Blood good a nice variety, I think they are slow growers but somebody will know who got one. I like the coral bark variety's like sango kaku, more multi seasoned with the winter interest of the bark colour.
Are you painting the fence dark brown ? I reckon a lighter colour of fence will show off a red / maroon acer better, its just a thought.
I made a typo on my last comment can't edit now, meant to say they don't need acidic soil conditions.
Here's a shot of when the site was cleared. The area underneath the bed will be the same soil you see here - there's no membrane, slabs or concrete in the bottom of the bed so water will just soak down through the bottom. The bed is 400mm deep (four of those wooden beams you can see), then the paving is built up around that. The black plastic in my earlier photo is just put on top of the compost so that it's not hoaching with weeds by the time I get round to filling it.
The fence will probably stay brown for now, it was done last year before we had a plan for what we were doing. Just need to fill in the corner where the big old shed used to be. The new shed next to the tree will be Beaumont Blue and the planter stained slate grey - aiming to have plenty of green foliage too and try to keep flowering things to whites and purples.
The planter wood is treated but I'll give the outside a coat of treatment myself before staining in the grey (protec woodstain and protector).
Right, I've made my mind up. I'm keeping most of the existing compost in there and adding a bag of manure to that. Then I've ordered enough sandy loam topsoil to fill about 50% of the bed. Then I have some ericaceous compost coming for putting around each plant that needs it when I plant them in. I've ordered a bag of rock dust which I can sprinkle in too, plus some ericaceous mulch which I can layer on top. Will just top up with compost and leaf mould in the future as needed.
Thanks for the advice, lots of work to do still but looking forward to seeing how this works out.
Good luck Thomas, it's such a relief isn't when decisions are finally reached! I have two Jap Acers, both planted in alkaline clay soil and they're both doing fine so don't get over stressed about your soil mixture. Your woodland theme sounds lovely.
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Are you painting the fence dark brown ? I reckon a lighter colour of fence will show off a red / maroon acer better, its just a thought.
I made a typo on my last comment can't edit now, meant to say they don't need acidic soil conditions.
The planter wood is treated but I'll give the outside a coat of treatment myself before staining in the grey (protec woodstain and protector).
Thanks for the advice, lots of work to do still but looking forward to seeing how this works out.