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Plant suggestions please : edge covering
GravelEater
Posts: 124
in Plants
Hi all,
We've separated our garden with concrete gravel boards dug mostly into the soil. On one side is regular shingle for parking/walking and the other is a ~4 ft wide planting area edged by the garden wall. It's around 20 odd feet long. This area will be topped with gravel also.
Low wall is situated to the East, property situated to the West. Full sun from ~10am - 4pm in Summer.
Slightly acidic loamy soil, pretty well draining.
My plan is to find some kind of low evergreen plants to run along the edge between the two areas, softening and hiding the gravel boards.
I don't want them running too rampant over the entire planting area as I have other plants to put in, so ability to prune back quite well is required. Nothing with any strong roots as they'll likely shift the edging or damage pipes/cables (so no to ground cover conifers eg. juniper).
Shrubs aren't going to work for this, eg. planting umpteen Euonymus and clipping them to very small height/depth will likely end up with a lot of dead Euonymus.
As much as I'd like some pretty flowers (white/red/orange/yellow/pink/purple) they aren't as important as pleasing evergreen foliage.
Looking at rockery plants as an easier search term, so far I've come up with:
'Candytufts'
Iberis Sempervirens (white flowers May-June)
Iberis Gibraltarica (pink/white flowers May-June)
Masterpeice (white flowers Spring-Autumn)
Capanula Partensclagania (lilac/purple flowers July-August)
Gypsophilia cerastiodes (white flowers May-July)
Aubrieta 'purple cascade'
Plox creeping
Saxifraga - maybe a bit too hot with gravel all around?
Lithodora diffusa 'heavenly blue' - maybe blue isn't a colour that would work.
Dianthus simulans - too slow growing/small 1 ft. I'd need to plant loads of them!
Intrigued to see what others suggest.
We've separated our garden with concrete gravel boards dug mostly into the soil. On one side is regular shingle for parking/walking and the other is a ~4 ft wide planting area edged by the garden wall. It's around 20 odd feet long. This area will be topped with gravel also.
Low wall is situated to the East, property situated to the West. Full sun from ~10am - 4pm in Summer.
Slightly acidic loamy soil, pretty well draining.
My plan is to find some kind of low evergreen plants to run along the edge between the two areas, softening and hiding the gravel boards.
I don't want them running too rampant over the entire planting area as I have other plants to put in, so ability to prune back quite well is required. Nothing with any strong roots as they'll likely shift the edging or damage pipes/cables (so no to ground cover conifers eg. juniper).
Shrubs aren't going to work for this, eg. planting umpteen Euonymus and clipping them to very small height/depth will likely end up with a lot of dead Euonymus.
As much as I'd like some pretty flowers (white/red/orange/yellow/pink/purple) they aren't as important as pleasing evergreen foliage.
Looking at rockery plants as an easier search term, so far I've come up with:
'Candytufts'
Iberis Sempervirens (white flowers May-June)
Iberis Gibraltarica (pink/white flowers May-June)
Masterpeice (white flowers Spring-Autumn)
Capanula Partensclagania (lilac/purple flowers July-August)
Gypsophilia cerastiodes (white flowers May-July)
Aubrieta 'purple cascade'
Plox creeping
Saxifraga - maybe a bit too hot with gravel all around?
Lithodora diffusa 'heavenly blue' - maybe blue isn't a colour that would work.
Dianthus simulans - too slow growing/small 1 ft. I'd need to plant loads of them!
Intrigued to see what others suggest.
0
Posts
Creeping Myrtle looks like it might be interesting, rather than the blue colour there seems to be white available. Maybe too invasive, maybe not. I'll not be providing it with a bare soil surfer to 'latch' into and expand.
At moment we have them in tubs, but plan is to put them in the garden soon or maybe next spring.
But I think I would just plant up the whole area in the normal way, and it's likely that whatever you plant at the front of the bed will spread over the edging slightly to a greater or lesser extent. That could include small shrubs like Rhododendron williamsianum, and perennials like Geranium 'Rozanne'. Seeing glimpses of the edging here and there will probably look fine. If you really can't stand it, perhaps it would be better to just use something nicer like reclaimed brick?
Campanula ‘Campala’ is evergreen for me (Cambridgeshire), flowers from May to December and not invasive.
I also have Juniperus squamata ‘Blue Star’ (sorry no photo, but I can take one later if you’re interested) which is again evergreen, drought tolerant and low maintenance, though it grows very slowly. Quite small, a foot or so across, and unlikely to shift anything.
If blue isn't right, there's the blue star & white versions
I've included an image as an idea of what I'm trying to explain.
The planting area being the bit next to the wall, all the way along. I'm intending on planting those plants in the picture (Taxus Baccata variant, Euonymus fortunei and white spire). The area will be covered in green/blue granite. Outside of the planting area is plain old shingle, but I've ran out at the moment hence the bare liner and bricks camera left.
Potentially a star jasmine in the far corner growing up an obelisk.
We've Juniperous squamata blue star else where, and whilst they can be pruned (maybe not quite as much as it may need here), I don't think they'd fit with what I'm seeing in my head. Same situation with Juniperous communis goldschatz, which is very low to the ground indeed.
When the plants you have get going in year three there will be little room for other things and you may have to edit. You have a strong evergreen framework with the plants you already have. This will give you something all the way through winter.
I would now consider the rest of the year, Iberis will be good early on campanula would be good to follow[ C portenschlagiana is very strong growing] plenty of other campanulas would work. Creeping tyme would give interest at this time of year but it grows best in full sun For late summer you may have to consider annuals.
I would repeat some of your choices to bring things together. As long as the overall look is green it will look natural.