Need some advice on what to plant

cubix

As you can see by the photo its a very narrow strip, gets sun first thing in the morning and again in the afternoon. Have bought some of the usually bulbs to plant daffs/snowdrops etc but would appreciate some advice/recommendations on plants/shrubs. Visual and scent would be important, nothing that would get much bigger than the wall(aprox 2.5feet) and if possible nice colour all year round, is there such plants/shrubs:D . I am very new to this so would it be worth while testing the soil or will plants grow in most soils

Thanks

Sonnenblumen

cubix wrote:

As you can see by the photo its a very narrow strip, gets sun first thing in the morning and again in the afternoon. Have bought some of the usually bulbs to plant daffs/snowdrops etc but would appreciate some advice/recommendations on plants/shrubs. Visual and scent would be important, nothing that would get much bigger than the wall(aprox 2.5feet) and if possible nice colour all year round, is there such plants/shrubs:D . I am very new to this so would it be worth while testing the soil or will plants grow in most soils

Thanks

3 distinct evergreen but with good colour and also scent:
- santolina virens or alternatively lavender hidcote
- hebe heartbreaker or hebe champion
- coprosma fireburst or coprosma purple splendour.
Plant in groups of 3-5 and repeat.

For added colour/height you could add a rose standard or verbena bonarensis. If you prefer more variety and scent at lower level, try helichrysum or sarcococca hookeriana humilis (scented christmas box).

cubix

Thanks for that SonnenBlumen will go googling with those names you gave me;). Just wondering as a side note do any of these attract butterflies etc?

Sonnenblumen

Lavender, santolina and verbena should appeal to butterflies but also bees.

Good luck.

northdublin

due to the lenght and narrowness maybe some box hedge, 2/3 plants spread about 12-15 inches apart to add some shape and break up the overall lenght.

cubix

Thats great SonnenBlumen, thanks alot. NorthDublin wasnt thinking hedges as anyone's I have ever seen always seemed so plain but maybe it was more to do the way people generaly plant them in rows for boundiers. I was thinking of keeping everything low level, did you have any particular one in mind.
On a side note I am going to mix in peatmoss to keep the soil loose would this also act as a compost or would I have to mix in a multicompost as well?

Thanks

Sonnenblumen

Cubix,

I wouldn't bother with Peat moss, IMO it is almost useless even as a soil conditioner. Much better to mix in multi purpose compost and some fine grit/paving grit, that way you'll achieve better growing conditions with a relatively free draining soil.

If the soil is poor quality, you can always supplement it with a few 25kg bags of sterilised topsoil available from your local garden centre.

cubix

Great stuff, seems like I am all set for some planting so;)

GreeBo

lavender, while looking nice and giving a great smell will spill out onto your driveway so be prepared for that.
We have some nice lemon thyme which gives a lovely scent especially after rain.
Its a small shrub with tiny yellow/green leaves.

Im guessing that area gets little to no direct sunlight?
Also, would you consider raising it a small bit to protect from people walking in it?
Just 2/3 inches would help.

cubix

Hi Greebo I presume by keeping trimmed will keep it in check with out damaging it?. Yeah I might end up putting some kind of boarder around it to stop it getting trampled.

GreeBo

well if you keep it trimmed you wont get the flowers.
It sends up shoots about 2 foot high with flowers on the end.
In my experience these "fall over" and can lie on the ground.

Some landscapers like to keep them trimmed into a particular shape (a sphere for example) if you have a few like this its quite a good effect (and you still get the smell!)

cubix

Ok Greebo will keep that in mind,thanks

Sonnenblumen

GreeBo wrote:

well if you keep it trimmed you wont get the flowers.
It sends up shoots about 2 foot high with flowers on the end.
In my experience these "fall over" and can lie on the ground.

Some landscapers like to keep them trimmed into a particular shape (a sphere for example) if you have a few like this its quite a good effect (and you still get the smell!)

Of course there is some truth here, but there are many varieties of Lavender, many of which unless maintained will suffer as you outlined. However ther are specific varieties such as L. 'Little Bee' although it might be hard to find, but only grows 12" (300mm) Height and Spread. A more popular but easily manageable variety would be L. 'Hidcote' which typically grows up to 600mm (H+S). But like most Lavenders benefits from a light trim after flowering. You would be surprised how easy it is to maintain and despite regular trimming yet achieve good flowering results. Avoid L. 'Munstead' and probably L. 'Stoechas Papillon' (French lavender) which tends to go off and woody quite young.

Another excellent evergreen with long flowering is Escallonia 'Red Dream', growing to 600-900mm H+S.