Forum home› Garden design
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

Suggestions please

karlchallenerkarlchallener Posts: 1
in Garden design
Hello, we had the front garden renovated last year and they put in the quarter circle area. I’m looking for plant suggestions that I can put in. Ideally low maintenance and something that will look ok all year round if possible. It’s like a blank canvas but not having any gardening knowledge I don’t know what to do with it. Last year I threw down wildflower seeds and it looked great for about 2 months then just a tangle of mess so it’s back to just soil at the moment. The straight edge is about a metre and a half. Thanks in advance 

Posts

  • josusa47josusa47 Posts: 3,530
    Hallo Karl, and welcome to the forum.  Lucky you to have a "blank canvas" of a garden.  I think the landscaping is very tasteful and leaves you many options.  It appears from the photos that you are on a corner plot, and the front garden above street level with retaining walls.  Is that a parking space to the right of the top photo?

    One thing to bear in mind about front gardens is the risk of theft.  (There's a thread on the forum about this.)  So you don't want to spend a lot of money on containers, ornaments, pergolas or particularly rare and desirable plants.  

    If that garden were mine, I'd like some attractive low hedging along the front edges.   If you alternate evergreen and flowering plants, you'll have year-round interest.  I'd also have two or three small trees in that expanse of grass: rowan has attractive foliage, flowers and colourful berries, so is valuable for wildlife, hawthorn likewise.  I'd avoid sumac, Rhus typhinus; it's lovely, but it suckers everywhere and is almost impossible to get rid of.

    I'll put in a plug for a favourite plant of mine:  Sicilian chamomile, Anthemis punctata. It's low-growing, has pretty, evergreen, faintly aromatic foliage and in spring it's covered in daisy flowers about the size of a 2p coin.  It tolerates all sorts of conditions, all it asks is sunshine, and watering in a long dry spell.  It roots easily from cuttings:  I can send you some if you'd like.  It would look good along that curved edge.
  • josusa47josusa47 Posts: 3,530
    bump
  • robairdmacraignilrobairdmacraignil Posts: 782
    For that quarter circle section some small shrubs with evergreen leaves might be worth considering. The small pittosporum variety tom thumb is nice. Maybe a hebe or a smaller ceanothus might fit in as well and another one that is evergreen and has nice long lasting flowers is penstemmon.
    https://www.youtube.com/user/sustainableveg/videos
  • Tanty2Tanty2 Posts: 231
    What about a Choisya Ternata Sundance?  Evergreen, gorgeous bright foliage which is like a spotlight in the grey of winter and also smells of orange and has pretty flowers?  It will grow to a lovely dome shape of about 2.5m x 2.5m eventually, but will never be a thug and is happy to be pruned to size if it starts to feel too much.   Or for a focus in the middle of the bed, what about a Sambucus Nigra Golden Tower?  It's a golden elder which only grows about 1m wide, but makes a gorgeous column of bright fresh foliage. Deciduous, but fairly quick to grow, and could have smaller shrubs/flowers around it that wouldn't get overshadowed.  For instant froth, what about a Brunnera like Jack Frost?  When it's mild, mine are in flower almost all year and when they get a bit leggy, I just lop off all the top growth and it grows back in a heartbeat!
  • GreenbirdGreenbird Posts: 237
    I'd mix Coneflower and Shasta Daisy's in that quarter circle. Both have a long flowering period. June- September. 

    Put some Tulips in for spring time colour as the perennials are growing.

    Maintaince would be deadheading and weeding occasional. By keeping to three flowers, you'll soon learn their foliage so that your removing the correct 'weeds' in spring.
Sign In or Register to comment.