Plant advice
marc berry
Posts: 5
Hi guys.
i have a garden with some ugly areas along the sides and some bare areas as well.
along each side i wanted maybe 3 plants, possibly trees or bushes. they would need to be evergreen so all year we would have something nice to look at rather than the ugly fences. i wouldnt want them to grow to more than 5 foot due to the height of the fences. both sides get both shade and sun throughout the day but i'm not sure what type of soil we have. currently the areas they would be planted only have grass, no other plants.
the bare areas need good visibility beyond to be able to see to the end of the garden and is on a slabbed area so they would have to be in pots of some sort. i was thinking a long, shallow trough type container so they would have to be good with less space for roots etc and not grow much past 1 foot in height, possibly more horizontal growth but even with that not too much. again evergreen.
as you can see i'm not very knowledgeable with plants and dont want plants that need much care but didnt want that to mean i had to accept a bland, ugly view from more rear window.
any help and suggestions gratefully appreciated.
marc
Posts
bump?
Any chance of a pic marc, click on the green tree icon to upload one, it'll help with suggestions.
hi guys, thanks so far.
just trying to upload now.
the reason to see to the end of the garden is due to security both of the shed and the garden as a whole as there is an abandoned alley way at the rear of my garden that although abandoned is still accessible to a determined individual.
..what a lovely garden..a blank canvas which is always nice to start off... and a backdrop of hedgerow or somesuch.... us fussy gardeners would probably like to block out that swing next door on the left and the washing line to the right... and that tent would have to go... plus like philippa says.. the fence would have to be painted one colour..I like dark brown or dark green... orange is just awful... the grey is tolerable... like I said... fussy..
....for easy going plants, I might put some Pyracantha's on the left. perhaps 3 and 3 more on the right... Orange Glow one side,... Golden Charmer on the other... something like that..although if you have young children..these plants are thorny... but you can train them sideways rather than let them grow outwards... I might also put in easy things like Photinia Red Robin... I reckon those fences are 6 foot tall surely... so you could accommodate these... none are too expensive and easy to obtain...but obviously plants cost money and you need a fair few there....
...for containers something like Skimmia 'Rubella' mixed with some very dwarf conifers would be easy to sort out..and not too much trouble for those troughs..
..just some ideas... all evergreen...all colourful...year round... but choose things you like the look of...
I agree about painting the fence one colour, but I prefer a paler green. Personal taste, I don't care for dark fencing.
Then grow some climbers. There is a huge selection of clematis, some of which are evergreen, http://www.taylorsclematis.co.uk/ or honeysuckle could be good and will smell nice, doesn't mind shade either.
As for evergreen shrubs there is choisya or the golden Choisya Sundance, photinia Red Robin, euonymus fortuniae, which come in various variegated sorts and are easy to grow, eleagnus "Gilt Edge". They can all be trimmed to keep them to the right size and shape.
You do have a nice garden Marc. I agree that the fence colour has to match as it will look so much bigger.
As you have young children (guessed by the photo) perhaps cotoneaster would be better down the side and perhaps lonicera Baggsens Gold which is very easily kept in shape. The holly Golden King is not too prickly but I would save pyracantha for the bottom of the garden to deter unwanted visitors.
Hebes are nice, evergreen and grow in pots. You could also have bulbs for spring. Just take any ideas you fancy but show us a photo of the result please
One place to pop for some ideas would be the Garden Gallery thread . . . lots of different snaps of our gardens and you could take some ideas from there
Most of us have named our plants. There was also one for last year too for browsing.
How exciting though having a blank canvas! And daunting to one new to gardening!!
I would put spikeys down at the bottom to deter 'invaders'
thanks so far everyone.
we have just finished the garden last year after over 10 years of stop start work.see photo for a starting point. (we had block paved the bottom part of the garden close to the house a few years before)
i agree with the fences, at some point i will get round to painting them all the same, thats what has come from windy weather taking down some but not all fences at seperate times meaning replacing them 2-3 at a time.
my kids are 8 and 6 if that makes a difference to recomendations.
i like some of the suggestions so far. as stated above the fences are about 6 foot including gravel boards.
i had only really noticed japanese acer plants as they were on an offer i received from wowcher but as stated above, not being a gardener i didnt know whether they suited shade/sun etc.
I know acer's really don't like the wind so if you have a windy garden they may not be the best choice - unless it was just a freak storm that brought your fence down. i agree with everyone suggesting climbers, would take up alot less room width ways.
and have you thought about a tree? A silver birch would look great and would give you some height
hi guys.
i thought i would get a cheap ph soil test kit from ebay and report back.
it comes with a light brown powder inside and after putting a little soil in and shaking it should be a certain colour to then check against the ph chart.
well, it didnt change colour much at all, it just clumped up as it is quite sticky, clay-like (but not exactly clay) soil. if the test worked right and simply was meant to show that colour then i guess it meant it was more towards the acid side but i'm not confident it worked.