What would you plant here?

[HaveYouHadYourBreak]

I'm rubbish with plants and gardening so all advice gratefully received.

We have something like this but the grass is concrete. It has a 3 brick high wall on one side. It is 35cm × 300cm
It will only have about 10cm of soil and that is with a raised bed! Under that some areas are concrete, others are hard clay so we cant extend that.

The area gets a lot of sun.

I'd like:

• most of the area covered all year as cats will poo in it otherwise.
• something pretty.
• pollinator friendly.
• ideally a mix of plants and/or flowers.
• not have to replant every year.

If we'd realised how little soil we'd have, we would have just got a load of pots!

Thanks

How about Erigeron karvinskianus (Mexican fleabane) for a start. It is a perennial, it doesn't mind poor soil or dryness. It has tons of little daisy like flowers and insects like it.

It tends to seed itself - it's rather a weed in our garden (we have lots of crazy paving that it sneaks into).

I always thought they were some sort of daisy when I've seen them. I really like them so that's a good call. Thanks.

Creeping thyme is good for very shallow soil. Buddleia will grow in almost no soil at all, a crack in the pavement seems to be enough.

Also consider easy to grow annuals that can be sowed straight in the ground. I love Californian poppies, or you could put some nasturtiums in. They will self seed and come back year after year.

there are also ornamental grasses that do well in shallow soil, I have some pheasant’s tail grass in just a tiny bit of soil by our foundations, and it’s happy as Larry.

Creeping thymes or ice plants will go really well

I'd probably plant that up as a herb garden, alternatively (and low maintenance option) plant a few a shallow rooted flowering shrubs. Or a combination of the 2.

Or you could plop some planting throughs on top of the soil - it would greatly increase the variety of perennials you can plant there. I can’t post a link, but B&Q has 1.5m long throughs so you’d only need two of them. Or choose a different style to your liking.

At the back, I'd plant a row of yew hedge plants and keep it clipped into a long square hedge - this will provide year round greenery. In front, I'd plant a row of nasturtiums - they're annuals, but they're really easy, create an amazing show, and do well in poor soil in a lot of sun.

Or - a row of lavender?

Gaura for a dtart.