Plant suggestions

sillysocks

I'm finally getting around to sorting out the garden in my house (five years after moving in!)

We have a relatively large L-shaped garden, we're planning a small patio area about 3m x 3m, in the corner of the L, and trellis on the walls with some climbers. Has anyone any advice as to what climbers are easy enough to maintain (we're not very green fingered)? Any guide as to how long climbers take to grow or does it very much depend on the plant (we're looking for something relatively quick growing)?

Also, if we have a few raised beds any suggestions of some colourful flowers that we could plant that would look well and flower quite a bit of the year?

The area we're looking to plant in gets the sun for around half or more of the day, drainage isn't wonderful but we'll be putting in extra soil and planting the plants higher than the ground level which might help? Hoping to visit a few garden centres over the next few days but any suggestions would be welcome!

looksee

Clematis Montana is great value for flower and colour at this time of year - the pink flowering climber you see draped on top of walls at this time of year. Suggest you get the pink one, it is more reliable than the white. It may take a couple of seasons to get established but then there will be no stopping it!

Solanum alba - another vigorous climber with bright white flowers for a long stretch in the summer. Sadly we lost ours to the weather this year, as did our neighbours, but it had been in 7 or 8 years and had survived previous winters no problem (on an east facing wall).

Pyracantha - firethorn, red or orange berries in the winter, not very fast growing but reliable.

For summer colour you could plant any of the bedding plants that are now available in the shops and garden centres. Rake a bit of compost into the soil, make a small hole and pop in the plant, water well and firm the soil. Feed every couple of weeks or so with one of the water-on feeds (don't make it too strong). They will last through to September at least.

You could put in some sweet peas to cover the wall while the climbers are getting established. Bedding plants include bizzy lizzy, petunias, lobelia, aubretia, begonia, marigolds and lots more, all easy. Make sure you don't get the trailing ones unless you want to put them in pots.

sillysocks

Thanks very much for the suggestions! Will look out for those plants.

Any ideas roughly how ling the climbers normally take to start climbing/thicken out a bit?

annieoburns

Virginia creeper is good grower tho does not leave up until may .,... lovely colour in September then will be bare for winter. There is ivy of course for all year colour and you could get variagated type .... both of these last plants do not need support - they have suckers to attach to anything. Just make sure that your wall is sound as these will seek out any cracks in same and make worse.

looksee

sillysocks wrote: »

Thanks very much for the suggestions! Will look out for those plants.

Any ideas roughly how ling the climbers normally take to start climbing/thicken out a bit?

You should begin to see reasonable cover by the second season, (plant this year, some growth next year, good growth year after) depending on how quickly the plants gets established.

Sedum and Sage

sillysocks wrote: »

I'm finally getting around to sorting out the garden in my house (five years after moving in!)

We have a relatively large L-shaped garden, we're planning a small patio area about 3m x 3m, in the corner of the L, and trellis on the walls with some climbers. Has anyone any advice as to what climbers are easy enough to maintain (we're not very green fingered)? Any guide as to how long climbers take to grow or does it very much depend on the plant (we're looking for something relatively quick growing)?

Also, if we have a few raised beds any suggestions of some colourful flowers that we could plant that would look well and flower quite a bit of the year?

The area we're looking to plant in gets the sun for around half or more of the day, drainage isn't wonderful but we'll be putting in extra soil and planting the plants higher than the ground level which might help? Hoping to visit a few garden centres over the next few days but any suggestions would be welcome!

Personally I wouldn't be in too much of a rush for your climbers to grow, generally speaking the more vigorous the climber the quicker it will become a problem plant. Clematis montana, for instance, is great growing though a wild hedge, or up a big tree, but it can be hard to keep in check on a trellis. There are loads of more well behaved varieties of clematis that flower at various times in the season. Climbing roses are also lovely for colour and scent, again I would avoid anything too invasive, you will only regret it when you need to hire a skip when you need to cut back your climbers! Also I would go for perennials rather than annuals for your beds, better value in the long run as they will get bigger from year to year rather then die at first frost. And again avoid perennial plants that are described euphemistically as vigorous! That often means that they will spread and smother all your other plants. Happy gardening!