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Ideas for this corner

oreilly.cian.1oreilly.cian.1 Posts: 18
in Garden design
Hello,

I have a corner of this court yard garden which i am trying to figure out the planting. I did originally have some alpine plants in there, but one of the matt grasses took over and it looked a bit untidy. Over the last while I have picked up some plants that are silvery green, and was thinking of mixing it in with some dark red plants to go with the acer. You can see some of the plants I have already. Does anyone have some ideas on how I could achieve a nice looking site here? I'm really not sure of what plants to combine, but I like the idea of the dark reds and silver greens. If anyone has thoughts on this I would appreciate it


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Posts

  • Ladybird4Ladybird4 Posts: 37,906
    Hello oreilly.cian. I know you mention alpines but have you thought about using lots of Sempervivums? They come in a wide range of colours.
    Cacoethes: An irresistible urge to do something inadvisable
  • BorderlineBorderline Posts: 4,700
    Have you checked what type of soil you have? Acers normally prefer neutral to acidic soils. Also, some shade during the day rather than full sun. The soil looks very dusty in the photos. Let us know the conditions. It helps to find the right type of plants for that corner.
  • oreilly.cian.1oreilly.cian.1 Posts: 18
    Ladybird4 said:
    Hello oreilly.cian. I know you mention alpines but have you thought about using lots of Sempervivums? They come in a wide range of colours.
    Hi. I will do some research on that and come back. Thanks
  • oreilly.cian.1oreilly.cian.1 Posts: 18
    Borderline said:
    Have you checked what type of soil you have? Acers normally prefer neutral to acidic soils. Also, some shade during the day rather than full sun. The soil looks very dusty in the photos. Let us know the conditions. It helps to find the right type of plants for that corner.
    I'm not sure the soil actually. The Acer has been in there for a couple of years and seems to be fine.

    This corner area seems to be where a lot of clay was put after some work was done on the  garden so I don't think it's the greatest. I was thinking of replacing it with a few inches of  topsoil and compost though. Also the recent drought has caused it to dry up
  • BorderlineBorderline Posts: 4,700
    edited July 2018
    Oreilly.cian.1, sounds like a good idea to top-dress with more compost or topsoil. If you have clay-like structure, you may get extremes from very dry in summer time to heavy damp wet soil in the winter.

    If it gets a fair bit of sun, you can dot little clumps of Armerias, sea thrifts. Evergreen and small lollipop heads in pinks through to whites. There are many forms of Lewisias and Saxafrages that can suit your corner. Pad the base of these plants with some chipped gravel to keep leaves from getting damaged by damp soils.

    If you have semi shaded areas, you could look into Viola Cornuta that comes in whites and blues and also Campanula Carpatica. 
  • ButtercupdaysButtercupdays Posts: 4,546
    Check the growth habit and ultimate size of your plants carefully. It's a fairly small space, so anything that spreads, or grows fast, or too big will ultimately be a nuisance like your grass was.
  • IamweedyIamweedy Posts: 1,364
    I was thinking alpines right away. I was just holding the lable of a sedum "Dragons Blood" Lots of lovely deep reds. Sempervivams from me as well.
     I have several helianthemums which have been lovely and survived the sun with no troubles. but their spread does need to be controlled. 
    I would be very worried about introducing violets some create a thick web of tight surface roots that you cannot get trowels through. 



    'You must have some bread with it me duck!'

  • IamweedyIamweedy Posts: 1,364
    oreilly.cian.1
    I would just love to get my hands on that little corner of yours.



    'You must have some bread with it me duck!'

  • oreilly.cian.1oreilly.cian.1 Posts: 18
    Thank you for the helpful comments, I will look into the plant suggestions and see what I like. I'm not very good with plant combination and tend to agonize over it a bit. I do like the idea of supervivums but would also like to introduce some height. Would ornamental grasses work in this space? Or something with height that will not spread too wide?
  • Nanny BeachNanny Beach Posts: 8,719
    I personally would turn it "Japanese" with the acer, we have done that with a corner of our patio, next to a greenhouse, white stone chippings hubby made a little red bridge,unfortunately I dont know how to add pictures, (I get my kids to do that when they come round!)  The stuff is in pots and gets move around but you could plant direct into the soil.
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