New garden - what to do!

[MamaJaye]

Previous owners have planted some plants with a large (3-4ft) gap in between them. The entire borders are filled with stones which look awful in my opinion. Would love to get them out but then I don't know what to do!

What plants would work along these?

What kind of soil do I have if these are doing well?

It's a South facing garden. Thank you in advance!

Some more...

Whereabouts in the country are you?

I suspect the stones were applied to keep weeds down. Is there a weed membrane underneath or are they directly on the soil?

The soil quality could be poor right by the fenceline (particularly in new builds) hence chucking a load of stones over it for a tidy look.

You could put plants in between the existing ones to fill it in a bit. I'd plump for evergreen shrubs and a mix of evergreen/perennial climbers to give the garden structure in the winter months.

Do you have a photo of the whole garden? Are the borders very narrow? Really you want borders of at least 50-60cm (or more!) as it gets very dry by the fence (even when it rains).

What would you like instead of the stones? Bark chippings are popular and act as a good mulch. You'd probably need to sweep as many stones up as possible before applying. Difficult to say until I see a pic

Beautiful plants btw!