
I love the cottage garden look and feel it would be appropriate in ours as we live in a country cottage.

 

My main concern would be about the roots of perennials pushing up the path by your border (I assume there is a path?) I'd be inclined to make sure whatever you use that's as tall as this lot are definitely annuals - then I'd say go for it! There definitely are annual lupins - I don't know about delphiniums. But there are lots of other tall cottage garden plants that you can get as annuals, like some lavateras, malvas, etc. You'll need stakes, etc, though! Or you'll never get past them!

 

I'm sure they will be fine.Put in support frames early on to stop them sagging over the paths.
I stick them in all over and if they don't suit..they get moved to another place or, another garden....it's called swaps

 

Hollyhocks are good as well, although tall, they dont produce a large root, have a fairly firm stem, although a stake will be wanted to keep them from falling over.
save some of the seeds each year for re-plenishing.

 

Cosmos should do fine too, and some of them are quite tall. Nicotania (?spelling) would do OK too.

 

Agree with Nixon - the root structure of Lupins an Delphiniums could cause other problems - have also used hollyhocks which are Ok as well assome of the other shallow rooting plants.

 

if you'd like some freebie seeds, I've got some - just e-mail me, and I'll send you some. I seriously over-estimated how much I could bring on!!