Help - blank canvas garden beds, inspiration needed!

[MaggieFS]

We have a blank canvas of a garden following some building work and need help filling the beds. DH and I are not keen or natural gardeners, and with full time jobs and a young DS are looking for low maintenance so most of the garden is lawn and patio, but we do have some beds. Rather than pick odd plants and hope they fit together, I'm keen to try and recreate whole beds which work... I just need to find them!

So if you have any ideas for the following, ideally pictures, please send them over! Or ideas on where I should look? The more colour the better:

3m long narrow raised bed, south facing, partial shade
3m long narrow bed, south facing, partial shade which we'd like to be mainly herbs
3m long ground level narrow bed, north facing, against a wall so could suit climbers?
2m rounded corner bed, north west facing. Ideally something big/wide in the back of the corner with lower plants at the front

Thanks in advance!

How exciting - I envy you.

First of all make sure that the soil in these raised beds is good stuff and not semi-builders' rubble.

Decide what you want.......

• scents?
• year-round colour?
• evergreens?
• are you willing to faff around with bedding plants each summer or do you want stuff that will just sit there and do its thing with a bit of TLC)?

Then some ideas will be forthcoming!

Oh thank you!

I think the soil is ok, it's a bit pebbly but not too bad and has been left at a low level for us to add compost as we plant. It's definitely well draining.

I can't see your post as I reply so hope I've remembered everything:

• not worried about scent, although some bee friendly plants would be good
• some evergreen would be good (but not conifers)
• a bit of colour year round would be nice
• don't mind a little bit of bedding faff, but not too much

There is a website called Crocus which allows you to plan a border - with soil type and aspect and colours and then kind of designs it for you. You can then either buy the plants on line from them and they send you a planting plan, or just use it for ideas and do it yourself. I found this helpful. Good luck!

For all round colour think spring bulbs ( plant from September till November), small perennials, roses, Autumn colour such as sedums, acers and winter berries.
Against a North wall that gets some sun for a short period of the day, I have planted Golden Showers climbing rose and Generous Gardener climbing rose. Both are in troughs and get plenty of Rose fertiliser. I’ve under planted with Begonias in summer and primulas for winter colour.
In the NW facing corner a Fatsia Japonica might suit. They have large evergreen glossy leaves, make a statement and can grow quite large, but are easily pruned.
Clematis are beautiful climbers and have different varieties so you could have some flowering most of the year. They are not as difficult as some people think, but need a year or so to really get going.
It’s always exciting planning a new garden. Keep posting, Gardeners love to share ideas.

What about an edible garden for your DS?

First bed could be everbearing strawberries which fruit May - October.
If there's room you could plant dwarf raspberries behind the strawberries.
Both strawberries and raspberries do well in partial shade.

Second herb bed you could have mint, chives, bay, lemon balm, oregano, sage (needs yearly prune to stop it going woody), Lavender (needs yearly prune to stop if going woody), roman chamomile, winter savoury and bronze fennel; all perennial and long lived.
Apart from the fennel you could prune them regularly so they've are all roughly the same size and have a mixed herbal 'hedge' of sorts.

Third bed have fan trained fruit trees.
Very easy to do yourself, they lie flat against the wall.
You could have apples, pears, plums, cherries...
Just make sure they all 'self fertile' varieties.

The fourth bed I'd do rainbow chard if it gets a bit of sun.
Or perhaps a black currant bush and some red currant 'cordons' around it.
Maybe some broccoli in front, or a step over apple or pear tree.

And I'd sprinkle edible flowers like native viola (heartsease), cornflowers, nasturtiums into any remaining space.

I would look at Piet oidolf and go for prairie planting in all the beds.. Crocus do a Prairie planting ideas. Iwould go for a mixture of evergreen and deciduous grasses and some prairie plants with colour. sanquisorba and Astrantia , scabiosa ,lythrium,achiella and erygnium. I would leave them uncut through the winter and you will get a year round interesr garden that is great for wild life. They are totally tolerant of neglect and won’t require much watering after the first 3 months of planting.

On your north facing wall, I would plantmlots of Cornus, all different colours. My favourite it Midwinter fire. If you underplant it with the black grass Ophiopogo it looks like a flaming fire coming out of coal.

I have been gardening for 50 years and recently had my garden completely made over. I spent a lot on plants from Crocus because they are top quality but quite expensive. To plug the gaps until the garden filled out, I bought lots of cheap plants from Wilko. They have been amazing. My intention had been to pull them out but they are still there. I bought two silver Birch from Crocus which were £46 each and two little ones from Wilko which were £4. Three years later you cannot tell which is which.

Rather than pick odd plants and hope they fit together, I'm keen to try and recreate whole beds which work... I just need to find them!

Well actually you need to find out your own soil type, the aspect, the maintenance levels, the drainage, the sun and light levels etc, and then find similar and recreate those.

It's what doing years of study and experience does. You cannot plonk some random plants down and leave them and expect it to just look perfect with no maintenance unless you have the experience and knowledge of what plants will be low maintenance in your particular conditions.

I've just come on to start another thread in gardening and realised I never came back to thank you for all of the suggestions. We've ended up on a pause as I need to go back to work before we can really afford to finish this properly, but spending plenty of time doing research! So helpful to have your ideas as guidance. We have done one little herb bed for starters - not very exciting, but I love looking out at it and the smells are wonderful.