Patio Enhancement

Hi There,
I am looking to enhance our patio as pictured. There is a corridor of about 500-600mm around our decking. I have turned the soil and attempted to remove large rocks and other rubbish but the soil remains slighly rocky and clay like. I imagine the soil to have been left untouched in the past 20 or so years so it was some effort to dig up!

My first though is to plant 30cm high Ilex crenata (Japanese Holly). If I were to do this I would follow a standard hedge planting procedure. Ie dig the trench, apply rootgrow, fill in, and then apply 50-70mm of mulch on top.

Does anyone have any other ideas that we could use for the patio? Or any other advice if we were to procede with the Japanese Holly? I am slightly concerned with the soil quality.

Many thanks in advance​

 

I would mix some organic matter into the "trench" once you have dug it.

Note that the rootgrow needs to be applied to the roots of the plant, or the outside of the rootball if they are pot-grown plants, and not in the bottom of the trench. It is critical that it is in good/close contact with the roots. It often helps to wet the roots, or rootball, and holding the plant horizontally and rotating it (like a Spit Roast ) "pour" the rootgrow over the roots. Make sure you have a tray to catch the excess as it aint cheap. You can also use the rootball to "dab" the rootgrow in the tray to get more to "stick".

Then the trick is to backfill the trench / around the plants without dislodging too much of it.

I think Ilex crenata makes a nice formal hedge; it doesn't suffer from Blight like common Box does. But it is slow growing and plants are expensive (but if you find some that are tall-ish and affordable please let me know!!).