Help me with my planters!!

[Tiptoptum]

To begin. I am useless with gardens and flowers, so this is probably simple, yet I haven’t a clue.

In my garden there is a patch of concrete to park on (ie, driveway in my back garden.

The people before put planters there, there are two which are @3 ft high, 1FT wide and about 4m long.

They lined them and planted some bushes a bit like privet hedges, which were dying when I moved in, so apart from a few of them they are gone.

Id really like to hide this area and my car as it’s not that nice when you’re in the garden and I’d like to store the bins over there.

What can I put in there that won’t grow ridiculously high (about 4ft ideally) and that will grow reasonably quickly? I could probably put a trellis in, but I was thinking more of something that wouldn’t need to climb?

I saw some Jasmine trees/bushes which I liked, but I don’t really know much, and I’m worried that the planters won’t support them or the roots will explode out of the sides or something.

All help gratefully accepted (if it’s flowery or attractive that would be a bonus!)

You could fill the planters with dahlias! They would get to 4' tall easily but need watering and feeding and of course they die down in winter.

If you want something evergreen rosemary or a tall lavender could work and they are drought tolerant so wouldn't mind being in containers. You could underplant with erigeron karvinskianus and it would look very pretty.

A really good low maintenance idea would be to put in a few shrubs called Euonymous. B&Q are selling three for £10. They are a nice little shrub which comes in a couple of colours, they are evergreen so will fill your tubs all year round and will grow into nice little hummocks of plants about 3 or 4 foot tall.

You could then put in a few seasonal plants e.g. daffodil bulbs, tulip bulbs, primroses, geraniums and you will have something pretty to look at almost all year round.

You could put a jasmine on a trellis/pleached frame at 4ft (either actual jasmine or trachelospermum jasminoides), but both would want to outgrow it, especially the latter. And they would get hungry. Even so, frankly, I'd do that, because I love jasmine, and they prune easily. Trach jas is evergreen, which is important here as you presumably want cover all year round? It won't burst out of the pots, I don't think. Winter jasmine - which has yellow flowers in early spring - might be nice: most of the year it's a neat, unremarkable green, but it's easy to look after and cheerful when it is in flower.

You could also try something like a row of phormiums (spiky, dramatic-looking plants; not to everyone's taste), which would get to the right height. Again, no real danger of roots bursting out.

Smallish evergreen shrubs that might work include

• euonymus as @Churchview says (you want euonymus japonicus, and you may get it cheaper at a nursery; it isn't that fast growing but is pretty reliable)
• pittosporum - will need a bit of careful feeding in a planter, but there are lots of different leaf colours.
• bay (IMO, one of the best for containers and it's scented).
• osmanthus (delayvii or burkwoodii). Not very fast-growing, but has scented white flowers in early spring, and lovely small dark-green leaves. This would be my choice, FWIW.

If you didn't need it to be evergreen, your choices are wider - you could certainly go for lavender or nepeta ('six hills giant' does get big), or a trellis of sweet peas (which would be a cheap option so long as it's sunny enough).

You could have something like a viburnum or a daphne - both do ok in pots, and lovely scented flowers; you could even go for small shrub roses. The best thing to do is look on the RHS site and search for some of these plants (or, for roses, perhaps search on David Austin). See what you like the look of.

Thankyou all for the ideas.

Can I mix things or will that not work? Ie Rosemary and Jasmine alternating, or am I better to just pick one thing and grow that??

osmanthus types look nice, there is a nice yellow one. It says they are slow growing, but I could buy them a bit more mature I assume? Then just trim them before they get too high?

I like the idea of things like bay and rosemary, it would be lovely to grow something a bit herby in them, I just need them to grow up rather than down and onto the ground!

I think normal summer jasmine would be too rampant tbh, trachelospermum jasminoides would be a better choice and as pp said it's evergreen 🌿

If you want something high and flowery and leafy then I'd suggest Salvia Amistad with a few Verbena Bonariensis for variety. Not evergreen but very long flowering well into late autumn and pollinator friendly.

P.S. both the ones suggested above are super easy maintenance and pretty much immune to pests/diseases.

For a year-round plant, I'd suggest Acanthus (any variety). Utterly indestructible, huge high growth, attractive leaves with 'unusual' (a.k.a. quite ugly) flower spikes in the summer. Not strictly an evergreen but refuses to die in the winter; may wilt with a frost but revives thereafter. But still have the other plants mixed in.

Refill your planters with good compost so anything you plant will thrive. Go look at garden centers to see what you like for that size I'd be tempted to have one shrub in the middle, some of the ones others have suggested, or pieris forest flame is great value plant, lovely all year. Then I'd have a softer plant either side like lavender or rosemary (can cook with that too) then can pop colour full annual bedding plants in depending on season, pansies in winter begonias in summer ? Whatever appeals to you
You'll need to water planters every few days if it hasn't rained