Help with Border!

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Hi all

I’m an incredibly novice gardener, and have a border at the back of my garden (10m x 3m) which I have no idea what to do with.

I keep looking at lists of plants and shrubs and climbers and I’m honestly just baffled.

I can’t be dealing with anything requiring loads of maintenance, so I’m looking for relatively low maintenance (nothing that needs potting in a shed over winter) but that gives some colour and coverage all year round.

For context the garden is south facing but the border is adjoining a wall at the back and is always fairly shady.

If anyone could give me any tips that would be much appreciated!

Go for a perennial herbaceous border - just needs a bit of a tidy once a year (trim back, mulch) and that’s it. Lots of plant supply companies like Sarah raven or crocus have suggested planting schemes, which should give you a tangible idea of how borders are planted and some ideas of what goes well together. I don’t necessarily think they are value for money when purchasing plants , but great for inspiration and clear planting schemes. South facing should be pretty sunny just make sure you position plants that are okay in partial shade if you have a shadier corner, but. But it might get more sun than you think in summer.

Look at what grows well in your neighbours’ gardens …

New build and none of them have done much planting!! I fear I may be the garden equivalent of the person who puts the bins out first 🤦🏼‍♀️

Thank you!! I’ll definitely check those out ☺️

You can spunk an absolute fortune on new gardens. I had the same thing moving to my new build. It takes a couple of years to work out what a) grows and b) what you like.

I would say buy trees and put them in pots. A bit of height looks good in any garden. And don't forget you can put pots in borders too. It's a good way of seeing what thrives and looks like all year before shoving them into the ground.

For example peonies and roses are the most fantastic plants in summer but look shit in winter (peonies disappear altogether). But so hard to resist in the garden centre when you see them out. Buy evergreen varieties whenever you can.

And remember stuff grows so read the labels. Expect to move stuff around when it outgrows it place.

In my new build garden as a clueless first timer I put a couple of hebes, some angel wings, some sedums, a hydrangea, a lilac, a skimmia and a yellow flower that my daughter calls ragwort but isn't but seems to bloom all year round. They look good.

And a dwarf eucalyptus which I love

@AndThereSheGoes I haven’t even heard of half of them - the sheer choice is so overwhelming I start googling and immediately just panic 😂😅

@Borris thank you; I didn’t consider just putting them in pots for now 🤦🏼‍♀️ it all adds up doesn’t it?! Trying to do it on a budget and getting sidetracked my incredible Pinterest boards

I went for a wander with dd around a garden centre. We took photos of what we liked. Then made a little plan.

When we went back we looked at the prices and that helped to focus which we really wanted 😂

Consider if you need to hide a view from behind; if so you could add a smaller tree or taller shrub. I have two lilac's that are about 12' tall, perfect so the neighbours don't look down into my garden. You could also do a smaller japanese maple or crabapple (pretty blooms in spring).

One thing that I was a bit guilty of was having too many spring and early summer bloomers. It's easy to be tempted while at the garden centre. You are at the perfect time of year now to do a bit of research before you buy plants.

Browse the internet, or go to the library. If your local garden group meets, go to a meeting for some local help, plus perhaps a plant swap. Many people will divide their perennials in the spring and have an extra plant or two.
https://www.rhs.org.uk/garden-design/how-to-create-a-border

Like PP I was also going to recommend Sarah Raven's planting schemes.

You choose the one you like the look of, they send you all the plants and a planting plan of where to put them. Borders by numbers basically.

I've just ordered the English garden one, but they also have a low maintenance once.

Is the border 10m x 3m - that’s massive for a newbie gardener. Or is the whole garden 10x3 which seems quite small? In which case how big is the border? Is the rest of the garden grass? You can grass over some of the border to make life easier.

Ask on Facebook. As I said plenty of people have stuff that's out grown their garden although you won't get stuff until the weather warms up a bit. Supermarkets and the reduced section of garden centres are also good. Stick to plain terracotta pots. Always look nice together rather than a random selection of colours size and shape.

Apparently you need 40% hard structure to 60% planting so think about at paths, sheds, and fencing, pergolas and gravelled areas . Otherwise it looks a bit field like. Get a few main plants in now rather than spending on seasonal cyclamens or primroses, which you can do next year when you know where the gaps are..

Anything that's looking good now is a safe bet ( there's those spikey palm things in Tesco at the moment that grow well in pots and soil and provide structural interest) because so little is in flower.

In a few months you'll want to buy everything so be warned!

Also, start watching gardeners world. It is very mindful and relaxing and you will learn lots about plants and gardening.

