Plants to soften the top of border edging

[LondonCallingBaby]

Looking for inspiration please I have put some log roll type border edging along my garden in front of my shrub border, and am wanting to plant some small plants just behind it so that they will grow slightly taller than the 15cm edging and trail down the front slightly. Can anyone recommend anything please?

The space is around 8m long and I'm not sure whether to plant the same all the way down, or vary? I currently have a few taller shrubs at the back of the border and a couple of small trees planted, but as it is a very new garden theres not much at the front.

How sunny - or not - is the border, and what sort of thing are you after? Low maintenance? Colour?

@TheSpottedZebra

How sunny - or not - is the border, and what sort of thing are you after? Low maintenance? Colour?

Thanks @TheSpottedZebra can you tell I'm not a gardener - leaving out all the important details!

Hopefully pic has attached - border is 2m wide, existing shrubs are yellow, pinks, orange and blue. Definitely low maintenance as due to mobility issues I struggle to bend down, so once they have been planted I am hoping that they will pretty much look after themselves. This side of garden gets sun in the morning, but then the sun goes behind it from around 11am.

Have a look at aubretia (pinks and mauves) alyssum (usually the white varieties but there are some pinks and yellows) and corydalis lutea (yellow). They are all used in this kind of space and should all keep growing and spreading for years with very little maintenance once established, and will tumble nicely over the sides and soften the edges.

Fleabanes would work well so long as you don't go for a really prolific one. The come in a range of colours - lavender, cerise, pink and white and yellow. I have these at the front of brick beds and they tumble over nicely onto the path. They need a bit of a haircut sometimes and self seed so you could plant at intervals and let them spread.

Geraniums are easy and will flop over the edge as you want. They die back in winter though.

Fleabane is a good shout.

Another vote for fleabane. It seems itself so you only have to buy it once really. I think the more prolific the better!

Looking like fleabane is a winner then - if I put maybe 5 or 6 spread out along the edge, would they self seed to fill in the gaps?

Fleabane is lovely but in my experience is unreasonably fussy - it seems to like excellent drainage and a rubbish soil, you often see it growing prolifically down stone steps. We have armfuls of it growing out of the crack between our tarmac drive and the red brick wall surround, but I cannot for the life of me get the damn stuff to grow anywhere I want it.

Looking at your soil I suspect you may need alternatives. Good suggestions above. Maybe some of the small hebes, or creeping veronica repens,I have a lovely dark blue one.

thyme and oregano also good. You could put lavender in as well...

Trailing rosemary and thyme. Maybe Californian poppies, nasturtiums, I’ve put in a lovely cherry pink nasturtium, they tumble around.

I’ve also got tonnes of fleabane in the garden, it flowers from April to first frosts, but it gets everywhere and I spend a lot of time in the spring pulling it out!

saxifrage?

i love Aubretia but it does tend to take over....you will need to cut it back

I don't have any problems with Fleabane in clay soil but I would strongly recommend reading up about the less pervasive species and getting those to avoid over seeding. Do leave decent gaps between them as they do spread out as well as seed.

Lady's mantle with catmint?

Plants to avoid: mind your own business, sweet woodruff, vinca, ivy.

@brambleberries

Lady's mantle with catmint?

I was about to write Nepeta when I saw this photo. Nepeta (Catmint) is the blue one and makes a lovely edging. It's really easy to care for, just chop it back after flowering.

That looks lovely @brambleberries thanks so much for the photo! I was trying to imagine what it would look like, and that seems to be what I was imagining I wanted

I was going to suggest Nepeta. But check the height when you buy, some of them can grow quite tall.

A question for people who grow nepeta, I know it’s not the same catmint that cats go crazy over but do cats still like it/roll in it or will they leave it alone?

I believe the compound which attract cats to Catnip is also present in Catmint (Nepeta mussinii) - but in much lower concentrations.
I have never experienced any problems with cats rolling in or eating nepeta mussinii.

Thank you! I’m tempted as it’s so pretty but there are a couple of local Toms that come and dig up our flowerbeds/poo everywhere/kill birds and I don’t want to encourage them to visit so maybe I’ll give it a miss.

Our cat loves nepetea…like a little ninja drug addict.