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Gardening

Find tips and tricks to make your garden or allotment flourish on our Gardening forum.

Loss with this garden

14 replies

Hayleydobedoo · 08/09/2021 11:17

Hi all

Need advice, we have a fair size garden with a shed and greenhouse however it just looks so dull and crap, we had a lot of ivy that took over the fence we removed as it took over, i have a trellace over the shed because shed was damaged but that trellace is a different colour to anything else, also gets no sun so cant have a climber on it, we also have two smaller trellaces to break up garden one with clematis other with rose climber, everything is grown in containers si we can take with us when we move, i love colour and need height to the garden don't know where to start, i love italian courtyard gardens and cottage gardens but i live in SE london so have to make do haha, shall i take the trellace off the shed and just replace windows? Im at a loss i need tall shrubby plants to give some depth and make use of space but im clueless any help would be great!

Loss with this garden
Loss with this garden
Loss with this garden
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ClaudiaWankleman · 08/09/2021 11:34

For an Italian courtyard I would start with some Mediterranean herbs in pots - avoid basil as it is so picky but oregano, thyme, rosemary etc. will do well in sunny spots and are low maintenance. Mint and even coriander will do well in shadier spots but you should keep well watered.

The issue with trellising is that it won't be easy to move with the climbers as they are likely to be pretty well integrated with the trellis.

There are a number of climbers that will do well in shade - what about a chocolate vine?

viques · 08/09/2021 13:03

The first thing I would do is to paint all those vertical surfaces, trellis included so they look the same. Dark charcoal is v fashionable atm and makes a good backdrop for plants so your eyes see the plants not the trellis or fence. It would look good with your table as well.

You have some nice plants in pots but they are badly displayed. Try to get hold of some bricks or breeze blocks so that you can raise up the height of pots at the back, then play around with them until you get an arrangement you like. You already have some quite tall plants, raising the pots will help with the illusion of even more height. Put plastic pots at the back, nicer ones at the front! B and M garden centres do very reasonably priced stylish pots if you can afford a few new ones.

I find that most herbaceous border plants will do fine in pots as long as you water and feed them regularly, just keep an eye out for pests. Agapanthus, lemon verbena, sedums,geums, New Zealand flax, grasses, cranesbill geraniums, verbena Boneriensis,

Many herbs ,bay, rosemary, thymes, mints, sages (edible and decorative) bronze fennel have lovely textures and colours and are often evergreen for all year interest.

In the summer you can plant out bedding plants in pots, but at the moment it is bulb season. Google “lasagne planting” to get the most out of bulbs in pots.

The advantage of pots is that whereas in a border you often need to plant out a number of the same plant to make an impact you can get away with just fewer plants to make an impact.

viques · 08/09/2021 13:06

Meant to say, one garden design book I read said you should think of triangles in terms of arranging plants for height .so there should always be a well defined apex with other plants arranged in relationship to the apex.

pickingdaisies · 08/09/2021 13:35

Yes, if you paint all the woodwork that will unify the look. I have a very old book called "What plant where" by Roy Lancaster. It gives suggestions of plants for different situations, so eg. Climbers for shady spaces. It has a look up index at the front, which will send you to the page you need for each situation. So on a sunless fence, ornamental quince can be trained against it. Clematis Nelly Moser, or coral plant also suggested among others.

LeafOfTruth · 08/09/2021 14:58

Pots can look great or can look a bit disjointed. There are some great ideas out there for disguising them, such as tiering them together (as pp suggests)...

Loss with this garden
LeafOfTruth · 08/09/2021 14:58

...Or arranging them so the biggest is in the centre then using frothy/overspilling plants in surrounding, smaller pots....

Loss with this garden
LeafOfTruth · 08/09/2021 14:59

...Or just burying the pots straight into the ground Smile

Loss with this garden
Loss with this garden
LeafOfTruth · 08/09/2021 14:59

Like this

Loss with this garden
LeafOfTruth · 08/09/2021 15:00

...Alternatively, you can make a feature of them that looks permanent but is pretty easy to dismantle when you move.

Loss with this garden
LeafOfTruth · 08/09/2021 15:03

I agree about painting the fence and trellis the same (and a softer or darker) colour to tie it all together.

If you choose a climber then choose one that won't mind being cut down the ground when you move. Honeysuckle stands out as one that will grow in some shade and doesn't mind a hard chop down. Plus it sprawls through a trellis rather than clings to it, so easy to remove the growth.

Or a shade-tolerant clematis - though it would prefer at least a couple of hours of sunlight if you have it. They tend to not mind a hard chop.

Tangledtresses · 08/09/2021 17:51

Definitely paint the fence! All one colour.

Also I think you need some lager pots at the back
An olive would look fab along with what others said about herbs.

LeafOfTruth · 08/09/2021 18:08

Definitely lager pots GrinGrinGrin

They sound great!

Stircraazy · 09/09/2021 10:33

If it doesn't get much sun you could do several pots and rotate them in and out of the shade. Though that is heavy work.
Buddleias grow anywhere and grow fast - how long do you think you will be there. Something like that could be put at the back in a corner and reach to the top of the trellis in a year or two. Provide a bit of greenery rather than a colourful display, though it will have flowers.
Fatsia japonica is a good big plant to cover things - but can grow in a pot. I had mine in the house until it got too big. The picture is of a huge one but you could remove leaves and keep it within the size you want.

Loss with this garden
1990fran · 09/09/2021 10:48

Thank you all so much for your replies! Its really appreciated, so much help and ideas, im going to start off removing trellace off shed, paint the other trellaces and fence same colour then get bricks to bring some pots higher and also look jnto getting some hardy evergreen shrubs for shade to start with, thank you all again x

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