Totally clueless serial plant killer trying to plan a front garden

[chickencuddles]

Would love any advice on what to do with my front flowerbed. It's south facing, clay soil (planning to mix some mulch in with this before planting). Love formal Victorian gardens, but also am quite lazy so a cottage garden theme works well too. I like white, purple and green as a colour scheme, but I have no idea where to start or what to do first. The dept is about 1.5m but obviously less room where the bay sticks out. I've spent all day trawling the Internet, only to get myself even more confused. What would you do?!

I would make it smaller. Put in a gravel border of at least 500mm next to the house. I’m pretty keen on mixed grasses. They billow out and make soft edging. Put in bulbs for spring and catmInt (nepeta) as well as verbena bonariensis. These are summer flowering but over a long period.

Soil under a bay usually gets dry and a deep border takes more weeding.

If it was mine I’d plant a tropaesium jasminoides to climb on the right hand wall. Then I’d do a mix of agapanthus, lavender, Erigeron, geranium Roxanne and nepeta to fill the bed with some snowdrops, white tulips and alliums for early interest. It’ll be lovely, lovely looking house!

Just a few pictures. These all work for me plus sedums for later summer.

And a few more

I'd start watching Gardeners' World, buy some garden magazines (or order some free catalogues), and mooch about garden centres to figure out the style and plants you like. Don't get too hung up on any instant gardens you see on social media. A garden is never done, and sometimes plants just don't work out (see: the many threads here), so don't stress. Enjoy the process. Go see some friends with nice gardens and ask for advice. They will probably offer cuttings etc if you admire any of their plants.

Do work with the rain shadow as @TizerorFizz suggests, but I'd put in a wildflower mix rather than gravel. Just needs an annual meadow cut.

I reckon you want hardy low maintenance shrubs. Hebe and choysia and salvia for example. Camellia and sarcococca are also good. Don’t go for summer flowers, aims for year round greenery and a few flowers as a bonus.

Wild flowers have quite a high failure rate and are best planted in grass. Fail safe bulbs with grass and perennials is a good mix. Some shrubs can get quite large. Hebe can get very leggy.Choisya - 6ft depending on variety. Will be at least 1m wide eventually. Some salvias are not shrubs. They can be a bit picky regarding where they thrive.

Rather than gravel I'd use wood bark as the mulch next to the house because it's so wildlife friendly. Needs replenishing every couple of years though.

I like visiting stately homes with good gadens for inspiration. Take photos of plants you like and reverse search for them to find more interesting varieties than you find in the big garden centres. And buy plants there as well. My latest obsession (having seen lots of it at our local stately home) is Oenothera lindheimeri 'Whirling Butterflies. Would fit in your theme as well.

The general rule of thumb is measure the depth of the border and multiply it by 1.5. By pure coincidence, yours is up to 1.5 metres deep. Multiplying 1.5m by 1.5, you get 2.25m. This is the max height of plants to aim for in a border 1.5m deep, to give a balanced and pleasing effect. Obviously, there are exceptions and your personal preference is what counts but it's the rule of thumb.

The soil is often very dry close to a house so look for plants that tolerate dry conditions. e.g Cistus shrubs would thrive. Some white varieties are available. Grey leaved plants (eg lavender and dianthus) like dry conditions. Further away from the walls, it will get more rainfall.

Improving the soil with compost or manure before planting is a good idea.

Generally have the taller plants and shrubs at the back and lower growers in front.

Consider having a few shrubs to give the border structure , especially in winter.

Ask for advice/ideas at a garden centre or nursery. There's usually a help/information desk.

Be prepared to expand your colour palette because white, purple and green may limit you while you are finding your way.

Thank you all, this is more helpful than a day wasted online! I love visiting rhs and national trust gardens and looking at their borders, but obviously they are designed and maintained by a team of professionals. I definitely want year round greenery, and then will top up with some of the flowers suggested. Are you meant to pack the plants in? I always seem to underbuy (partly because it's always so expensive) and then am left with big gaps, which then seem to fill with weeds that grow at twice the rate of whatever I've planted! I can't change the size of the border at this stage as it's taken forever to get to this stage already (I hand dug the whole of the front last year to lay the gravel). If I mix in mulch with the clay (which I've broken up now) and then put some topsoil on as well, would this work? I removed a layer of clay soil leaving about 15cms above to put some good stuff on which I hope will help. How did you all get so knowledgeable?!

@chickencuddles One of the issues not addressed by those suggesting shrubs is that you will obscure your windows. That’s why grasses do a better job and are tolerant of your conditions.
Every plant has a width and height dimension on it. With a shrub like choisya you need 1.5m around them as they get tall and quite wide. When you buy your little plant from the garden centre, it will be lonely in your bed for a few years while it grows. Most hebes don’t get as big snd add easily trimmed. That’s why variety of shrub matters more than most perennials.

Most borders work well with some height structure (grass, sea holly and Verbena etc) at the back and then middle to small as you come forward. I like box bushes (shaped) as anchors at the start and end of a section. You repeat planting - you could have front and side as two sections. I have choisya and broome and hebes. Both can take up quite a lot of space. In my garden dryer spots are also good for lavender and you could plant this as edging or alchemilla mollis. You just want unfussy plants that don’t get too big.

I wouldn’t cram too much in for the first year. That’s the mistake I made with my first attempt at a garden. You need to consider eventual spread.

