Box balls, not sure how to integrate

[DigbyTheDigger]

I've just got my garden landscaping sorted and am finding my way with planting. It's small, about 10m x 7m. I have some box balls that are about 50cm in diameter but I'm struggling to integrate them into my look. I love wild gardens like this and this.

Should I plant them in a line? Like a baby hedge? Dot them throughout? Plant them in a line in front of the fence and let them grow out (will they do that, or once a ball, always a ball?)?

The other shrubs I have are sarcoccocca, lavender, rosemary and a couple of pinus mugo. I have perennials like astrantia, Honorine Jobert, Centranthus Ruber and pheasants tail grass.

The box will grow out. If you want to keep it in a ball then you'll have to trim it.

Lots of photos on instagram for planting inspiration. I like the sound of your other plants.

Thanks for replying. So you think keep them and plant them as I would a rosemary or lavender, and let them get wild? Thanks also for saying you like my planting scheme, I've done lots of dithering and spent far too long on pinterest to get to this point.

All the box ball photos I've seen have had them impeccably clipped, and somehow that just doesn't look right with what I'm trying to achieve. God, this gardening business is stressful, isn't it? The potential to waste money is everywhere!

While you could let them grow out, unclipped box isn't a terribly exciting shrub, and if they've been clipped down tight, I think they might look a bit odd for quite a while. I think box balls work best as a sort of punctuation. I wouldn't dot them about in a wild garden, but I'd think about entrances and exits and how you might frame those. What does the door into the garden look like? Could you have one on either side there? Or even a little row of three leading down a path? Then you'd end up with a slightly more formal effect near the house to set off your wild bit further back.

If you do a google search for 'buxus garden inspiration' you get loads of images that might help?

Or, whisper it, can you return them? It does sound a bit as if they're not really your style.

I've had them for a few years, since before I got the garden done. It's small, only about 10m x 7m, so there's no real distinction between 'wild' and 'not wild'. Hmm, I wonder if I could crowbar them into the front garden. Or gather them in a clump at the base of the cherry tree in the corner, but that has a nice gathering of hydrangea and sarcoccocca.

Given that the cost of these is long since spent, maybe I'd be better to cut my losses and Freecycle them.

I think clipped box looks wonderful amongst more natural planting - dont let it grow out. Check out the recent chelsea flower show for ideas and pinterest.

How about turning them into a cloud pruned hedge? Lots of inspiration on what to do with box (albeit on a grand scale) here.

https://www.marqueyssac.com/

Oh, right! I don't know why I assumed you'd just got them.

I don't know if they'd be very happy underneath a tree? I think your hydrangea etc. sounds nicer there.

I agree with @bilbodog that they can look really lovely with naturalistic planting. What is it that's making you feel they don't fit? Something that often works next to a box ball is foamy sort of planting - so something like nepeta, that just softens the edges of the box, and gives the nepeta a good strong background?

Anyone who has the patience to turn box balls into a cloud pruned hedge has my admiration!

I think I'm having the new garden blues, where nothing has grown or filled out yet, and it's making me question my choices. I've also been influenced by lots of different gardens so I wonder whether I have some 'odd ones out' amongst the plants.

I started out wanting a coastal idea, hence the pinus mugo, rosemary and Cetranthus, with Mexican Fleabane and Pheasant Tail Grass for ground cover. BUT I then got seduced into looking at too many Harris Bugg gardens and went a bit meadowy with some Hakonechloa and astrantia.

If you can bear to humour me, can you look at this garden? It has similar sized beds, plus a sunny side and shady side like mine, plus I think the above plants would work in it. I just can't work how to integrate the shrubs, particularly the box balls. I can see I'd put rosemary near the back as it will grow tall, and lavender in amongst the perennials, but clipped box?

Holy moly! I admire your ambition. My clipper work is a little slapdash for that type of thing, it's amazing.

