Would this look stupid - raised boarder

[JonSnowedUnder]

I've got an empty 7m long raised border to fill, it's about 1.5m high and has another 1.5m up to the next level of the garden (steps to the side). Depth is about 1m, full sun from about 11ish in summer. I've been stuck on how to fill it (I'm an overthinker). It's in direct view from our living room so I've been thinking of how to keep it looking decent year round, I'm also a serial plant killer and hate weeding.

Would it look weird, instead of planting things directly into the soil to gravel it and just use lots of potted plants? In my mind I would have a couple of bigger pots with salix flamingos and the rest would be small/medium pots. That way I could have a mix of annuals and perennials and wouldn't worry so much if something died and I could change the pots up with whatever is in season.

I've not described it well but it looks a bit like the pic but just with the second border rather than the lower one. I would have to stand on a ladder to reach the back for weeding.

Plants would need a lot more watering if they're in pots rather than in the ground.

Also gravel is far from maintenance free - think cat shit, leaves etc - needs a lot af raking to keep nice.

I don’t think it would look stupid, and would let you change the plants all year round to get some winter interest too. But would it not be too high as you’d have the height of the pots on top of the 1.5 meters?

instead could you dig out the inside of the raised border, then gravel it, and then have the pots so the tops of them are hidden by the top of the border and you just see the plants? Then you wouldn’t have to weed either, or worry about cat poo!

I think that is already pretty high, pots will make it even higher and make the view less attractive.

If you want to keep things in pots to be able to switch them, I would bury some pots in the ground and then you can switch them for another pot in the off season. Maybe put two pots in the ground, one sitting inside the other to make the second easier to remove.

I would plant the larger plants directly in the ground though, they would do much better.

And yes, gravel does not mean weeds don't grow straight through. The only gravel bed I've had where I didn't need to weed regularly was one where the gravel was set into concrete (with holes for the plants). You could do that, but it's a bit extreme only to avoid weeding (I had other reasons for needing to do it).

Gravel is an excellent seedbed. You could put weed membrane underneath. Then as PP suggests, insert some empty pots with their rims at ground level, and put plants with pots inside them. That way you don’t have to worry about soil collapsing into tge hole when you remove a pot

why not put in a few solid evergreen small shrubs - hebe and some grasses and similar for year-round structure. then add flowers in black pots in between as you need to add colour.

Wow with something like that I’d be looking to have as many trailing plants as possible, 60% evergreens and then some seasonal splashes of colour depending on what direction it faces. If it gets the sun, trailing rosemary and thyme for example.