Front garden ideas with railway sleepers

kkshan66

Hi all,
I'm new in this forum. I would appreciate your valuable advice. I have redone my front yard. I put a new turf and used railway slippers for the borders. Now its time I plan some flower /plants. I am short of ideas. I will be delighted if you can share your ideas about front borders keeping my home in context. I am sending some photos of my front yard and the front of my home for your convenience. Thanks in advance.

photo1 full front view
pht2 right front corner
pht 3 left the front corner
pht 4 left from above
pht 5 right from above
pht6 front left the view
pht7 front right view



cheers

Priti

Kitty 2

A hedge? 

More info would be helpful. Whereabouts in the country are you located?
What aspect is the garden, north facing, south facing?
Whats the soil like? 

JennyJ

Also, do you want low maintenance, or something that you can spend a lot of time working on?

If its well-drained and sunny and you want low maintenance, a hedge of dwarf lavender would look nice and pick up the coloured paint on the house.

kkshan66

thank you so much kitty2 for your valuable time,I'm in South Wales, No not a hedge I would like to put flower beds around the borders It’s west-facing Soil I guess good There were many plants before Now I put enough topsoil to raise the flower bed, what kind of plant group will be more suitable  for front garden do you think? actually, I have very little knowledge about gardening, my previous owner had all wild plants with a lot of thorns which I did not like it, I had to clean it  out all from roots.it would be highly  appreciated if you could give me some ideas to choose flowers plants which goes with the theme of my home colours.  thanks again kitty2  

kkshan66

JennyJ said:

Also, do you want low maintenance, or something that you can spend a lot of time working on?

If its well-drained and sunny and you want low maintenance, a hedge of dwarf lavender would look nice and pick up the coloured paint on the house.

thank you, Jenny, low maintenance will be better, dwarf lavender is nice, do you think can i add any colour with it? make it more refreshing? what do you think or it looks too much ?

dappledshade

Dwarf lavender is great, I agree - underplant with some winter./spring bulbs like snowdrops, crocus, dwarf iris and narcissi. Stick in some hardy geraniums that'll sprawl to cover the bulbs as they die back and soften the edges of those sleepers and maybe soften the more formal planting of many identical shrubs over a log border like yours.
A lovely purple/blue like Roxanne https://www.crocus.co.uk/plants/_/verbena-bonariensis-lollipop-pbr/classid.2000017445/self seeds and flowers from late spring through to first frosts.
For some height, maybe a few non invasive grasses that add interest and that allow you to see through to the front of the borders as well (I love bronze sedge grass which is low growing https://www.crocus.co.uk/plants/_/carex-testacea-prairie-fire/classid.2000028510/ and feather reed grass (much taller) that will adda splash of gold/bronze to complement the purples.https://www.crocus.co.uk/plants/_/calamagrostis--acutiflora-karl-foerster/classid.2000012392/
 I would add dwarf (not small, but definitely not as tall as ordinary version) verbena bonariensis lollipop https://www.crocus.co.uk/plants/_/verbena-bonariensis-lollipop-pbr/classid.2000017445/ - almost see through shrub with gorgeous purple flowers that bees adore. Stick a salvia or two here and there too.
Whites and silvers will complement the purples, acting as foils for them,as will lilac and maybe a splash of orange/bronze (grasses above) or some orange crocosmia https://www.crocus.co.uk/plants/_/crocosmia--crocosmiiflora-emily-mckenzie/classid.2000002149/
Orange nasturtiums https://www.crocus.co.uk/plants/_/tropaeolum-majus-alaska-series/classid.2000014793/ will self seed and return year after year sprawling through the other stuff without invading too.

Over such a large area as you have (which is great!) maybe consider one feature shrub too - could be a deep purple leaved smoke bush (cotinus) http:// https://www.crocus.co.uk/plants/_/cotinus-coggygria-royal-purple/classid.1010/ which is deciduous though, and even a more architectural plant like a dwarf purple leaved acer palmatum (needs sun to bring out the leaf colour, also giving you spring interest and autumn glory, but needs to be kept moist at the roots)
Loads of varieties to choose from:https://www.crocus.co.uk/search/_/search.acer-palmatum/sort.0/
You could also consider a plant that keeps its leaves, like an larger, purple or silver leaved astelia (very tough, low maintenance).

Above all, I'll say this: you won't ever get an instant, perfect garden. Experiment with some of the basic shrubs, add in underplanting and don't be scared to move stuff and try different stuff. It's all part of the process :-)

dappledshade

...and the link for Roxanne geranium is this  : https://www.crocus.co.uk/plants/_/geranium-rozanne-gerwat-pbr/classid.2000010711/

kkshan66

dappledshade said:

