Temporary border

[Dogdoggerdog]

Anyone have any good ideas of what to plant as a simple, low cost temporary border here either this autumn or next spring?

Essentially we will be taking that fence down in the next few years but not quite yet, and it bugs me having to wait to create my shrubbery/mixed hedge! Plus it's the only real non green part of the garden :/ I'm thinking a simple two plant scheme to about 1 m high, as lovely smelling jasmine trails down to cover most of the top of the fence from the neighbor's garden. I'm thinking alternating Erigeron fleabane and lavender but not sure I can bothered with all the drainage creation. Is it that hard or simply a case of adding a bit of gravel/grit? Anyway, ideas appreciated if anyone has any! West facing but not the sunniest spot as massive tree in neighbours garden to South.

Could you have your shrubbery plants in very large pots for now, maybe with some trailing bedding plants?

If you can put up with a bare fence in winter, you could grow tall flowers like foxgloves or Nicotiana sylvestris to hide the fence or get nasturtiums to climb up wires.

Shrubs in the ground will be dificult, I think, because they'll have got their roots well in when you then risk moving them.

Depending on how many years until you do the fence, what about self seeding flowers like foxgloves and delphiniums. Right kind of height, plenty of colour (in their season) but it won't matter too much if they get destroyed when you redo the fence.

For lower down, things like hardy geraniniums and lady's mantle will do similar.

To extend the season you can plant annuals like cosmos each year.

All well loved by insects.

You could then grow some longer lasting things like roses, hydrangea, smaller shrubs in big, cheap pots so that they can be moved out the way later without damage or loss.

It gives you a great chance to move things about a bit to see what looks best/grows best where.

Aquilegias are also fab at self seeding and great for insects.

Some great ideas there. Thanks! I especially like the look of lady's mantle and delphiniums. I hadn't even thought about annuals despite them being the definition of temporary! I've quite a keen but still novice gardener. I did try a wildflower border here as you can probably tell but it looked awful for most of the year, so I guess I'd be a bit reluctant to use mixed annuals. I have loads of geranium and Aquilegia elswhere in the garden but why not here too. Pots with shrubs could get expensive but I am an inveterate tweaker so I could start them small (read cheap) and play around with the arrangement. I'll post the results here next year!!!

I had to create a temporary border last year and I just planted loads of pink and white cosmos in the spring.

It was really effective and kept going well into October when the first frosts came. You do need to dead head to keep it flowering.

You could add some nigella and ammi majus too for a bit of variety.

I'd do a cutting border - daffodils & tulips for spring, then cosmos, dahlias etc. for summer, with a view to cutting them and bringing them into the house.

The key to annuals is to start them off right (jn seed trays) until they are strong and robust, then plant them out in drifts - so loads of the same type together in a big clump.

I spent too many years trying to 'dot' them around and they always looked lacklustre when I did. In clumps they really stand out and become more like one big shrub.

Zinnia, Cosmos, Rudbeckia (can be perennial), stocks, sweetpeas (make a cheap frame from branches pruned from the garden or bamboo canes strung with string). All options.

Dahlias also a nice option (as pp) because they are often lifted each year and brough in over winter. So won't mind being lifted out the way when the fence is done, then replanted.

Make great cutting flowers.

Rest of the garden is already quite pink so I think i like purple, yellow and white as the main colours. Rubekia is a great call and thanks for the tip about drifts of annuals. I can imagine just chucking down annual seeds randomly will just look as bad as a wildflower meadow!