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Indestructible plants please!

debs64debs64 Posts: 5,184
in Plants
Hi all, middle daughter has just moved into a rented house and wants help with the garden. She is not a gardener and as house is on a hill her "flower bed" is steeply sloped and mainly filled with builders sand! She doesn't have the cash to replace all the soil and as I say house is rented so what I need is plants that will survive and ideas for cheap ways to improve what she has. I know it's a tricky one but any advice gratefully received. She does have some allchemilla mollis there . I am thinking small pockets of decent soil planted up with tough plants and maybe a bark mulch? What do people think? It goes against the grain because I really believe in soil improvement but I doubt she will be there more than a year or two. 
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  • Valley GardenerValley Gardener Posts: 2,851
    I think I would go for cheap shrubs Viburnum, etc something that will flower,then a few bulbs wouldn't be too expensive for spring, Cosmos plus mixed cottage garden flower seed for summer colour.As you say a few pockets of good soil will help,and not be too expensive. It's all about keeping the price down,there's no point in spending a fortune. Good luck with it though,I'm sure she'll be able to make it look pretty!
    The whole truth is an instrument that can only be played by an expert.
  • plant pauperplant pauper Posts: 6,904
    My first thought was alcoholic mollies  :). My second was hypericum. Periwinkle, foxgloves and himalayan honeysuckle seed themselves and thrive almost anywhere. 
  • Silver surferSilver surfer Posts: 4,719
    What about pots sunk in the builders sand.
    Then when she moves she can take everything with her.
    Perthshire. SCOTLAND .
  • josusa47josusa47 Posts: 3,530
    Look at the seed swap thread for hardy annuals, and the pound shop for shrubs. Buy a big bag of daff bulbs from the garden centre.
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    I had the same thought as Silver Surfer.   Put shrubs or perennials she likes in biggish plastic pots filled with decent compost and sink them in the sandy stuff.  That way she can water each individual plant as needed but also take it with her next time she moves.

    For the gaps in between, pour on a couple of bags of cheap multi purpose compost to improve soil structure, rake it in a bit and sow some hardy annuals or a wildflower mix.  I expect tulips would enjoy the drainage so buy some cheap bags of those in autumn and plant in November.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    Colourful shrub salvias, linaria, sedum, osteo, erigeron, species tulips, choisya.
  • ju1i3ju1i3 Posts: 189
    seeds like ox-eye daisy, nigella, cerinthe, calendula are easy and give you a lot of colour for not much money or effort
  • debs64debs64 Posts: 5,184
    Thanks everyone looking forward to trying out these ideas. As I say she is no gardener but wants it to "look pretty" 
  • raisingirlraisingirl Posts: 7,093
    nasturtiums and california poppies will both self seed and be perfectly happy in those conditions as long as it gets some sunshine
    Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon

    “It's still magic even if you know how it's done.” 
  • debs64debs64 Posts: 5,184
    Ooh I do love mastershalums. Will definitely try them Raisingirl. 
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