Changing beds

JoeX

Hi all,

I put in four beds in the middle of my lawn a few years back, two of which were conifers, dogwoods, muscari and water bowls, the other two were long grass and urns with flowers.

I want to change this up as my son now has a very strong grass allergy so long grass is off the menu.  

The dogwoods haven’t thrived but I’m willing to give them another year.  The conifers, well I think I have to either double down and put more in to fill out the bed or try something new.

Ideas?

AnniD

Do you want to keep all four beds, or are you up for a complete redesign ?
What's the soil like, also is it a sunny site? I'm guessing so.

JoeX

AnniD said:

Do you want to keep all four beds, or are you up for a complete redesign ?
What's the soil like, also is it a sunny site? I'm guessing so.

I’m open at the moment, the idea when I created them was that I would switch them up when I wanted to.  

I was about to go full bore and put in £££s of ornamental grasses in two when we got the news on my son.

I tend to prefer symmetry and organisation, so I was heading towards topiary in the other two.

Soil is clay, I’ve put in a fair amount of organic material into the non-grass patches in 2020, 2021 but not excavated as that will just form a subterranean pool in winter.

Lots of sun.  My grape vines, rosemary and lavender lining the path do well. I put in a young beech hedge behind the borders to provide some summer morning shade.

AnniD

Out of interest, do you know if your son is also affected by strongly perfumed plants ?
You could look into box alternatives for topiary (l speak as someone whose box plants were attacked by box caterpillars/moths 😢 last year)

Perki

Is the back section where the beech edge the cut off point ? 

Think I'd go with a multi layered zig zag or even circular ( they lots you can do really )  pattern with hedging of your choice. Have you got anymore pictures of the area ideal from the bedroom window ?  could have the bowl raised up off the ground and let the hedging grow around it to make the bowl look like its sitting on top of the hedge.

Loxley

If you would like to keep some ornamental grasses, Calamagrostis 'Karl Foerster' is sterile and produces no pollen. Plants for health | Society of Garden Designers (sgd.org.uk)

Plantminded

That's really interesting @Loxley it's one of my favourite grasses.  Very interesting link too, thank you!

JoeX

D Loxley said:

If you would like to keep some ornamental grasses, Calamagrostis 'Karl Foerster' is sterile and produces no pollen. Plants for health | Society of Garden Designers (sgd.org.uk)

It’s a nice idea, but I think it’s more acceptable to my family to avoid grasses altogether.

JoeX

AnniD said:

Out of interest, do you know if your son is also affected by strongly perfumed plants ?
You could look into box alternatives for topiary (l speak as someone whose box plants were attacked by box caterpillars/moths 😢 last year)

Not flowers, or trees, just grass apparently. And dust mites.  So he can’t be indoors or outdoors 🤷‍♂️

JoeX

Perki said:

Is the back section where the beech edge the cut off point ? 

Think I'd go with a multi layered zig zag or even circular ( they lots you can do really )  pattern with hedging of your choice. Have you got anymore pictures of the area ideal from the bedroom window ?  could have the bowl raised up off the ground and let the hedging grow around it to make the bowl look like its sitting on top of the hedge.

Yes, brown leaved in the picture above.  The back section of the garden has swings, more lawn, a summer house, storage and I’m putting in a variety of trees there, palm (summer) amelanchier and cherry (spring), pine (winter) are in so far, hoping to afford some acers soon (autumn).

I could combine the water bowls sort of stack them to make a fountain maybe? They are of decreasing size and fairly hefty corten steel.

Whats a multilayered zig zag so I can picture it?

Perki

JoeX said:

Perki said:

Is the back section where the beech edge the cut off point ? 

Think I'd go with a multi layered zig zag or even circular ( they lots you can do really )  pattern with hedging of your choice. Have you got anymore pictures of the area ideal from the bedroom window ?  could have the bowl raised up off the ground and let the hedging grow around it to make the bowl look like its sitting on top of the hedge.

Yes, brown leaved in the picture above.  The back section of the garden has swings, more lawn, a summer house, storage and I’m putting in a variety of trees there, palm (summer) amelanchier and cherry (spring), pine (winter) are in so far, hoping to afford some acers soon (autumn).

I could combine the water bowls sort of stack them to make a fountain maybe? They are of decreasing size and fairly hefty corten steel.

Whats a multilayered zig zag so I can picture it?

I should of said like a Knot garden. I've did a quick two pattern but you could do anything really circles would work well . The green is the hedge red feature plant/ ornament . You can plant in between the hedging with nepeta etc  Just to give you an idea.



I were under the impression you were getting rid of the grass after reading it the first time,  but now I don't think you are you are just avoiding ornamental grasses  . Either way you could still do something similar with hedging ( bux / berberis /ilex crenta / pittosporum etc )  with the shape of the garden now.