If it’s a new build you might want to improve the soil as well. That just means buying some bags of soil improver, it’ll be in bags like compost, and some manure and put it on the border.

check How big things get when you buy them (do you want to know how I know that….some things grow very big!)

when you plant things dig a big enough hole and water in well. Water thoroughly around the roots, not just a sprinkle, and water well regularly in the first year.

also. Plant a small tree, the birds will love it and you get instant height that’s great in a new garden.

I found it all overwhelming at the beginning too, so I'm not sure if my tips will help or add to that.
You can read loads of books/magazines about garden design and become an expert, or cheat...

A pre-designed border is a great way to get a well put together scheme that you know will work. You can buy mail order, or copy from online and shop locally.

I also found a picture I liked in a garden magazine and copied it. Not the exact plants and layout, but the general colours, heights, shapes etc.

If you go to a garden centre and impulse buy, then buy three or five of anything. It will make your garden look much more planned and cohesive than having random plants all over.

Good luck. I hope you get lots of joy from your garden.

Ok so our garden wasn’t quite level and the builders added in a raised flower bed/border running the width of the garden (10m). I’ve just re-measured and it’s 10x1 not 3, I did think as I wrote it 3 was quite wide but I was convinced 🤦🏼‍♀️

There’s currently a patio outside the French doors with a sofa and bbq, and shed to one side, then grass, with an area for the Wendy house / sandpit and then this border/flower bed.

Thank you for all your suggestions - I love the Sarah Raven collections and also found a company called garden on a roll that do something similar. They’re quite expensive but given me some inspiration m, and I’ve found an evergreen shrub type collection which will give some colour all year round and is apparently quite low maintenance. I might also try a climber up the back fence 😬

Then think I’ll use pots for some flowers on the patio etc.

Will also tune into gardeners world for a bit if inspo, and I noticed some plants in Tesco when I popped in earlier.

I guess as well I’m not committed, once everything starts to grow I can see how it looks and add in other bits if necessary. I adore tulips so will have to find a home for some of those somewhere.

a great way to increase your stock of bulbs is to look out for potted ones that have gone over and are being sold off very cheap and pop those in for next year (break them up and spread them around). Caveat is that tulips are not very reliable at coming up again next year, but all the rest - snowdrops, daffodils especially - will happily come back if they are moderately happy. And of course your own ones from pots this year.

Personally, I avoid pots because they need watering every day in hot weather, not exactly low maintenance.

I know the obvious is to go for evergreens, but the delight of deciduous plants is their changing through the seasons, light coloured spring growth, maybe even pink, then the mature growth, finally the autumn colour. For winter interest, you can look to long lasting berries or to bark colour (eg Cornus Midwinter Fire) and to winter flowering plants which are often scented - Daphne, Sarcococca, Viburnum bodnantense, winter jasmine for example.

One way to get all year round interest is to visit your garden every month, instead of doing what so many of us do, visit in May/June when the summer urge gets us and grow what looks good then.

Stupid question but if they’re not evergreen, once my summer flowers have gone, do I then need to pull them up and replant winter flowering plants, and then do that again in spring etc, or can you sort of plant on top of each other once that flowers season is over? 😬🤦🏼‍♀️

It’s not a stupid question! Gardening is complicated when you’re just getting started.

The good news is that no, you don’t have to remove plants after one season to replace them with others (in fact you really shouldn’t do that). Hardy perennials (which is what you would plant in your border) live for many years - peonies for instance can live 70 years or more, coming back every spring.

The advice you are being given is to have a mix of plants that will look their best in different seasons, so your border is interesting all year round. So you would have plants that bloom in early spring, late spring, summer, autumn, winter etc. When they are done flowering, they will sit there happily, providing a backdrop in structure and foliage for your other plants. They will also get bigger every year, so your border will look fuller.

The bad news is that even if you restrict yourself to hardy perennials, there are still thousands of choices, and it can get a bit overwhelming.

Oh and once your perennials have gone in, in the autumn you can put lots of bulbs (tulips, daffodils, alliums) in the ground in all the gaps, to flower the next spring.

You can also fill gaps with annuals. These are plants that are not hardy, so will die after the first frost. These are the plants that are sold in little six-packs in supermarkets and garden centres, like begonias, impatiens and petunias. They give instant gratification as they start flowering straightaway. However, they only last a year.

Also, if your border is always in the shade, that automatically excludes loads of plants that need full sun or part sun. It’s not a bad thing - there are lots of lovely plants that thrive in the shade, but there’s no point planting poppies, roses, dahlias, heleniums, rudbeckia, etc as they won’t flower.

Sorry, one more thing - “evergreen” refers to plants that keep their foliage all year round, like conifers, palm trees, fatsia etc. Lots of perennials are not evergreen - they will lose their foliage in winter (like maple trees) or may even die back all the way to the ground (like peonies), but will come back the next year.

You are a font of knowledge, thank you!