Please can someone help me with ideas for Dd2's grave?

[3littlebadgers]

Hello green fingered mumsnetters. I need your advice please. For the past 15 months I have been really struggling with dd's grave. No matter what I plant they either get eaten by slugs or die. It is quite open to the elements where she is. When it is sunny it is dry and is not shaded, it can be windy too, but when it rains the ground becomes very waterlogged. I think it might be clay but I put a bag of nice dark soil actually in her grave, so the soil for her flowers is nice.
Dd2 was only a baby so her headstone and kerb leaves only a little place to plant so I need something that doesn't get big or her little name will be covered.
I really need to find something that will work with limited care because we have to move overseas with DH's work, I'm heartbroken to leave her here alone anyway but the thought of her little grave looking all unloved is so very hard. She is so very very loved.
Any ideas of what I can plant would be appreciated. With much thanks

Random my family all live 4 hours away by car. They have said they will try to go on her anniversary and send me a photo. I'm hoping we can come back in the summer holidays too.

Her name is Azra x

That sounds beautiful, 3littlebadgers. I wish I was closer (we are in Kent)
Is there anyone who would take photographs for you of your flowers when they grow?

I will ask a friend if she'll mind taking photographs. She works close to the cemetery sometimes. In summer the opening hours are longer so it'll be easier. I spent ages on Google Earth one day trying to get a close up of her grave. Her plot is so tiny it just looks like a little black mark. Anyway they are not real time anyway on Google Earth so I guess not much help.

Sorry I didn't make it clear.

Your family join tendagrave.org and tend one near them in return for someone local to your DD tending hers.

what a lovely name

is the cemetery attached to a place of worship or is there a council who looks after it? Might be worthwhile asking there just incase there is a voluntary organisation who looks after it?

Op I'm in west London not far from Heathrow. I'm not the most green fingered but id be honoured to visit your little ones grave and keep it tidy for you. Please drop me a pm if that's help

these ][http://www.guardian-angels-touch.co.uk/ people]] cover London

Sorry am not near enough to help often enough to do it properly but there are some good suggestions on here.

I hope you can sort out something which gives you peace as you move. Take care.

link fail

www.guardian-angels-touch.co.uk/

www.guardian-angels-touch.co.uk/caretaker-service.html

Ooh random good idea.

Gatekeeper the cemetery is owner by the council, they keep it beautiful but don't tend individual graves.

Iccle, I will send you a pm thank you x

That is a beautiful name. Something beginning with A maybe, Asters are pretty and also the butterflies like them so she would be visited by butterflies too

ElleBelly, well butterflies would be lovely. What little girl doesn't like butterflies?

So sad that you have to leave her. I have been trying to think what else you could plant. Anemones are corms I think rather than bulbs but they are summer-flowering and would come back year after year. They are really pretty flowers, lots of different colour choices and they would look good after the spring bulbs have finished. Could you also put a little evergreen shrub in there so that there will always be something growing in between the different sorts of bulbs? Something like Euonymous japonicus might be OK as I think some varieties stay very small & bushy (I have seen the smaller ones in garden centres like B&Q)

Thanks timtam if i ask at the garden centre they may know which ones stay little. Do I plant corms just like bulbs?

How sensible of you to plan this. Our son is buried in London, and I have not been able to get to the cemetery for about 20 years.

Possibly some spreading sempervivens?

Hi 3little. Yes the corms are planted in the same way as bulbs. I usually put mine in in the autumn but you could plant them in August before you leave

How heart wrenching for you.
Cyclamen which flower in Autumn/Winter are one of the loveliest little flowers
and maybe a miniature perennial geranium ( also called cranesbill ) - there is a pretty one called Ballerina

Bookbook thank you for the autumn/winter ideas. This is really helping me

3little badgers - you are more than welcome .
I should say the cranesbill flowers from about now through to autumn. If you would like something for winter , maybe a little heather ? The flowers come in every shade from white to dark pink.

Hello
spring and autumn
I agree little cyclamen (autumn and winter flowering) which come as pink and white and red
crocus tomasiniana which self seeds and is purple
snowdrops
anemone blanda

summer
i would avoid eunonymous as the shrub can grow quite a lot, and doesnt flower muchbut think perhaps the smaller of the asters such as novobelgii which comes in white pink or purple from hayloft with a little rose such as 'sweet dream' from david austin which wont swamp the grave
alternatively I agree little semperviums or sedums, some creeping thyme, sweet woodruff would also be lovely

I am sorry for your loss. My brothers and sisters died 55 years ago we never forget them

Oh funny person I'm sorry about your siblings too. Some lovely suggestions.

I did think about heathers as I thought they looked a bit unappealing for the slugs. I'm hoping dd would have loved them as she seems to have her very own little slug farm going on.

Do heathers stay small?

Ooh and if I plant bulbs too will heathers and bulbs work together?