Long garden border - completely empty where to start?

[blueberry23]

I have a very long garden border bed probably about a meter wide and maybe 10m in length with an Oakwood sleeper border.

It's completely empty and brand new!

I just don't know where to start. I'd like to add lots of height at the back ...,

How do I pick plants, how do I do it cheap as possible and is there anything I need to be mindful of?

I'd like it as low maintenance as possible if possible.

Any tips welcome!

A couple of questions- what direction does it face, what is the soil like and what is behind it - fence/ hedge/ wall? These answers will inform recommendations.

It faces South, really gets the sun. The top of soil was shipped in to top the bed up but under than it's very clay like soil.

Sorry name change failure lol

It's a fence behind the bed :)

Do you want to grow flowers, or fruit and veg? if you have a fence behind, are you able to attach anything to it? Climbers or small fruit trees with splayed branches as an example.

There are 1000 good answers to this question. Do you have any ideas at all

• do you want to grow any veg in there?
• have you seen anything in a magazine/website/pinterest that you like?

Subject to the questions about direction/soil/backing

• low maintenance = shrubs, perennials and bulbs. Shrubs will cover the ground, perennials will come back every year, bulbs just do their own thing
• seeds are cheap but a bit hit and miss. For a beginner it's hard to tell the difference between a weed and something you like, and the difference between the things that will grow easily and the things that won't. But there are some that have a better chance of doing well if you just fling them around - love in the mist and California poppy do best for me
• avoid the one-of-everything approach and go for a bit of repetition. If you acquire something perennial that's a good size you can often chop it in 3 fairly brutally and hey presto, three for the price of one
• neighbours, local plant fairs will be great for free/cheap plants and advice
• cover the soil while you are waiting (cardboard, whatever) to keep cats/weeds away

Regardless of the type of plants (which you pick for the conditions and sun/shade); I will share my recipe.

Divide the area into 300mm circles. So 1m wide holds c. 9 plants x 10m = 90 plants

Always plant plants in a minimum group of 3 and always repeat atleast 3 times but for a long border repeating 5 is probably better.

So you divide the number ie. (90 / 9 (3 group x 3 repeat) so that’s 10 plants max.

I would fence off atleast 2 for grasses (one tall, one mid).
Leaving you 8 plants to choose to give you flowering display over the seasons.
If you can aim to have 2 or 3 flowering at all times would be ideal.

Pick a colour scheme and choose your grasses (go for constistency either decision or evergreen, or tan or greens - I rarely like mixes) so Stipa gigantea and stipa tenuissima (both tan straw grasses) or miscanthus and pennisetum (both fresh greens).

Go on crocus and look at premade borders for inspiration. Marienne Majurous is a good website if you have a plant and need a companion. Or shoots has lots of lists of Chelsea flower show garden lists.

Assemble all the plants together on a mood board so you know they go together.

To do it cheap - choose plants you can sow yourself. Look at jelitto and pick easy things like Stipas and rudbeckias. Bulbs. Or plants you can take easy cuttings from. Like Salvia or nepeta.

Alternatively call a garden designer. Even with design fees it’s cheaper than doing it yourself as the garden centre because they can get trade plants.

Ooh south facing with good soil! How tall is the fence? I would immediately be reaching for roses, and asking on local Facebook for clumps/cuttings of hardy geraniums and salvias. A Daphne at the house end (bit more expensive but fabulous fragrance this time of year).

@LemonSwan fabulous advice!

I had a similar border and have had some successes and some failures. I went for smaller plants on the basis they’d be cheaper. On the whole this has probably worked well but have needed patience as 2 years in it is very much a work in progress and I’ve had lots of gaps. last year I filled with a lot of annuals and during the summer it looked amazing- rest of the year less so. The mistake I made was not getting enough evergreens and structure.

A few queries...Can you give some indication about where the border is in relation to your house? Will it be visible in winter from your windows?

How does it relate to the rest of the garden - is it adjacent to your lawn, running along one side? What style of planting is the rest of the garden? I'm trying to gain a sense of how the border will fit into your overall garden planting scheme? This will help with designing a suitable planting plan.

Which direction does the border face and how much sun does it get? What type of soil do you have?

There is some simply amazing advice here for a complete novice thank you so much! Just settling down for a proper read and to take notes and I will come back asap x

When we inherited a beautiful garden we went to visit some National trust gardens to get an idea about maintenance and replacements for things that did badly in last year's drought. We noticed the ways in which they had structure at the back of beds and a few big lovelies with plants that were not difficult to grow filling in details. I agree that evergreens are great for this but little coloured Japanese acers are gorgeous as well... our garden has colour at all times of year and we're appreciating the clever planting as there is a a lot of self seeding and perennials. Plenty of bulbs, sweet peas, gorgeous climbing roses, cottage garden flowers like hollyhocks and Lupins and foxgloves, love in a mist, goldenrod is gorgeous in late summer but grows like a weed, lavender is fabulous in big drifts...

If you are considering self seeders be more aware than I was that they will then sow themselves across your whole garden (I made this mistake with both borage and nasturtiums).

You could have an amazing pollinator garden there.

Also add some evergreens for winter interest. I like Sky Pencil Holly for its vertical habit.

Leaving a comment here just so I can save this amazing advice!