Looking for evergreen plants

[MyNextDoorNeighbourVotesReform]

Morning

I have a small ish bed in my garden and I want to plant some evergreen shrubs. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Also, would you use a weed membrane AND bark or just bark (to cut back on weeds)?

Thanks ❤️

Difficult to advise without knowing the dimensions of the bed - you need to allow space for what you plant to grow. Some things we have are Choisya which has beautifully scented white flowers, escallonia which has pink flowers, Daphne which has lilac scented flowers in early spring and variegated leaves. If there's a fence at the back or if there's space for something like a garden obelisk, you could plant an evergreen clematis or a climbing hydrangea against the fence.

Bark will help retain moisture. Weed control membranes are plastic and not 100% effective. If there's space you could plant ground cover plants which will naturally help keep weeds at bay. There's no miracle cure though. Suggestions for ground cover are ajuga, hardy geraniums (although they die back in winter), periwinkle, saxifrage.

My favourite shrub is a ceanothus. Available in various sizes to fit any garden. The most beautiful blue. Easy to grow and maintain.

Thank you. It looks beautiful!

Thanks so much @Needtosoundoffandbreathe

We have both blue and white ceanothus in our garden and they're lovely. Choiysia, euonymus and pittosporum are the others that give us evergreen structure all year round and they're easy to trim back when needed.

I wouldn't bother with weed membrane as it's plastic and eventually degrades and shreds up into your soil. It's much easier to mulch with organic matter like topsoil, garden compost, bark chippings etc and that way it's easier to plant into as well when you're adding plants to the borders.

Euphorbia is evergreen, and very easy. Is the bed shaded or sunny? This will dictate what will do well there

And no to membrane, it ends up looking very messy. Bark is good for your soil though you will to add more every six months or so

I have beautiful dwarf azaleas. As the soil is heavy clay I dug in some organic soil improver, gave them a good feed and then a nice deep bark layer. I add to the bark once a year. They look fabulous when in flower (April through to end of June) and some have green leaves whilst others have purple and red tints to their leaves. Bees love them.

No landscape fabric - there’s enough plastic in the environment already. It’s really bad for the soil. If you must put something under the bark use cardboard, hessian or wool matting.

Is the plot in sun? My favourite evergreen is silver - Convolvulus cneorum! Has white flowers in the summer but beautiful shiny leaves all year. I only have a tiny bed and this works so well .

The other plant I love is a Jasmine climber. Covers my ugly fence all year with glossy leaves , habitat for for birds and beautiful smelling blooms in summer.

Thank you all so much! Great advice and ideas ❤️

I would have a look at Pieris. They are dead easy, have vari coloured leaves and little flowers like lily of the valley.

Escallonia Pink Elle - looks lovely when it flowers and the butterflies absolutely love it.

Photinia Pink Marble or Pink Crispy. They’re pretty hardy and fill up a space quite easily once established. Not too much work to look after, apart from keeping it to what size you want.

I have literally just planted a couple of Mexican Mock Orange shrubs. Will report back in a year or two if they’ve survived my non-green fingers!

I can recommend having a look on the Crocus website. You can filter and select for soil-type, what direction your planting area faces, evergreen/deciduous, flower colour, etc. Each plant description gives an idea of eventual height and spread, planting tips, etc.

Meant to add, it’s a no to me for membrane and am unlikely to use bark - it can end up looking a bit messy, bits always fall into the lawn etc for me.

I am covering beds with magic mulch this year - am hoping it will cut down on the weeding a bit and it looks much tidier than bark. Do your research on buying though. My local garden centre do two bags for £14, cheapest I found on Amazon was £18.99 per bag!

Variagated Japanese Privet has tiny leaves, is very compact and can be nicely shaped by pruning.
Rosemary or lavender.