Who grows, YOU decide !

gaz wac

Hi ya,

I lost most of my plants during the winter and im looking to replant, but I dont know much about plants, so hoping you's can help. The bed is about 20ft x 5ft (at its widest). Been looking at "cottage" gardens and would love to go down this road, so hopefully i could have some colour all year around, if possible. I will prob, plaster the walls and paint cream, with woven willow fencing, between the wall pillars. Any help appreciated

cheers

looksee

Which way does the bed face - how much sun does it get? That would make a difference to what you would plant there. Painting the wall would help reflect more light onto it. I am guessing it is quite shady.

The bed is really too narrow for cottage garden, which needs a lot of work and attention anyway if it is to look reasonable. One of your dead bushes was planted too near the wall, the area very near to a wall is dry most of the time. You have what looks to be a small pittosporum in pic 005 - is that part of the dead bush? Silvery green leaves with wrinkled edges. They can grow huge, they are very attractive if you have room for them.

The remaining stuff looks ok, though it looks as though some of it could do with feeding. The persicaria (knotweed) - the little pink spires at the front - is very vigorous and invasive, but it is good groundcover so you might leave it.

If you want flowers you might consider hardy geraniums http://gardening.about.com/od/galleryofgardens/ig/Hardy-Geraniums/
These are no relation to the summer flower usually called geranium, they are hardy, flower well and only need to be trimmed back after flowering. They will give you great cover.

Tell us which way the garden faces and we can make suggestions.

slowburner

Will you need to render the walls if you're going to put up willow fencing/trellis? If that wall faces south, then the opportunities for climbers are huge.
That's where I would start.
What you plant is largely determined by what you like versus what conditions will allow.
Cottage planting can be fantastic but is very difficult to get right. It's all about using plants to give a combination of form and colour. The conifers you have wouldn't fit in with cottage planting.
I'm sure you'll get masses of opinions here, but I would highly recommend the RHA's little book, Plants for Places (I think that's the title) as a starting point.

gaz wac

Thanks for the reply. That area of the garden gets sun all day ( flower bed and walled bed ). Yea, just looked up pittosporum, thats what i did look like !! completly dead but for one branch, which is still alive.

As reguards to feeding, this has been like this since Jan, so only weeding done, but have no problem raking, feeding etc to get it up to scratch. Compared to the otherside it looks terrible. I just get lost in garden centers, oh and I have a cat who likes to pee in the beds so plants would have to be pretty hardy ha

gaz wac

slowburner wrote: »

Will you need to render the walls if you're going to put up willow fencing/trellis? If that wall faces south, then the opportunities for climbers are huge.
.

The wall is quite long, so was hoping to brighten it up. Nothing is set in stone atm, would love climbers..anything but ivy ! hope this attaches...

slowburner

gaz wac wrote: »

The wall is quite long, so was hoping to brighten it up. Nothing is set in stone atm, would love climbers..anything but ivy ! hope this attaches...

Nope - it didn't attach!
Personally, I would put the money you would save from rendering the walls into plants and attractive trellis.

gaz wac

ok, sorry, will try again. well there are six "panel's" of wall..if you get me so yea, would prob be quite expensive. Any climber you would recommend ?

looksee

Solanum alba gives white flowers for a good stretch of the summer. It doesn't need trellis, some well anchored wires would be better.

Passionflower would be good on a sunny wall, though it is a bit tender, it depends where you are.

Pyracantha would also be good, again wires would be better than trellis, it really only needs pinning up a bit. Small flowers in summer, berries in autumn.

Maybe fruit tree? Apple, pear, plum can be grown against a wall. http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/basics/techniques/growfruitandveg_growingfruittrees1.shtml
It would need a bit of attention, but could be an interesting project.

You could also grow clematis, but you need to put a slab or similar over the roots as they like their roots to be cool. Roses are another option.

gaz wac

Cheers, thats the walls sorted ! what about the beds? should i go for a layered look as in tall at back and smaller flowers in front? or just random plant, different sizes ? any idea's on these plants ?

I have a grass growing in another bed and has kinda taken over, could i split this up ?will try and find which one it is.

looksee

You could certainly take up clumps of grass and replant them. If it is a spreading one it might not be the best idea though as it will, as you say, take over.

You don't have room in your bed to do a lot of arranging. Put a few shrubs towards the middle (back to front) of the wide part, a climber behind - clematis or rose on a trellis would be good here - and a few low growing things at the front. The main thing is to check the size of shrubs when you buy them. Anything that gets bigger than about 3 ft tall is likely to be too big for the bed,though some shrubs can be trimmed to keep them under control.

In general I am not a great fan of trellis to support wall climbers, they either pull the trellis down, can't attach to it properly, or everything goes really well till the trellis rots and hangs tattily, all tangled with your plant. I prefer vine eyes (metal screw things with a loop on the end) and some wire. Or for a real belt and bracers job, eye bolts (rawlplug with a loop).

slowburner

The purpose of a well made trellis is to divert the eye while planting gets established - they are not really meant to be left on the wall for ever.
However, a good pressure treated trellis should easily last 25 years and will easily carry the weight of plants when properly secured. Of course, cheap trellis will fall apart especially if the timber has not been pressure treated. It is all too easy to buy poor quality trellis.

Nonmonotonic

Maybe you could Espalier (Google it!) some fruit trees like they used to do in walled gardens of great houses.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHyYLFBsVkY

You can use this technique to create a wall or against a wall.

As in:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgcZJBqOoJQ

You dont HAVE to use fruit trees.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-PPeU5m4Iw