Dwarf lavender is great, I agree - underplant with some winter./spring bulbs like snowdrops, crocus, dwarf iris and narcissi. Stick in some hardy geraniums that'll sprawl to cover the bulbs as they die back and soften the edges of those sleepers and maybe soften the more formal planting of many identical shrubs over a log border like yours.
A lovely purple/blue like Roxanne https://www.crocus.co.uk/plants/_/verbena-bonariensis-lollipop-pbr/classid.2000017445/self seeds and flowers from late spring through to first frosts.
For some height, maybe a few non invasive grasses that add interest and that allow you to see through to the front of the borders as well (I love bronze sedge grass which is low growing https://www.crocus.co.uk/plants/_/carex-testacea-prairie-fire/classid.2000028510/ and feather reed grass (much taller) that will adda splash of gold/bronze to complement the purples.https://www.crocus.co.uk/plants/_/calamagrostis--acutiflora-karl-foerster/classid.2000012392/
 I would add dwarf (not small, but definitely not as tall as ordinary version) verbena bonariensis lollipop https://www.crocus.co.uk/plants/_/verbena-bonariensis-lollipop-pbr/classid.2000017445/ - almost see through shrub with gorgeous purple flowers that bees adore. Stick a salvia or two here and there too.
Whites and silvers will complement the purples, acting as foils for them,as will lilac and maybe a splash of orange/bronze (grasses above) or some orange crocosmia https://www.crocus.co.uk/plants/_/crocosmia--crocosmiiflora-emily-mckenzie/classid.2000002149/
Orange nasturtiums https://www.crocus.co.uk/plants/_/tropaeolum-majus-alaska-series/classid.2000014793/ will self seed and return year after year sprawling through the other stuff without invading too.

Over such a large area as you have (which is great!) maybe consider one feature shrub too - could be a deep purple leaved smoke bush (cotinus) http:// https://www.crocus.co.uk/plants/_/cotinus-coggygria-royal-purple/classid.1010/ which is deciduous though, and even a more architectural plant like a dwarf purple leaved acer palmatum (needs sun to bring out the leaf colour, also giving you spring interest and autumn glory, but needs to be kept moist at the roots)
Loads of varieties to choose from:https://www.crocus.co.uk/search/_/search.acer-palmatum/sort.0/
You could also consider a plant that keeps its leaves, like an larger, purple or silver leaved astelia (very tough, low maintenance).

Above all, I'll say this: you won't ever get an instant, perfect garden. Experiment with some of the basic shrubs, add in underplanting and don't be scared to move stuff and try different stuff. It's all part of the process :-)

thank you so much dappledshade for lots of info, I will go through it, will check the link, it's a great help, appreciated it dear dappledshade!

Kitty 2

Ok Priti, no worries of extremes of drought or severe minus temps in Wales then 👍.
Having only flowers can be tricky if you want it looking good all year round. You need to plant lots of stuff that will bloom in succession, one after the other.

Think of it like this...
Early spring: snowdrops, crocus, narcissi etc.
Late spring: daffodils, tulips, dicentra, etc.
Early summer: peonies, hardy geraniums etc.
Mid summer: the world is your oyster at this time 😊
Late summer: same as above 😉
Early autumn: dahlias etc.
Late autumn: physalis etc.
Winter: this is the most tricky one, most gardeners (like their plants) are hibernating and planning for spring.

To be honest, I'm still learning how to get the balance right and I've been gardening for a few years.
My west facing front garden has a mix of evergreen and deciduous shrubs (some flowering, some not), spring and summer flowering bulbs, perennial plants (that come back year after year) and I grow annuals from seed to fill in any gaps.

I think you need to decide how much time and effort to are able to put in before you go shopping for plants.
For now though, choosing some spring bulbs would be a good start as planting season is almost upon us.

I hope my long rambling post has given you some food for thought. Maybe take a peek at the forums  "Garden Gallery" thread for some inspiration and ideas. 

kkshan66

Kitty 2 said:

Ok Priti, no worries of extremes of drought or severe minus temps in Wales then 👍.
Having only flowers can be tricky if you want it looking good all year round. You need to plant lots of stuff that will bloom in succession, one after the other.

Think of it like this...
Early spring: snowdrops, crocus, narcissi etc.
Late spring: daffodils, tulips, dicentra, etc.
Early summer: peonies, hardy geraniums etc.
Mid summer: the world is your oyster at this time 😊
Late summer: same as above 😉
Early autumn: dahlias etc.
Late autumn: physalis etc.
Winter: this is the most tricky one, most gardeners (like their plants) are hibernating and planning for spring.

To be honest, I'm still learning how to get the balance right and I've been gardening for a few years.
My west facing front garden has a mix of evergreen and deciduous shrubs (some flowering, some not), spring and summer flowering bulbs, perennial plants (that come back year after year) and I grow annuals from seed to fill in any gaps.

I think you need to decide how much time and effort to are able to put in before you go shopping for plants.
For now though, choosing some spring bulbs would be a good start as planting season is almost upon us.

I hope my long rambling post has given you some food for thought. Maybe take a peek at the forums  "Garden Gallery" thread for some inspiration and ideas. 

Dear Kitty 2 Talking to all of you was really eye-opening and educational for me! I came here more than 15 years ago from Bangladesh, but still to date I had fear of cold! This year my first agenda would be to get rid of the fear of cold, start working with my garden, your info will be very helpful for me to choose the plant by month, thank so much ketty2   

purplerallim

A splash of white will make colours sing so white bleeding hearts for spring and any colour or mixed colour aquilegia. These would give height in spring allowing bulbs to grow through, also aquilegia are self seeding so only dead heading to do, and the hearts die back and grow again next year. Will also be ok if it gets a little windy. Would you like a small bush/tree or three as you can get low growing types like a red maple( not sure of the variety name but your plantsman should be able to help) that grow more horizontally than vertically . Hope these give you some ideas.😁