More pics of it here: https://thedesignfiles.net/2021/04/gardens-peachy-green-northcote

Lots of mention of the word 'loose' which is what I'm after. Relaxed, verdant, wild.

I'd ditch the box, the caterpillars are a nightmare! My whole area is full of dead hedges

I love the gardens you have linked to.
They have strong architecture around.
Are you willing to upload a photo of what you have so far?
Agree with pp, don't think box belongs near a tree

Or keep the box in large pots and then you can just place them where you want them and move around if need be? Ive had box in pots for years and still looking good.

Box are high maintenance with box caterpillars destroying everything nowadays. Personally I wouldn't make them a key feature as you will most likely end up getting rid of them. But if you don't spraying religiously etc then go for it.

That's a lovely garden you've linked to! I don't think the fatsia japonica would work with box balls personally (but that's just me). It'd be too much 'sculptural element' going in different directons.

Otherwise, I absolutely think clipped box balls could give that design some lovely shape and presence.

Agree you could keep them in pots for a bit while you decide.

I so relate to 'new garden blues'. I have recently dug out a big new bed and I keep thinking 'argh! Mistake! Mistake!' It won't be, but it's so hard not to panic when looking at bare earth.

FWIW, in that first picture of your first link, I would have a box ball right on the corner of the right-hand border, to give a bit of body beside all those various rather frothy, foamy shapes. It'd make those daisies that otherwise look a bit 'is this wild or did someone forget to do the cutting back' look structured.

You're all marvellous, thanks so much. I'd rather not post a photo, sorry. We have a pergola, so nowhere near as fancy as the link, but there is an element of structure.

We don't have a problem with box blight here, thankfully, but that's an interesting thought about putting them in large pots. I could definitely shunt one off to the front garden that way.

I wasn't planning on including fatsia, I think the mid-height shrub role will be filled by rosemary in my garden. So would this give me the effect I'm after?
front row: pinus mugo domes, grasses, shorter perennials (eg astrantia, cetranthus) and the infamous box balls. I could put succulents at the very front like in the pics.
middle row: rosemary and taller perennials (gaura, wild carrot), dwarf apple trees
back row directly in front of fence: pyracantha or pittosporum silver sheen depending on which fence

How do people handle L shaped beds? I have one about 1m deep, where the short part of the L is parallel to the house. Would you use the short part of the L for shorter planting and then step up the height as you go further away from the house down the longer part of the L?

I think that sounds beautiful!

With the L-shaped bed, personally, I would have some tall things in the short bit of the L, but I'd make sure they were very light and see-through (I have lovely fennel and very tall irises doing this job in my garden atm; thalictrum might be nice too). I think otherwise, having smoothly graduating height looks a bit staid. But the odd spike of something tall just catches your eye and brings it to life.

This! We lost 7 young (3 years old) box plants this year, box moths are decimating both mature and young trees and hedges. I think mainly down south at the moment.

Me again (sorry). In my front row, should I do all my astrantia together, and all my centranthus etc, or dot them singly? The photo is blocks, which I think I like.

I'd always plant in blocks. It gives a feeling of abundance and impact.

Abundance and impact. I love both of those. Thank you all so much!

Good morning to my gardening hand-holders. I moved lots of things around and I'm feeling better about it. I'm now going to make myself wait until next year to see how things have grown/filled out before buying anything else or moving anything again.

I didn't have enough of one thing to recreate the bed of daisies, so I combined a few things of similar colours (cetranthum, gaura, sanguisorba) to make a block, fingers crossed!

I am, though, very pleased with the other two beds. I've shamelessly copied the insp photo (minus the big rocks - where do you buy big rocks?!) and have made a lovely border with Japanese anemones and another with sedum, ferns and sempervivum.

Thanks very much for your expertise and encouragement.

I've got a very unstructured exuberant garden….but it looks a bit flat in winter so I’m using evergreens and clipped box to give it some structure for the duller months.