Help me plant a border

[choirmumoftwo]

We've just had our garden landscaped and have a border to plant from scratch. It's an L shape with a low fence along one side and a much higher fence along another.
We'd like climbers along the high fence which is around 5 metres long. The rest of that border is 1.2 metres deep. The other side is around 2.5 metres long and 1 metre deep.
The soil is good and the whole are gets lots of afternoon sun with shade later in the evening.
We'd like any plants to be attractive to bees and at least some to be fragrant. We'd also like some year round colour though not necessarily entirely from flowers.
Can you lovely people help me come up with a plan? We're not gardeners!

I planted a border just like this last summer and it is only just coming into its own - needs another summer at least to be great, i think. I have David Austin rose The Generous Gardener which is lovely and intended to be a rapid spreader but because I planted it about this time last year is only just starting to flourish. You could try clematis to cover the fence - Montana is the most vigorous.

Otherwise, I really recommend the book 'brilliant and wild' if you are not gardeners - it focuses on perennials that will spread and fill in, will come back next year and won't die if you forget to water them. It is clever!

That’s quite a lot of border to fill. So you need some evergreen structure. Things with flowers like weigela, choisya would be good, a fuchsia, not evergreen, for bees.

While it’s filing* out sow some seeds, wildflower seeds that will stop weeds taking over, and be smazing 8n the the summer.

Mulch with bark 8n the winter.

Ask friends who garden if they have divide£ any plant’s. Lavendar would grow well.
Crocus has some great planting ideas www.crocus.co.uk/ready-made-borders/

Also order bulbs now to arrive in the autumn for planting.

If

I second Lucy Bellamy's book Brilliant & Wild-a garden from scratch in a year! We planted a lot of her suggestions last year and they are lovely plants that all go with each other in any combination. She also has suggestions for the size of borders and general care of the plants.

Thanks so much. I've just ordered the Lucy Bellamy book so look forward to being inspired!
In the meantime, I'm going to pot up some bedding plants to bring some immediate colour to the new patio area and get some hanging baskets on the wall.
We've never had a proper sitting out area in the garden so it's really exciting. Mind you, we'll be sitting on camping chairs for weeks - it's impossible to find garden furniture just now. Anyone know of a supplier with short lead times?

Have a look at Facebook marketplace or similar (and post card adverts in the newsagents) to get second hand furniture for the meantime. You'll end up spending hundreds of pounds on a border that size so it would be good to save on some furniture even if that's a bit short-termist, because the sooner you get the plants in the sooner they will look gorgeous.

One tip is to lurk around local allotments and chat to people digging - they will know when all the plant sales and garden fairs are and will probably give you plants that will spread if you show an interest.

Do you have a budget for plants?

I’d love to be doing a new boarder - you’re very lucky!

Before you do anything it might be worth having a bit of a think about the kind of garden style you might like. It is often good to look at your house and take a lead from the type of house you have. Loads of styles out there that could give you ideas - cottage, modern, formal, woodland, jungle/exotic, Japanese, wild, eco etc. Also what colours do you like - do you want all colours or a limited palette? A restricted colour palette is more calming, lots of colours are more exciting.

I’d be looking for evergreen climbers, trees and shrubs for the back layer. Then adding long flowering tall perennials like Japanese Anemone, Gaura, Verbena bonariensis for the middle layer, and then at the front something that will give good ground coverage like Hardy Geraniums, ladies mantle.

Personally I like flowers that bloom for a long time. Some people like to have flowers that blooming different shorter times which I have done to an extent (tulips) but I’ve mostly gone for plants that will look absolutely brilliant from about July right through to November.

Also try and repeat the same flowers/shrubs/trees instead of one of everything, as repetition adds a sense of calm.

The Middle sized Garden on YouTube is brilliant for advice on all things garden design and planting boarders. I found the book New Small Garden really useful too.

Have fun!