Slim border

[samwi123]

Hi guys

We have two slim borders that are 40cm wide and about 18ft long (3 big wooden fence panels!) they have passion flower growing along them as the borders are each side of our quite small garden.

Looking for ideas on what to plant. I can’t make the borders any wider as there is heavy wooden sleepers that don’t move, so no option for layering plants to create a nice flowing effect but we just need to do something smart as looking to sell the property next year. As we can only plant in a single row I’m struggling to find a way it looks good, a mix of plants looks a bit strange but equally I don’t really want just a hedge either, any advice welcome! We are on slightly acidic sandy soil, one side is east facing with morning sun, the other west with hotter afternoon sun!

I've got almost exactly the same situation in my garden, so after a fair amount of experimentation I went for a mixture of upright and fairly long-flowering prairie style perennials and grasses - things like Echinacea, Verbena bonariensis, Rudbeckias, Heleniums, Sedum, Gaura, Calamagrostis 'Karl Foerester', Stipa and so on. Some of these continue to provide 'architectural' interest during the winter months and are interplanted with things like Alliums and Tulips for colour in the early spring when the other things get cut back.

.....oh, and Salvias of course!

When are you planning to put it on the market OP?

oh great that’s a nice idea, did you plant it in a set sequence or just a bit of a mash up?

looking to go on the market April/May time

Well, not a complete mash up I hope! I repeat planted several of the tall Calamagrostis grasses as 'punctuation' marks throughout the border, then wove the 'prairie' perennials between them in a river-like style - again using repeat planting. I think this looks better than dotting lots of individual specimens around haphazardly.

looking to go on the market April/May time In that case you need spring bulbs in the mix. I’d go for masses of tete-a-tete daffodils, small and neat (won’t flop over) and available cheaple