Good shrubs for a lot of bare earth?!

[smerlin]

So only 9 months after moving in to our new house, we have finally had our garden cleared of weeds and overgrown jungle! Unfortunately this leaves us with rather a lot of bare flower beds to be filled.

We have planted a lot of annuals in the bit we managed to weed ourselves and a few perennial small flowering plants but still have 2/3 of a garden to fill. Was thinking larger shrubs/small fruit trees to get a bit more green instead of brown. As I think that will actually be more cost effective. Does anyone have any recommendations? Am in South London, typical terraced house garden with central lawn and beds round the edges. Already have an apple, pear, couple of palm type things(?!), lilac and tamarisk

I'm not a massive user of social media but I've joined load of gardening groups on Facebook (what a dinosaur!) and now my feed is almost exclusively plant-based Can't recommend it enough! I love seeing all the amateur gardening taking place around the UK - it's excellent inspiration.

Off the top of my head I follow Gardening Hints and Tips (a big one!), Crafty Gardeners, Friendly Gardeners, Gardeners Question and Answer Time and We Are Gardeners 2 (WAG2). I'm sure there's similar going on on Instagram but I'm consciously trying to limit social media (most of my Facebook contacts exist but are unfollowed ). There are also various groups for raised beds, allotments and wildlife gardening. Some of the above are international! I've also joined one for my local area.

Ahh that's really helpful, I'll have a look at these FB groups. I've actually just started following a load of Instagram accounts.. early days so not sure how useful but RHS is the one that stands out. It didn't occur to me to look on FB.. prob cos I've muted most of my contacts!

I'm just getting into gardening for the first time. We bought a house with a fairly big and mature but neglected garden 6 years ago (it had been rented out for 10 yrs before us so a lot had overgrown). We had an initial burst of enthusiasm then got thoroughly distracted for 4 years with young children but I now have the compulsion to get it under control and looking good again!

Would love to see your pics if you get chance!

What colours of heuchera did you get? The slugs and snails ignore these in my garden, they clearly prefer the hostas and fatsia.

We've just taken out some bamboo that was just far too big for it's spot and I've been looking for something low growing to fill the gap. I went out to the gardens of a nearby university to take some pics of stuff I liked, this afternoon, and thanks to this thread popping up on my way home, I now know what this is!

@PickAChew It's easy to become addicted to the stuff! So many beautiful colours.

Lurk

It's definitely leaf colour we're after. Only moved in 6 months ago and have masses of stuff we're waiting on flowers for so we can identify them. Some of it needs removing as it's spread too far after years of neglect. We've got cranesbill, which the bees seem to love and an enormous mound of forget me nots. I should really start a thread for a few things we can't work out.

Don’t try to fill it all this year. Dot a few shrubs about, hebes, cranesbill, hypericum hidcote, and plug the gaps with bedding plants.

Hmm might get more heuchera if snail proof. Can't remember name without going outside to look at the label but it is a pure red specimen. They had nice bronze coloured ones too which I may go back for

Oh I forgot erysimum Bowles Mauve is doing fabulously in my Herts garden. I'm up to about seven plants now, I have it everywhere in the sun Can't get enough of the purple, it was recommended to me on here.

I'd avoid the Thompson and Morgan offers "just pay P&P" as they've had some shocking reviews lately. The plants in these offers are generally miniscule plugs - to be expected but a false economy as they arrive in such poor condition and take a lot of nurturing and worktop space to grow on.

Hi Smerlin I was in your position 12years ago and made some mistakes which I will share with you.
!. Bought plants that are way to big for my 35ft London garden, like massive VIctoria Plum, and Apple tree. They have taken over the garden and nothing grows under them now

1. Bought a fast growing evergreen Clematis (has dull small flowers) has grown over everything, swallowed the shed and is making a takeover bid of next doors garden
2. Bought big rose bushes, some of these are 10 ft tall now with flowers that can only be seen from space
3. Jasmine - has taken over one fence, and growing over the deck, and under the deck and completely taking over as well.

I am now going to have to pay a nice man to come and chop most of these back so I can see some of the lawn. It's like a jungle out there. So learn from my mistakes, be patient, and buy plants that will fit your garden in a few year time. My neighbour has chosen really well, and all of her plants seem to have be 6 foot high, so just reaching the top of her fence. Mine are taking over my neighbours gardens.

Similar sized garden, sarf. Have had to remove a few overgrown things, as well as the 12' bamboo that was knocking on our patio doors, when we moved in. We're in a dormer bungalow and there was a climbing hydrangea growing under the roof fascia and threatening to take down the guttering and lift the roof off the bay window.

And ivy growing out of everything. Not sure whether the back fence was supporting the ivy or the ivy was holding the fence up but it all came down under the weight of all that snow we had. the

Ivy has taken over the bottom fence in our garden too pick I wasn't quick enough to cut it back, and it has now formed a canopy over the corner of the garden and the shed. HOW DO YOU KILL IT? It's so bloody dark and depressing.

Haha @SarfE4sticated I have bought some of those things in your takeover list/ some were here already so will keep a close eye! There were 3x clematis here when we arrived but they don't seem overly vigorous.

Two are growing over the front of the house on a narrow little trellis. I think I'd prefer a (rambling/climbing?) rose

Sarf can you cut the ivy at the base? I've been doing that along one of my fence panels (the ivy is about 4yrs old, I encouraged to to climb up the fence/trellis for privacy!) Are the stems on the other side of the fence/ would your neighbour mind you taking a look from the other side?

I've killed ivy successfully Sarf. Like PP says, cut it at the base, but then to kill the roots pack LOADS of poison in, (can't remember if I used a specific ivy one or just a tree stump killer), secure some heavy duty plastic around it and it will die. I hate the stuff, it seems to just absorb light. My neighbour has it and all the snails seem to march out from it at night towards any new and delicious looking shoots growing in my garden.

Sorry to derail your thread @smerlin with my ivy-related woes. Sadly mine starts in a neighbouring garden, and is currently covering 3 other gardens as well as mine. I will just have to keep cutting it back I think.

How about a Pyracantha the birds will love you for it, and you will get hours of amusement watching wood pigeons try to land on it. I really like mock orange as well, oh and you will need a fabulous peony too (I prefer pale pink) and maybe a hydrangea. Are you watching gardeners world? I always like to watch it for inspiration.

Definitely watching Gardeners' World- I like to see the mistakes I have made, after I have made them!

Hi Smerlin how's it all going?
Had a few thoughts for you: wanted to recommend Japanese anemones as they are really bushy, and cover loads of earth. They're pretty too.
Another tip I thought I'd pass on is that hoeing every day is a good way to keep weeds down, stops them before they've even started. If you can do it the morning, the seedlings will die.
I had a massive cut back of everything and have bought some new plants (very exciting). I bought a saxifragia for 50p from our garden centre (The Nunhead Gardner if you are close - it's lovely).