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Shrubs for the front garden wall
steebe
Posts: 12
I have cleared away all the weeds from around the lawn in the front garden (ignore the state of the front lawn. This is a job for another time and will probabley need re-laying)
The Front garden is south facing and gets the sun pretty much all day.The patch I am looking at runs alongside the front garden wall and is about 5 feet across and about a foot and half deep
I am looking to plant up with some shrubs to cover the wall and bring some shape, interest and height to the garden.
What shrubs would people suggest
0
Posts
Is the soil acid or alkaline?. clay or sand?
It is a clay soil with a fairly neutral pH level
Problem with most Hydrangea is that you are staring at brown sticks for 7- 8 months of the year as the leaves are late at regrowing in late spring and it defoliates after a hard frost. I would go for evergreen plants such as Portugese Laurel, Mahonia, Juniper, Azalea do fine with some ericacious feed in my pH neutral soil. It is also a good space to add loads of bulbs for changing colour over the year - Daffs, Crocus, Tulips, Crocosmia etc.
How about Rugosa roses. They have glossy,evergreen leaves, largish pink, white or red flowers and sealing-wax, bright red hips in winter. "Mrs Anthony Waterer" is crimson red, scented and stands about five feet tall. Fairly spiny, but not thorny, so good to keep out wandering ne'er-do-wells too.
That's a similar size to my front garden and same layout and I have planted it with the advice of the local garden centre. I am a little worried about the choices as I bought without doing my own research! And did a little on here after. I had four lemon scented conifers which I planted without much knowledge some years ago and this year they died and so I replanted. I have a wooden fence running around, again very similar to the brown one shown. And so, with a little nervousness that someone more knowledgeable is going to tell me that it's wrong, I will say what I planted (I have time to move them at least if wrong! As only did it two weeks ago - ish). From the left, next to the drive is now a pieris, then a Portugese laurel, then a yew, then straight eunonymous and then in the corner (because I wanted to save it as it looked sad and too big in a pot in the back garden) afatsia japonica as it filled the space nicely. A real mixture. In fron of the fatsia japonica are two oriental poppies that i have had for years and moved them, seemingly successfully as they were too big were they were. I would put a pic on but its raining heavily here! Comments welcome - I am shuddering though if I've got it wrong again!
And I know that some have to be kept in check by trimming
And mine is clay soil -same again.
Hello Haisie,
Your planting scheme will be OK short term but you have a lot of big plants for a small area there! The Portuguese laurel grows into a small tree and yews grow pretty quickly and are enormous when they are fully grown.
Enjoy them while they are babies but be ready to say goodbye to them in the not too distant future!
Damn! I knew it. Flippin eck. I just can't plant some areas right! But, but the man in the garden centre said just trim them and they will be OK? Oh no! honestly that is the umpteenth time I have planted that area. I kept staring at it and I thought that it wouldn't last. Will they really not just trim/hack... I just need some evergreens that will grow to about 5ft and stay there! Help! just another mistake.