Size of garden border

[greenfenz]

For a small urban garden of around 9.5m x 7m, what is the recommended minimum width of the border on 3 sides of the garden if i want to grow mostly evergreen shrubs?

I currently have different sized borders which I need to align- about 60cm wide on 2 sides and 1.5m on the 3rd. There are climbers like honeysuckle and clematis planted in one of the 60cm wide borders. And loads of smaller shrubs too. I wonder if 60cm is too narrow as these grow. I do have a trampoline in the lawn so can't go very wide either, but I am an enthusiastic, although not skilled, gardener, and want to get the most out of my borders. Thank you.

Ideally border should be 1.5m min. It sounds like you might currently have them round the edge of the garden in straight lines? If you want trampoline space and maybe somewhere to sit out you might want to rejig them a bit so they are a different shape. A common way to do this is have a circular lawn in a square garden so you end up with deep beds in the corners and thinner bits inbetween.

Yes, that's right- border goes around the edge of a rectangular lawn.i have already planted various things so cant easily reconfigure. I might extend the edge to 1m width, though, but 1.5m would take up too much from the lawn.

Could you extend some bits and have wobbly border edges maybe? Might be able to make a nice feature of particular shrubs?

This time of year is also a great time to move stuff if you were feeling a bit brave.

60cm is too narrow. Maybe put in some serpentine curves? Easy to mow, and helps to break up the eyeline which makes the garden look less square. You can use a hosepipe to estimate where to put the curves. Lay out the hosepipe, then go in the house and look out of the windows at it, fron upstairs as well. Rearrange at will, then you can mark with string or a trickle of sand.

I would give serious thought to a circular or oval lawn, so that the border wraps around it. The "arms" nearest the house will form a sort of entrance into the garden, which you can emphasise by planting with a structural shrub on one or both sides, or use plants that will just add a little interest close up but will allow your eye to carry on past, like grasses or perennials like verbena bonariensis. A straight sided lawn and borders tends to make a small garden look smaller because you see everything all at once.
Anything that interrupts that adds interest and fools the brain into thinking there's more to it.
Verticals will do that too, so adding an archway or a small tree will help.