Planting ideas for long, narrow bed round patio

[OrangeSunset]

Our lovely new patio is done, and i need to plant the bed around it, but have no idea what with.

The bed is approx 65cm deep, and runs around the patio for about 16 meters. The patio is raised up behind the bed, so I'd like plants that grow up above the patio so they can be seen from all sides (so higher than 35cm)

I'd like to find 4 or 5 plants and repeat them around the whole area. initial thoughts are some grasses would be good, for movement and evergreen-ness...any ideas on what to pair with them? I really am a garden novice so any suggestions gratefully received! Plus we'll need a lot of plants to fill the space so trying to be sure of what I'm doing first.

how much sun does the bed get - is it dawn-till-dusk, or does the sun pass across it so that bits get shady?

and how damp/ dry is the area generally?

I absolutely love grasses, and have a lot of them. If you choose evergreen varieties, you have something there all year round. The classic combination is to mix them with tall perennials that have an umbellifer shape (ie a flat top on a long thin stem) or a bobble shape (eg a thistle) which poke up above the grass. However, shrubs can also be very important to keep a structure and skeleton to the planting all year round.

this is a good website for grasses.

16 meters is quite a long distance, and you might want to think about 'waves' of plants, ie a profile that undulates up and down with taller punctuation points at key places. That's where shrubs might come in.

You may also like something with fragrance? Lavender is beautiful, popular, and reliable. However watch out for rosemary beetles - they eat lavender rosemary, sage and thyme - I ended up ripping out all my plants because they are hard to get rid of and will destroy plants pretty fast.

It gets sun from about 11, until dusk. It's quite dry, although as its a new bed i'm not sure how that will be in winter. The soil here is quite heavy.

I'm not a massive fan of shrubs, but that could be because there were so many large ones when we moved here that had taken over. Are there any small ones that I could use at points along the border? I do love lavender, and might put some in along the way. I was thinking of achamilla mollis as the lowish front plant...?

some planting ideas;

crocus

telegraph

Ideas for small shrubs: these are specific varieties and other types will grow very tall;

pittosporum Tom Thumb

small hebes

ceanothus repens

buddleja 'Buzz'

I would mix grasses with lavender, rosemary, and a few tall plants such as verbascum, foxgloves or larkspurs. It would smell lovely around the patio and the rosemary will grow large enough eventually to provide an evergreen background. It also flowers early in the year before everything else gets going.

Traviata, that knoll gardens website is wonderful!

Alliums might work too. And tulips and/or white daffodils for earlier interest.

I would also look at Nepeta Six Hills Giant - has a kind of lavender look about it but easier to maintain and flowers last much longer. Is perennial so dies right back in the winter though. I have it next to a very pale pink perennial geranium which is a good combo.

Verbena bonariensis would work well with grasses too and provide more height. Ditto aquilegia. Possibly erisymum bowles mauve - flowers and flowers its socks off for months and is evergreen.

Alchemilla mollis looks fab paired with a dark purple perennial geranium by the way.

Thanks Liara, I really want to visit the garden at Knoll but it is just a bit too far.

I'd consider a couple of clumps of bamboo for height and interest. If you choose your bamboo species with care you can find one that looks beautiful, is not invasive and not too massive. But do choose with care!

Small shrubs include hebe (lots of different varieties) and Cistacea (rock rose) which are neat, small shrubs that would blend very well into your border. Rock roses have beautiful flowers.

Don't forget winter and spring interest - I'd consider hellebores and bulbs such as crocus and dwarf iris, and delicate narcissus.

Have fun!

Unless you want to plant an exclusively Mediterranean bed, I would dig in loads of well-rotted manure first, to improve the soil & to expand the planting possibilities. I have learned the hard way that time spent doing this saves a lot of work replanting things later...

I like lavender as an edging as long as your soil is free draining, it looks good, attracts bees and smells fantastic, good pic here

www.flower-gardening-made-easy.com/lavender.html

Thanks everyone. The patio and hard landscaping are quite mediterranean looking, and this weather does make me want to embrace that look, but i think realistically it needs to be toned a bit other it'll look odd in the depths of winter.

We have small hebes elsewhere in the garden, so i might add some of those to pull it together. The other bed in the garden has lots of purple, so again trying to steer away from too much purple.

So, the list so far:
grasses - will try and find two different types i think
hebes at points along the way
alchemilla mollis at the front

Still looking for the tall shapes to poke up through the grasses.

Have plenty of bulbs to put in during the autumn.

Your border is very narrow so you will need to limit it to small plants.
It could look a bit like a row of plants as there is no depth to stagger then, hence the suggestion for lavender as an hedge/edging.
Lavender is only purple when it flowers for a month or so, other than that is silver and looks good in winter if you choose well.
If you want grasses then just make sure you choose small species or you will find it very tricky to mow your lawn as the plants will overhang quite a bit.

I agree pannacotta but struggling to work out how i can get the height required to see planting from the house, without the plants being too large.

One of the grasses i was looking at is this one miscanthus gnome but do you think that one would fall to the sides and therefore over the lawn?

I really do like lavender, but want to avoid a strong mediterranean look. Have you any recommendations of things to put it with?

Crocosmia? Verbena Bonariensis? My garden is stuffed with them at the moment - the vb has self seeded everywhere and the crocs I lift and split the corms in the autumn, so I keep multiplying them.

I have Oriental poppies amongst my low growing grass clumps (long finished now, had about the same life as alliums) but they need staking. Would definitely second the recommendation for achillea, and you can get lots of different warm colours - I don't know if this is really naff but I would think about putting purples (vb, allium, iris, lavender) towards the side that gets the morning sun, because bees and hoverflies get active earlier in the day than butterflies, which like the umbellifers and anything with flowers in the red-orange-yellow part of the spectrum (achillea, crocosmia, day lilies, astilbe) which I would put on the day-evening side.

There was a website I used once to try to make sure I had nectar source in every month of the year, if insect-friendly gardening is where you're leaning. I will try to find it.

Shrub-wise, what about cornus Midwinter Fire? A series of those around the patio would look stunning in winter with grasses and hellebores around them. Then a long tall type of snowdrop to rise above the grasses in Jan/Feb, then a strict colour palette of daffs and tulips.

Just as another thought for winter, when things aren't in flower but you still want the border to look good - how about some Christmas Box (sarcoccoca)?

We have one in the bed in our dry, shaded courtyard and in the depths of winter it flowers and produces the most amazing fragrance. The flowers are tiny and pretty insignificant so the scent is the point, rather than showiness of display, but it's such a useful plant. Evergreen and trouble-free.

Rudbeckia or other yellowy daisy things (heliopsis summer sunset is lovely, there are about a billion heliniums to choose from too) and/or echinacia. Tithonia are brilliant (Sarah Raven website for seeds and plants). Those all good for later in the season; can't beat allium for spring/summer. Veronicastrum are good spires, perennial and the bees love mine.

I think Lavender looks quite English garden when planted as edging, rather than mediterranean. I would plant it en masse rather than with anything else
Sarcococca is a great idea but does do better in semi or full shade, how mush sun does the area get?

Hi all, thanks so much for your suggestions. The bed is now planted with a mix of grasses (stipa tenuissiam, miscanthus and deschampsia cespitosa), hebes at the corners, achillea, echinacea and salvia.

Tried to stick to a few species, but ended up with quite a few, hopefully all complimentary. I've also tried to stick to the recommended planting distances, so it does look a bit sparse at the moment, but hopefully will come together nicely.

About to post a new thread seeking inspiration for the next bed!