I'm looking for advice for a garden border that's 1m deep by 3m wide. It's in my side return so it's very sheltered spot and sunny for quite a bit of the day. It's in the shade by about 4pm. I live in a very dry part of the country
I've got a hotch potch of plants in there atm and I'm planning on digging some of them out in a few weeks and digging in lots of manure and replanting them as they're all a bit random atm.
I'm looking for ideas of what else to include or how best to plant so it looks a bit more coordinated.
I've got a couple of tall verbena's at the back of the border.
There's a penstemon garnet that I love the colour of. It's got huge and has new growth throughout the whole of the winter so I'm not sure if it's too early to cut it back yet. I do cut it back hard every year but it really thrives where it is. I think I might have to take some cuttings this year as I'm not sure how long they last.
I've also got a penstemon Firebird in there but I think I might move that somewhere else as it's too warm for the cooler pinks, blues and mauves.
I've also got some geraniums; a Johnsons blue and another variety which is more of a dusky pink. The geraniums can look a bit sad on really hot days.
I did have a knautia macedonica and a scabiosa but they both really struggled with dusty mildew.
I've got a couple of climbers on the fence behind. One of a group one clematis - Markham's pink, which I love but I'm not sure if it likes it where it is. It does always flower though. I'm wondering if it would be better to train it up an obelisk. The other climber is an akebia with white flowers. There are some allium bulbs in there too.
I'm wondering about maybe just getting another penstemon garnet as it's so happy there.
I was also thinking of raising the border slightly as I have health issues which makes staying on top of weeding quite tricky. Also maybe popping in a couple of box balls to add some greenery. I feel that I need a bit of height in there.
The kitchen window and dining room look straight out onto this bed so it would be good to have it looking a bit coordinated this year.
The fence also needs painting. I'm not sure which colour would work well.
Any advice/planting schemes would be most welcome 😁