Advice re border

[fuckadoodledandy]

Looking for some collective advice from those wiser than me please...

I have a wide border (1.5m wide by 12ft) in one part of my garden that is next to a fence. On the other side of the fence are some Leylandi which until next door caved and cut them to 8ft last month stood at 14ft. For this reason we had put membrane over the area and then bark chips over just to make the area look a bit tidier while we focused on other areas of the garden.

I'd now like to focus on this bit building up a perennial bed. The only issue is because of the trees next door the soil seems poor and very full of roots.

Are there any perennial plants which would thrive despite these conditions? Our garden is generally quite a foresty type garden lots of beautiful established trees but not much colour. Looking for all year interest but no orange or yellow flowers...don't know why but not a fan of them.

Have considered buddleija and have got a purple salvia I'd like to place there if feasible.

All ideas very gratefully received!

Meant 1.5m wide by 12m long...not sure why I mixed metric and imperial in original post!

How much sun/shade does it get/ which direction does it face?

Sounds like a good project!

Also whereabouts in the country are you approx?

Hi @GingerKitCat

South West facing...border itself is in a fair amount of shade but not all day. Am in the East of England...not coastal but not too far inland.

I have a purple salvia looking gorgeous at the moment (pic). I’d go for a big load of that if you like it - it looks good en masse.

Crocus website is quite good for ideas for border combinations and plants for poor soil.

We inherited a wide perennial border adjoining a wall when we moved here. It was jungly in summer and dead and sad-looking in winter, so I’m trying to replace it at the moment with more of a mix of trees, shrubs, perennials and bulbs. I think the problem was that so many of the plants there looked the same. I’m trying to get a good mix of different shapes and levels in the new border - retained some crocosmia and alchemilla mollis that look lovely together, and thinking of moving a green hydrangea and small acer down for some structure, then some tall wavy things like v.bonariensis, and pretty shrub/trees like a nice purple cotinus. No idea if it will all look alright together once it’s done though!

I’m having trouble moving existing plants round at the moment to fit new ones in, so if you can I’d plant as much as you can all at once.

@CorianderSnell that's beautiful, if I can get anywhere near that I will be extremely happy. I love the salvia and am going to get another pink and red one (my mum has a big clump so is going to let me have some).

Some really helpful suggestions there thank you, envious of the beautiful stone wall too.

Foxgloves are woodland plants so might enjoy the shade, and self seed. Dicentra is another shady favourite,

For interest at the front you could have pulmonaria : beautiful green and silver foliage all year, and lovely pink blue and purple flowers very early spring.

Bulbs like snowdrops and scilla might work for early colour too. And primrose.

I have beds under privet and ivy ( neighbouring properties ) so dry and rooty .I mulch them as much as I can.

GardenGeek thank so much for going to the trouble of posting pics and listing those more unusual plants .

Several there that I love and may be the answer for me in my clay ,sunny bed under the privet hedge .

Thank you all so much for the inspiration...have started planning on paper and bought some seed to start off...exciting times but going to wait until the heat has died down before I attempt any planting or sowing...need to expend my efforts on keeping the existing plants alive!

What about interspersing the salvia with euphorbia? It spreads loads and goes all year so the border won’t look empty in winter. My euphorbia is very limey in colour, it looks really fab with purple. I like it with white hydrangeas and eriseyum Bowles mauve (which is great all year round too, and although it prefers sun it is ok with some shade).