Plants for front garden with low wall and metal railings

[GOODCAT]

Our front garden has a low front wall with black iron railings. It currently has narrow bare borders (no plants except weeds) with a grass lawn in the middle. It is rectangular in shape which suits the house which is a late Victorian townhouse. I want to soften it with a not too formal garden.

I plan to make the borders much wider. I keep googling for ideas but I cannot find anything where I think it looks good both from the roadside and from the front room looking out.

Any ideas or phrase to google would be gratefully received.

Climbing hydrangea? Beautiful flowers and would wrap over the railings nicely!

Thank you I think that might work. They look good. I just looked it up on the RHS plant finder which indicated they can reach 12m. Are they reasonably easy to keep to a sensible height?

I am a very novice gardener so sorry if it is obvious you can just cut it back and that works!

Personally I would go for evergreen shrubs. Euonymus and Hebes come in lots of bright leaf colours, some variegated and colours range from green, yellow, purple, silver grey etc. Main thing is they look like that all year round and grow successfully in all lighting conditions. They are easy to keep trimmed.

Which direction does the garden face?

Problem with flowers is that they usually bloom once per season, often for a short time though there are some which flower over longer periods e.g. Perennial wallflower, geraniums (cranesbill, not the pelargoniums which people wrongly call geraniums), Japanese anemone, Campnula.
Bedding is traditional but you have to keep replacing it through the seasons giving you a lot of work. E.g. Primula, Bellis, forget me not, wallflower and in our climate winter flowers only appear during milder weather.

A mix of a few flowering perennials (flowering spread over the year) one sort of evergreen shrub, a couple of roses and some bulbs is the thing. But it's pretty much impossible to say which without knowing the aspect of the garden.

I would do cottage garden plants, verbena, penstemon, allium, lavender, nepeta, daisy things I don't know the name of , agapanthus, salvia, mollis.

I moved earlier in the year and inherited a very bare front town garden, tiny with a wall and railings (south facing). For a quick fix I bought a load of trough planters and filled them with the above. First photo June when I planted, second one now in September.

I will probably take up the hideous slabs and make borders/plant in the ground in the spring but I am so pleased with what I did. I am just about to add tons of bulbs to them and will carry on finding things to plant in there.

Constant colour and flowering and all you have to do is deadhead weekly (dingy evening light in second photo taken just now).

Cut and edge the lawn, wait a few days then put on Autumn fertiliser. Remove all weeds from the beds and deep dig adding in as much organic material as you can (you can enlarge them later)

Cut and edge the lawn, wait a few days then put on Autumn fertiliser. Remove all weeds from the beds and deep dig adding in as much organic material as you can (you can enlarge them later)

Oops

Thanks all especially for the pictures. It is east facing and I definitely need plenty of evergreen mixed in.

Oh mine is no good then , I don't particularly do evergreen !!

Esspee thank you. I have access to plenty of well rotted horse manure so will dig this in over the next two weeks and will find some Autumn fertiliser. Do I need to leave the manure afterwards? I am a bit worried I will miss the Autumn planting season.

Boxofdelights I sort of want both. Mostly because my mum tells me I should!

a dragon tree?

I recommend the Gardener's World website. Loads of ideas and a forum where lovely fellow gardeners give advice.
It sounds as though you will get sun mainly in the morning so keep that in mind.
If you are new to gardening I would advise keeping the work and alterations to a minimum at first. Don't go out and buy random plants which appeal to you unless you have loads of money. Do your research, look at other gardens, what grows well in your area, what would suit the style of house, the light levels, the soil etc.

Thanks I like the idea of something spiky

Well rotted manure should be ok, fresh stuff can burn the plants.

Esspee thanks again I will try that forum. I do need to plan it as plants are definitely not cheap and I really have a lot to learn so I know I will make mistakes.

Manure encourages leafy growth so I would put in lots in the spring. Leafmold and compost would be better at this time of year as frosts burn new growth. You really want to encourage your plants to put down roots in the autumn, not top growth.

How big is it? Victorian terraces usually means small gardens(I'm not being snotty - I've always lived in them ) but that gives you leeway in other ways. So, yes a bit of bedding - amongst other things - in a smaller space isn't hugely labour intensive or expensive. A couple of hanging baskets will look attractive and welcoming from the street and you can use the garden part for shrubs and so on as ^^.

box your garden is lovely

Concrete, you are so right about size, we have always had huge gardens with ½-1 acre of land but moved into a house with a courtyard front and walled back garden last year. I can sort the whole thing out in an afternoon whereas it used to take 6 hours a week to cut the grass before.

Thanks btw. .

Talk to fellow gardeners, we're a generous lot and you will probably find you go away with bits of this and that.
My local parks department are due to dig out all the begonias and dahlias at the end of the month. They go in the skip and the head gardener is delighted that people like me want to take them home, keep them wrapped in newspaper in the garage over winter to let them bloom again next year.
My tomatoes are grown in those black plastic buckets that flowers are delivered in to supermarkets. They are not reused by the shop and after drilling a few holes you have a free plant pot. I clear our street of leaves and make leafmould, collect used coffee grounds from Starbucks to deter slugs and enrich my soil, compost all household vegetable waste and soft weeds, bedding, hedge clippings, etc. turn yoghurt cartons into small pots for cuttings and seedlings - it needn't cost a lot if you have patience.

Great ideas already.

I’d also suggest joining your local gardening society, as they all have plant sales at which you can buy plants that will thrive in local conditions very cheap. Go mostly for perennials, as seasonal bedding is so labour-intensive.

Thanks all really helpful. I will go with the leaf compost and find my local gardeners club. The lawn is 4.5m by 3.2m with a narrow border round it about 60cm deep.