Borders - Garden on a Roll

Phillipingram25

Hi,

I’m going to create some new borders and have come across this: https://www.gardenonaroll.com/shady-border

The 60cm x 6m set costs £275 for 23 plants, so about £12 each.

I’m a novice at this so what do you estimate the true value of the contents is? I’m happy to pay a bit extra for the convenience but I’d like to know how much that convenience actually costs.

Also, does anyone know any similar products/services?

Thanks in advance!

Loxley

The video states the plants are all 1 litre stock. I would expect to pay around £6.99 at a normal garden centre, but shopping around, maybe £4.50. You often can find deals like '3 for £12'. Some plants you may as well plant at 9cm pot size (and plant a few more), especially perennials, which you can get for £3 unless it's something really specific.

Loxley

If you're unsure, Hardy's Plants have some online planting plans you could adapt, and source your plants from them or elsewhere: Rosy's Shady Border (hardysplants.co.uk)

Their prices are about £7 for 1L stock.

I would prefer to think through the design myself, if you're unsure about what plants to pick, you can use the plant finder and select things like height, shade tolerance, flowering season etc etc.

Herbaceous Perennials (hardysplants.co.uk)
Shrubs (hardysplants.co.uk)

JennyJ

I wouldn't be happy with the "pot luck" element, not knowing exactly what would be delivered. Looking at the exampe list that they give, a lot of those are widely available things that you could get for a lot less than £12 each (I doubt whether they'd be including the more unusual varieties). And a lot will mature into big shrubs so I would be concerned about the planting distances.

edhelka

I wouldn't buy plants from someone who can't spell fuchsia

Phillipingram25

Thanks for the replies. Sounds like you defiantly pay quite a bit over the odds.

Time for me to do a bit more research and plan it out myself I think.

Buttercupdays

Most of the reviews  referred to newly planted borders and praise the ease of achieving the effect.

While the photo looks good at first glance, you can see that some plants have grown much larger than others. Planting space allowance will compensate for this to some extent, but the effect will increase more rapidly once the plants are well established. Everything is also starting to look slightly jostled, with some being pressured by their neighbours. This may be partly because the soil suits some more than others.

You are given a good starting list though, so if you do your own research you can choose plants that will suit your soil and your colour scheme and which will grow to a size you want. You may find that some of the plants don't appeal, and you may choose to space others a little more widely to allow for  future growth, in which case you may need fewer plants. This might mean a little more bare soil in year one, but prevent plants suffering and struggling from year 2 onwards. In any case, if you get the bug there will be many more plants you want to add, bare soil is an opportunity rather than a problem for most of us

Dovefromabove

Phillipingram25 said:

Thanks for the replies. Sounds like you defiantly pay quite a bit over the odds.

Time for me to do a bit more research and plan it out myself I think.

And while you do that you’ll be absorbing information about those plants and how to care for them ... you’ll be turning into a gardener 😃
🌱 🪴 🌸 🌳 

LToby

Agree 100% with @Dovefromabove

And when you have some questions and don't know, what, how and perhaps why? You can always come back in the forum and many can give their insights for you to consider and make your own decision.