Completely lost

[FineBerol]

I used to have a structured, low maintenance area of my garden. With cordalines, grasses, topiary styles, ferns etc nothing with flowers , but it looked good 99% of the time.

I changed it to be more bee friendly with perennials like Foxgloves, lupins, corepsis. Snapdragon. Aqualegias, echinacea etc

In winter it looks a complete mess. And then from spring to summer some parts look great for 4 weeks then die off, then other parts look good for a few weeks etc so the whole area never looks good at the same time. Often it looks unplanned and "scraggy"

I'm happy to start again and try something in-between

It's a raised section with different levels. Triangle shapes. See pics from when I first planted the perennials 3 years ago so you can see shape/area. And some pics from last summer.

Should I go for evergreen flowering shrubs and use bulbs/annuals every year instead of trying to do perennials?

What would you do with this area now? I only took up gardening in June 2020 so still new to it all

Last summer

I like scent in my winter garden so with that, I'd plant winter honeysuckle at the back, sarcococca, viburnums all along the back with what you already have, geums, heucheras etc at the front as they naturally create wafty edges, and have herbs including agastaches, rudbeckias, echinaceas etc dotted about the place. Mints, lemon verbena in pots.

What you could do with your cottage garden effect is remember the Chelsea Chop as many things need to be cut down May time, otherwise they get too leggy.

I'd also put some strawflowers in there. They are my new favourite thing. But I am a bit of a 'work in progress' gardener, I'm always changing things, moving things about, splitting things I love to make more etc. It's how I ended up with about 1000 Oreganos in one very small garden and had to spend a whole summer digging them up and binning them.

You could also put a climber at the back, I'm not a fan myself but there are clematis that are evergreens that could go at the back there.

It's beautiful. I think I would put one or two things in to add some structure in winter so it doesn't look so bare. Maybe an evergreen shrub like a Japanese Holly, which you could clip into a ball/ pyramid and then a shrub with a lovely shape or pretty bark? Like a multistemmed snake bark or birch?

When you are dealing with perennial borders, you have to decide whether you want it to look fantastic for a short period, or have different things which look good at different times but without a big peak, as it were.

There are no two ways about it, it is in the nature of perennials that they die down in winter, build up to a peak and then die down again.

I am personally not that bothered by the fact that some things are dying down while others are peaking, I think that is part of the beauty of nature.

If you want to extend the season of interest, you could put a shrub or small tree which will be beautiful in winter, when everything else has died down. A winter flowering shrub like a camelia, a small tree with interesting bark like a snake bark or coral bark maple, or something with an architectural shape which still looks good in winter like some magnolias would really help here, I think.

Thanks so much everyone.
I'll research all suggestions and go from there

Thanks for the tip for chopping in May, I didn't know that @AlisonDonut

It does look very colourful in summer.

The rest of your garden is quite formal and neat. I'm wondering if the current style of the beds jars with the rest of your garden design, so feels more messy/noticeable? I think using a more formal layout in your planting areas within the raised beds would help. It would enable you to use a few perennials whilst maintaining structure and interest throughout the year, and create some harmony with the rest of the garden. Use less variety with some repeat echos in each bed for a simpler style.

Your idea of evergreen and flowering shrubs with bulbs is a good one. Use it as a basis to design some structure to mark out defined areas of planting in each of the beds in a more formal pattern. Each bed seems actually quite a small area for planting. Perhaps one small half standard lollipop tree such as holly, or a dwarf tree such as a small Crab apple variety that can be maintained in a more formal shape such as Malus Sargentii Tina - which although not evergreen, will bear tiny berry-like apples in winter. Both are wildlife friendly and provide winter food for birds. Perhaps a dwarf conifer in the front beds.

Echoing some of the planting in each bed with just one or two varieties of a smaller shrub would give some balance. Neat, well-behaved evergreen shrubs such as Hebe, Thyme, Lavender, heather, that won't overwhelm and dominate the space. Shrubs with variegated leaves will add additional interest in winter.
Spaces behind the shrubs could be used for perennials - as they die back their foliage will be hidden by the smaller shrubs in front.

I would suggest trying dwarf varieties of bulbs and perennials as far as possible, or those with sparse leaves such as Verbena Bonariensis Lollipop, and those that tolerate being trimmed right back after flowering has finished, such as geranium; The spent leaves are small and unobtrusive, and the area does not appear overwhelmed with planting. Just try a couple of types for the first few seasons to see how it develops, then add one or two more the following years if there is room for them.

For the larger perennials - why not plant some in pots so they can be moved to the back of the garden hidden away when they have finished flowering?

It looks beautiful in full bloom.

having same issue….

trying evergreen for structure, lots of bulbs and perennials plants that hold a seed head or good stem structure over the winter. Also cutting back and using mulch….

The full bloom pics are beautiful and to me the 'mess' photo is still 100 times more lovely than the pics from how it was before - and not actually a mess at all. What about adding in some Helebores/cyclamen/snowdrops and other spring bulbs for early colour, Calendula, Verbena and Michealmas daisies for late colour. You don't want to put in anything that will cause too much shade or you will need to completely change the planting to suit that.

I think it looks lovely

You can add some Grasses and ferns back in, they look great with wildflowers

It's gorgeous. Agree with attractive seed head and a few evergreens being good additions, but the best nature friendly planting always has downtime in winter, makes the year more interesting and summer's when you're out there looking at it more! Would be such a shame to replace with evergreens and bulbs.

I think it’s beautiful!

But if it’s too disorderly for you, then consider a very neatly clipped edge of box (or if you worry about blight, then tightly clipped, 30cm tall hedge of ilex crenata). Winter structure and gives the foamy flowery exuberance a strong contrast.

Theres a clash somehow between the height of the fence and the height of the plants. Winter jasmine would be nice to soften it and give winter colour, but it’s not a neat plant. You could buy dwarf apple trees and train as espalier of fan on the fence? If you prune them to look neat and formal they could be good.

If you’re very devoted, then “Succession planting for adventurous gardeners” by Christopher Lloyd is great. But generally adds to my sense of horticultural inadequacy!

That's bot a mess, it's a lovely cottage garden.

Thanks for the tips everyone.

To the main triangle i've added 2 camelias planted symmetrically. Added a sarcococca and have a lollipop dwarf red robin on its way for the centre.

Moved some aqualegias so they are more grouped together, same for foxgloves and the delphinium.

Added 2 grasses and 2 hebes to the lower triangles.

Feels better already!

Will see what perennials bounce back this year and go from there definitely need some Michealmas daisies as they seem to have vanished completely!

Working on gradually adding flowering shrubs and perrenials down the rest of the border so it will hopefully look more cohesive eventually