Complete novice - what would thrive in these raised beds?

[SnowBodyforrrrm]

I'm having my garden done in the next few weeks. We are digging down the grass area as it's currently over a meter higher then our patio, due to this we will need to put retaining walls around the side and along the back. I've decided I'd like to make a feature of the walls by making them into raised beds so they'll be functional but pretty.

The pic is of a similar thing to what I'll end up with, my garden is relatively small and I'm trying to maximise the grass area for the kids to play on, therefore I won't have the room to make the beds particularly wide.

I'm looking for ideas for what I can plant that will do well in a narrow area and not cause damage to the structure of the wall. I'd like year round plants/shrubs and maybe even bay/olive trees as well as flowers. Our garden is south facing so gets the sun pretty much all day but as I say it's small.

Any suggestions would be gratefully received!

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How about some climbers for height, clematis, winter and summer jasmine or climbing hydrangea. In front you could plant hebes, which have colour all year round and come in a variety of heights.
And, of course, my go to recommendation, Cranesbill geraniums in their wide variety.

Just hijacking your thread, where did you get your garden shed?

I totally agree with the recommendations above. Was going to say evergreen climbers such as trachleospernum or evergreen hydrangeas. Winter box is a good evergreen and smells lovely around Xmas or there are some small hebes that look lovely.

Thanks for the helpful suggestions, I'll take a look at those options now! I love the idea of adding herbs to the beds.

Sorry tayto unfortunately this isn't my garden. I love the shed too. On a side note, I'm just back from Tayto park with the kids

I'd add trailing plants at the front of the border, to hang down the the wall. In a small garden you neee to maximise your vertical planting area.

BTW No plants will damage the wall. Unless you put in large trees, where the growing root structure will affect it in decades to come.

Think carefully about what colour you want to paint you fence as it will be a very dominant feature in you garden. Do you want a dark colour to recede or a bright colour to be a statement?

Use the turf from the lawn to fill the raised beds - put the grass side facing down and it will rot to give you lovely rich soil.

Have a look on Pinterest for Mediterranean style plants .

The turf will take several years to rot down in a bed that small- I'm still finding sods of it after 3 years in a big, open, well turned raised bed, and will be bloody useless in the mean time for planting anything in.

I'd struggle with anything that narrow- most of the root balls of shrubs etc will be too big to fit if you buy anything more than a twig to start with.

I'd be looking at lavender and some perennials rather than shrubs

I just meant some of it at the bottom, with top soil on top. Will reduce the amount of waste to go in they skip and cost of new top soil.

I cant work out the height and width of the new beds - can you tell us OP? As albrighton says, they need to be big enough . And if they are too small they will dry out really quickly and you will have to water them.

I would plant strawberries. But I love strawberries