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Plant suggestions for new border

BirdHerdLissBirdHerdLiss Posts: 21
in Garden design
Hi everyone,

I’m wanting to add a new border into the garden and was looking for plant suggestions.

This border will be North/North-East facing, it gets a little bit of sun on a morning and a tiny bit on an evening, it also gets very windy at times.

I’ve marked out the area in this photo

That hedge is much lower now as it was cut back last year, this was a photo I took before then, it lets in more light over there now.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Posts

  • punkdocpunkdoc Posts: 15,039
    You need to tell us a bit more: what is the soil like, is it dry/wet, what do you like/ hate etc.
    How can you lie there and think of England
    When you don't even know who's in the team

    S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
  • BirdHerdLissBirdHerdLiss Posts: 21
    Sorry I never thought to add that info. The soil is quite dry, it has good drainage, has a little bit of clay but is easily workable.

    I’m open to all plant suggestions, I do love plants that have lots of flowers, evergreen perennials would be a plus, I’m also fond of grasses.
    Child safe could be good, we’ve taught not to pick or eat plants but ones with skin irritants might be best to avoid incase of contact when out playing near them, I’m quite new to gardening so I’m not too sure what it exactly means when tags and stuff say toxic and skin irritant and what the exact effects would be, so I tend to avoid them tbh.

    Not the biggest fan of roses or climbers and also with the wind that part gets I’m thinking taller plants may struggle.
  • AthelasAthelas Posts: 946
    edited April 2023
    Looks a nice project — I can’t tell from the diagram but would suggest making the borders at least 1 (or better, 1.5) metres deep, and adding lots of organic matter (if it were me, that would be manure compost) to the soil first.

    Here are the plants I have in my shady border — I don’t think any of them are toxic apart from the hellebores, but do look them up in case.

    - Box: luckily so far free of blight and box moth caterpillar 

    - Polystichum polyblepharum: an easy to maintain evergreen fern

    - Anemone ‘Fantasy Jasmine’ and ‘Pink Kiss’

    - Choisya ‘Scented Gem’

    - Oakleaf hydrangea 

    - Hellebore Gold Collection ‘Ice Breaker Max’

    - Geranium x antipodeum ’Pink Spice’ (there are lots of hardy geraniums available in different blue to purple to pink colours)

    - Epimedium pubigerum for ground cover; I also have Epimedium ‘Orange Queen’ elsewhere which is an easy to care for ground cover


    Cambridgeshire, UK
  • Busy-LizzieBusy-Lizzie Posts: 24,043
    Plants I have for dryish shady areas are Brunnera Jack Frost, Dryopteris ferns, Hostas, Lamprocapnos (used to be Dicentra Spectabilis), Hellebores, Autumn Anemones, Epimediums, Geranium Macrorrhizum Bevan's Variety, Geranium Patricia, Geranium Orion, Tiarrella, Heucheras, and daffodils and violas in the spring.
    Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
  • ObsessedPlantswomanObsessedPlantswoman Posts: 69
    I agree with @Athelas the designers say Beds should be as deep as the boundary is high, although that’s rarely done in a garden. But deeper means you can make two layers, higher shrub at the back and lower perennials/ annuals at the front.
  • PlantmindedPlantminded Posts: 3,580
    A grass which will do well in shade as either edging or filling between other plants is Hakonechloa macra.  I grow the plain green one and two of the variegated ones.  They are deciduous and perennial, requiring very little attention apart from an annual cut down to ground level in March.
    Wirral. Sandy, free draining soil.


  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
     In addition to everything already mentioned: Pulmonaria (available in blue, white and pink forms), Dicentra formosa (white, pink or crimson) does better for me than D. spectabilis (Lamprocapnos) in dry shade and is a more ground-cover-y sort of plant, Corydalis flexuosa.
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • BirdHerdLissBirdHerdLiss Posts: 21
    I just came back on here to find I must not have pressed post the last time I replied to the thread, still getting used to posting on a forum!

    But thank you all for your suggestions, I’ve been looking around garden centres at plants that have been suggested and I’ve definitely got some on my list that I will be getting! Also while I was looking I found a Dicentra Spectabilis for £2 so I had to get that, so it’s currently sitting in a pot where the border will be going.
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