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What to plant in very narrow border?
ObliqueGeek
Posts: 53
Hi all,
Got an awkwardly narrow border left from some work done in our front garden. Mainly because of me not paying attention while things were being done, long story.
Excuse the mess in the image, this was while things were being done, but give you and idea of what I've got to work with. It's just over a foot, front to back.
Rest of the front is light grey gravel/sleepers, will have different sized pebbles and larger stones scattered around the edges and corners. Going for a loose coastal/nautical (silvery green) theme and colours (blue, purple, pink and a little yellow), with a few Cordylines and Phormiums. Hopefully more natural looking that formal or too planned.
Little stuck on this side through. I don't really want anything climbing the fence and should be pretty low maintenance. Initial plan was something like Calamabrostis x acutiflora 'Karl Foerster' for some height, interspersed with some smaller, contrasting bits and bobs. But I'm thinking the width if the bed I'm left with might
not make this possible. So I'm looking for some ideas.
Got an awkwardly narrow border left from some work done in our front garden. Mainly because of me not paying attention while things were being done, long story.
Excuse the mess in the image, this was while things were being done, but give you and idea of what I've got to work with. It's just over a foot, front to back.
Rest of the front is light grey gravel/sleepers, will have different sized pebbles and larger stones scattered around the edges and corners. Going for a loose coastal/nautical (silvery green) theme and colours (blue, purple, pink and a little yellow), with a few Cordylines and Phormiums. Hopefully more natural looking that formal or too planned.
Little stuck on this side through. I don't really want anything climbing the fence and should be pretty low maintenance. Initial plan was something like Calamabrostis x acutiflora 'Karl Foerster' for some height, interspersed with some smaller, contrasting bits and bobs. But I'm thinking the width if the bed I'm left with might
not make this possible. So I'm looking for some ideas. 0
Posts
Another idea is to fill it with low growing lavender ... Cut it hard back immediately after flowering and it'll remain as a low silvery mound rather than straggle as sometimes lavender can.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Looks like it’s going to be a gorgeous garden, I like the theme!
Some ideas on here:
https://www.bhg.com/gardening/design/color/silver-leaf-plants-garden-ideas/
@Nollie - santolina?
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Never been a huge fan of Lavender, whenever I had had it, it always seems to get a bit leggy and look scrappy - probably me not keeping on top of it enough. Plus I don't just want a man-made looking border of one plant, trying to keep it a bit messy/natural looking.
Will definitely be looking at the erigeron karvinskianus, already got a few similar things planned the larger bed on the other side.
Definitely like the sempervivum idea, I was going to have them around some of the pebbles and large stones that will be stacked against the beds anyway.
Guess maybe I'll have to give up a little on the height I was after due to the width of the bed I'm left with, and go with something on a smaller scale.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Life is about trying stuff and then deciding.
Already got the lots of the plants mentioned, will be mixing things up planting them in the beds and around the boulders/gravel.
Really like the look of the Anemanthele lessoniana, so I think that might be something to look at for the small bed, with some sempervivums clumped around the edges and some flowering plants thrift, erigeron and poppies mixed in and see what happens.
Appreciate the Karl Foerstfor is too big, that was the original plans when the bed was supposed to be about 2ft wider and a foot deeper - but that's a long and boring story. The cordylines & phormiums are for a bed on the other side of the drive, about 3m wide near the corner and plenty deep. Not sure how well they'll work with everything else, but my wife wanted something tall and palm like, because they got some nice ones opposite!