Long, narrow border ideas
Notaclue
Posts: 2
Hello, I've got a 30ft by 1ft border running along a drive with a hedge behind it that is currently full of weeds. I need something low maintenance - I was thinking lavender with a couple of other similar size hardy flowering plants in between repeated along the border. Any ideas for seasonal colour for a beginner?
Many thanks for any help, because I'm completely clueless!
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Posts
What sort of soil do you have Notaclue? How much sun/shade does the area get? Is the hedge yours and what plants make up the hedge? Are you going to be able to get rid of the weeds before you plant anything?
You have a nice long area that could be planted with bulbs in between whatever plants you go for to give some spring colour, the plants would grow in spring to cover the bulb foliage.
Hi Notaclue, Just for a little more info, what's your soil like? What's the hedge? and is there much soil depth? Finally (it's like 20 questions this, sorry!) what's it's aspect? south facing? north facing???
Just to help with some suggestions
Snap! PaulaH
Well, it's west facing, not too sure what the (shared) hedge is, but it had little dark pink flowers a few weeks ago and is about 5 feet tall, semi-deciduous, small bright green leaves, the soil is well drained and yes, I would be able to get rid of weeds before planting.
Any thoughts very welcome.
I would think lavender would do ok as it'll get lots of afternoon sun and will thrive in poor well drained soil. I have a customer that has a similar width area to you although not as long and she has it planted with lavender with a perennial nemesia (I think, not sure of its official name) in between, lavender is purple (hidcote) and the nemesia is pale pink. It's also planted with clumps of crocus and tete a tete daffodils for spring colour.
Hi hardy geraniums are always good value for money, get the lower forms rather than the taller and sometimes leggy G.psilostemon.
The idea of planting bulbs in autumn is great. maybe some daffodils and tulips choose your colours depending on the successive plants. And what about interspersing with some asters, again lower forms for colour later in the season.....?
All these are tough as old boots and will give a more continued flowering period, as PaulaH's would as well, which is good for the bees etc.
I agree with Verdun. Just lavender would look best on it's own. Could the hedge be an escallonia?
i agree - lavender and nothing else, assuming the soil is pretty light and poor. I'd suggest alternating hidcote and munstead. Both are commonly (and cheaply) avaiable. One starts flowering just before the other, and one goes on til a bit later than the other, so you get flowers for almost twice as long. They're otherwise virtually identical, so you'd never know you had 2 different types. Clip them after flowering every year to keep them bushy instead of leggy. If the plant you buy seem to have lots of shoots coming from the soil surface, then plant at the same depth as they were in the pots. If they've got a main 'trunk' and then bush out above, plant them so the bottoms of those 'branches' are slightly under the soil surface. They'll thicken up much faster - this is in fact a common way of propagating them, so won't do any harm so long as the soil isn't permanently boggy. If the soil is very heavy, you'd do better with a long run of hardy geranium.