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Need some ideas please!

Mcowan77Mcowan77 Posts: 8
in Garden design

Hi

looking for some ideas as to what to do with this border area at the back of my garden. It's a fairly new build house (2yrs) and the soil quite clayey...as you can see from the pics there are no plants in the garden and I think it needs a bit of something! ( wife would just chip the border) but i think some plants are needed!- I am a novice so looking for some advice...

the border is 10x1m

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Posts

  • pbffpbff Posts: 433

    What aspect is the border - north, south, east or west-facing?

    How much sun or shade does it get throughout the day?

    How much time will you have for garden maintenance?

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  • Mcowan77Mcowan77 Posts: 8

    It's a north west facing garden. ( Get lot of sun in the afternoon. not a lot of time (busy family life!) but enough to keep it looking good

    thanks

  • Nanny BeachNanny Beach Posts: 8,427

    Have a look at RHS site for plants lliking shade, shrubs that dont need much maintaining, rose, camelias, hydrangas all love clay, but you will need to work on them, climbers, scented stuff, do you have kids animals?  clematis, honeysuckle, you wifey could still have herschips underneath.

  • Nanny BeachNanny Beach Posts: 8,427

    I have a shady border, about 30 feet by 18 inches, have planted ferns, anemones, lilly-of-the-valley, primula, primroses,heuchera logs and (pretty) rocks,

  • autumngloryautumnglory Posts: 255

    I'd go for a few low maintenance evergreen shrubs. Viburnum, choisya, photinia, aucuba and pieris are all nice plants. All of them except viburnum have nice foliage, but there's nothing special about the flowers.

  • autumngloryautumnglory Posts: 255

    Even though it's north facing I'm not sure it will be that shady! The house behind ours has a very similar north facing garden, but the bit at the back of the garden against the south facing fence gets a lot of sun.

  • Mcowan77Mcowan77 Posts: 8

    Hi

    thanks for all your ideas... it does get a fair bit of sun in the afternoon.... would it be an idea to put some bark chips down over the soil after I plant?

    thanks

  • autumngloryautumnglory Posts: 255

    It would look nice and might suppress the weeds a bit if you're not interested in weeding all the time. image

  • Heidi92Heidi92 Posts: 11

    Hi there Mcowan. For easy maintenance and a bit of colour I would like to suggest asters, hellebores, primroses, hostas elephants ear begonia and Japanese anemone. They make for a nice flower bed in a part-shaded clay garden like yours. For climbers you could add either honeysuckle or clematis if they interest you. And I love the photinia (red robin) and pieris (Fetterbush) that Autumnglory recommended but I would like to add for consideration flowering currant, lilac and hydrangeas. I hope this helps to inspire you. ?

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