Planting a roadside border

[AutumnBride]

I've got two borders I want to add plants to, they are both on the front garden.

1. Sits between the lawn and the pavement. So you see it from the roadside and the house.

1. Sits between the lawn and the path in front of the house, so you see it from the house and also from the roadside.

I'm thinking of planting taller plants in the middle because there's no back or front, any thoughts appreciated. I'm probably more concerned about what it looks like from the roadside because that's my view arriving and leaving.

How would you approach these borders?

Sad to say that my first thought is whether you need to worry about plant thefts or animals (foxes or dogs digging things up etc)?

Hasn't been a problem so far. It's a pretty standard layout in this village.

The other thing is whether you want to reduce air pollution from the road, in which case dense small hairy leaves are the best.

How wide are the borders?

It's a very quiet road so not too worried about that.

The borders are probably both around 1m deep, the one near the house is possibly nearer 1.5m at its widest point.

If you’re planting taller plants, by which I’m thinking 1m or higher, you’ll probably find they have a spread of the best part of a metre. Your choice will be between shrubs, which will have a framework of branches all the year round, or perennials, which will die down over winter.

Are you wanting it as a barrier between you and the road, or simply as something that is good to look at?

If the latter, I,’m wondering about a few taller plants at intervals, so you can have a few very small plants at their feet, then slightly larger plants in the gaps.

An unbroken row of taller plants in a 1m wide bed risks looking like a hedge, which is not the effect you were going for, else you would have said

I would choose as few different types of plants as you can stand - then have them repeat all the way along. have 1 or 2 for year round interest (eg a grass and topiary balls (ilex crenata)), then maybe something that'll meander through it all - eg potentilla, something with flat flowers (eg achilea), maybe verbena boniarensis for height. Add daffodils for early spring, follow with tulips and then aliums, by which point the others will be flowering. You have the structure of the topiary balls and movement from the grasses with seasonal shots of colour from the flowers.

Although what I'd actually do is cram it full of loads of different types of mismatched flowers and wonder why it looked messy.

Although what I'd actually do is cram it full of loads of different types of mismatched flowers and wonder why it looked messy. I’m the same, except it never occurs to me to consider whether it looks messy