Also keep the theme going throughout the border and plant in odd numbers, not just one of each random plant (which is what I did at first too, looked ridiculous and unbalanced). So buy at least 3 of each variety and keep it going round the corner. The plants I suggested below will thrive in sun and come back every year. I usually buy from Crocus. Their site is helpful for eventual spread etc.
Take a look at Polly Wilkinson on Instagram. She has great tips and her colours fit your scheme.
Get some bulk bags delivered of compost and top soil and mix them in. A thin bark mulch along the wall might be handy to get access to the windows. Please get a jasmine - they are so beautiful and the smell is delicious. Mine is covered in flowers at the moment. The bees love it!

Usually the greater variety of plants means greater work in the garden, and a cottage garden is far from low maintenance.
As you like formal Victorian gardens, why not work with that idea to create a low maintenance design that has some interest all year round with minimal effort.

Design idea - Please excuse the AI generated image (which I have added more to) as it seemed the easiest way to show a design. Not exactly the shape of your garden but it can be easily adapted. It's a simple, very traditional design that will look good with little effort once established.

Two lollipop, top-grafted bay trees bring formality and can be selected at whatever height preferred. Top grafting means the trunk won't grow any taller and the crown will fill out. It requires light trimming two or three times in the summer. It looks good all year round with flowers in spring, and provides winter shelter and berries for wildlife. Such an easy plant and looks great with its new fresh spring shoots.

A row of lavender in the foreground only needs trimming in autumn, or perhaps replace it with a low growing hebe in white or purple (lavender can be temperamental).
In the background along the window are two hebes either end, then Verbena Bonaris for the taller, wafty effect, under-planted with Scabious in white or purple - or a mix of the two.

Around the two trees:
I would suggest spring bulbs such as Snowdrops, Crocus, Tete a Tete daffodils, grape hyacinths. Dwarf varieties will produce smaller leaves which look less untidy once flowering is done.
In the summer plant with annuals such as Nemesis Wisely Vanilla (lovely scent), white Pelargoniums, or perennials such as Geraniums, or Bellis.
Over winter perhaps plant some white primulas.

I would advise against bark chips as a mulch - it'll become the neighbourhood cat toilet. Gravel, slate chippings or decorative stone pebbles for the areas not planted.

I've just had my front garden planted by a couple of ladies who do borders for a living and know their stuff. They've planted the following:

Salvias
Geums
Heucheras
Pittosporums
Evergreen ferns
Grasses

They've mixed them up, so for example they haven't put all the Heucheras together. They've also left a bit of space in between to give them room to grow.

I was dreading the weeding, as I can barely kneel now (waiting knee replacement) but was told to just hoe the ground around the plants regularly to disrupt the weeds when they're small.

They said putting down a good layer of bark clippings will also repress the weeds.

No advice, but I've found that there are no books available about front gardens and how to match with different types of architecture, it's definitely a gap in the market , I'd like to know how to plant up a front garden for a art deco house.

Ready made borders from Soto House are great. You select your aspect and length and they send you your border. The one I’ve linked is purple, white and green.

I agree with others who suggest a gravel path under the window. You’ll also need to dig in lots of organic matter to your clay soil to improve the texture. Given the summer we are having I would not plant anything before September unless you can easily water them daily - don’t have a hosepipe ban.

I would also add some bulbs at the same time. Some black alliums would look lovely with the colour scheme you’ve planned. Allium bulbs.

Friends just used this company and were impressed - https://www.gardenonaroll.com - they send you a selection of plants and a planting/spacing guide

I’d include Japanese anemone as they are great to extend the season, and last week. They don’t mind shade, but they don't like it extremely wet or dry. I suspect they’d cope fine. https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/anemone/japanese/growing-guide

Also , astrantias.

I’d probably leave out lavender, or be prepared to swap it out later if necessary, because it gets very leggy and woody at the base. Maybe some ferns to bulk things out eg dryopteris felix mas.

One of the main problems with front gardens is watering. Unless you have a front tap or water butts, I would look for drought tolerant plants.

I have a similar sized bay window and I’ve planted it with pheasant’s tail grass (anamanthele lessoiana). It looks fab year round, has no pests, doesn’t need watering, is easy to cut back when it gets too big, but also doesn’t get super tall like miscanthus or pampas grass. I reckon 5 or 6 small pots (9cm) would be enough to give you full coverage around your bay.

I then added some small trees (acers and topiaries) at the front for added height and to frame the bay window. Fatsias and Sambucus nigra would work well too, they don’t mind clay soil and can be pruned to whatever size you want.

Maybe also add some window boxes? I refresh mine with various annuals, perennials and bulbs depending on the season - currently petunias and fuchsias, but also irises and primroses in spring, pelargoniums in the Autumn, etc. This way I have seasonal interest as well as more permanent planting. You do need to be very disciplined with watering and feeding containers, otherwise the plants will just die.

I agree with previous posters that a cottage garden is deceptively hard work. You have to prune back, deadhead, control for pests, feed, water. If you are not a confident gardener, I would recommend you make life easy for yourself by going with a small number of different plants, and focusing on year-round foliage and movement rather than on flowers. Once you become more confident you can progressively add to it.

I am also in the bark mulch camp - and the local cats do not use my garden as a toilet.

One final thing - you can use soil improver like Vitax 6x to break down your clay soil and add organic goodness. A bag goes a long way as it’s very concentrated compared to manure. Good luck!

Window boxes add to the frequent watering issue. Don’t go there! We do not have enough water and think about hose pipe bans!
Keep it simile with grasses and essentially green plants with interesting leaf shapes and a very tolerant of less water.

Grasses are a pain if they self seed though so think carefully before planting them. It depends how much upkeep you are prepared to do.

@Jellybean23 Plenty don’t really self seed - depends on variety and a quick snip stops it!