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Help with planting for narrow raised flower bed
SDals
Posts: 5
I wondered if anyone had any ideas...we have a sloping garden and have just had a raised bed built around the edge of the middle level patio...it is quite a sunny, open position. The bed is quite narrow being only about 0.5m wide.
The main thing I need help with is to come up with some planting ideas- assume we would want low level plants for the front with slightly taller for the middle/back.
We don't want anything too high since we have a lovely view of a park beyond. I really like purples/whites/pink flowers and would ideally like year round colour/interest if possible...trouble is i don't know where to start and can't seem to find any useful planting plans on the internet...any help would therefore be great!
Thank you!
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Posts
I agree with Nepeta mussinii over lavender, although you could use both.If using lavender get a good coloured one, there are some very washy plants.
Plant nepeta in poor soil and don't overwater, else it becomes very tall and then flops over. But in lean, dry-ish soil it will be all right.
Also lavandula stoechas, which starts blooming earlier than any of them and is spectacularly beautiful.it's somewhat less hardy then common lavender, but it's not overtender. Usually blooms purple, but there is also a ravishingly luminous creamy pink variety.
I'd add pinks for scent, and sempervivums for winter interest... they are the easiest plants in the world to grow, beautiful all year long, and form "ropes" of baby plants that would spill over the edge of the bed. They come in several colours and forms, including beautiful purple ones.
And some clumps of verbena bonariensis would give height without occluding the view, it's stemmy and you can see right through the clump, but the flower tops sailing over all are lovely.
Winter blooming iris, if you use the patio in winter, are lovely, but they need quite dry conditions in summer.
Verbena is excellent, and Nepeta is a nice alternative to lavender - although I like lavender's look in winter better, especially if tightly clipped after flowering.
I agree Will, nepeta will disappear in winter, that is why I would make a mixed planting, common lavender, lavandula stoechas (the pale pink kind, since there's already so uch blue-purle) and nepeta, with the verbena for height
Also sedum spectabile, or better yet, Sedum telephium "Matrona" for late summer/autumn colour ... it has a long season of beauty with its fleshy leaves though, and would give some weight to all the other fine spun plants.
All these are easy, unfussy plants
Another thing I would consider for autumn colour is Anemone "September Charm" (pink) or "Honorine Jobert" (white). They bloom tall, but like the Verbena they bloom on top of wity stems so they would not impede the view on the park, just give it depth and perspective.
They are spreaders though, and would need some controlling.
I quite like the idea of keeping it relatively simple since so often in the past I have made the mistake of going to the garden centre and buying a few of many plants and they end up looking terrible! That's what I wanted to avoid with this and actually go to a garden centre with the aim of knowing exactly what I wanted...
A very basic question for those in the know, but if you go for mixed planting, would you plant a number of the same plant in one area and then a few of another in the other area so you end up with blocks of the same plant/colour, or would you alternate/mix it up so the whole bed looks varied all year? In your experiences, what looks best?
Thank you again, this is so much help to such a novice and failed gardener like Myself!
I don't know how long your bed is but in principle i would aim for blocks of colour and texture, except for single accent plants like verbena bonariensis, which would add an occasional exclamation mark... Your bed is very narrow though, so I would avoid something over-regular like 3 lavenders, 3 nepeta, 3 ... something... it would look very much too regular, I think... like a train with cars of slightly different colour. Try alternating lower growing plants in a larger block with a narrower block of a taller plant... keep it interesting, moving. With "pools" of very low plants like pinks and alpines in places, so the taller plants have a bit more oomph.
At least that is what I would do.
Of course, if the bed is very long, the blocks can repeat, for a look of unity and continuity