Front garden planter help

[Iamnotanumberiamafreewoman]

I have 3 wooden planters (approx 30cm x 100 cm each) in my front garden just in front of a low brick wall. I would like to plant something that grows to a decent height (at least 1m ie higher than the low wall) for privacy. I would like it to be evergreen and it would be nice if it flowered but that’s not as important.

I am not an experienced or knowledgable gardener and everything I’ve tried has died. I’ve been told it’s because I am buying plants from the garden centre that look nice but are not suitable.

Please could you advise me on what to plant and how to make sure it lives! I need something low maintenance. I live in the south west of England.

Thank you!

How deep are they?

How much sun do they get? That and the above are the only two bits of info needed really! Lots of lovely things you could plant.

They are about a foot deep.

They get lots of sun, especially afternoon/evening, as the sun comes round to the front of the house.
Thank you! You can tell I don’t know what I don’t know that I didn’t include this info in my OP!

What soil or compost are you using and what have you tried so far?
And - possibly most important - did you keep on top of watering over the summer? Because anything in containers during the drought needed a LOT of watering, at times could have needed 2 or even 3 waters a day the heat was that bad. Depending on which plant, size of plant, compost, position (full sun or some shade, wind etc).

I’m using compost from the garden centre. Just general all purpose. No I didn’t water that much as we were away for 2 weeks. Sorry I don’t know the names of things I’ve tried but I probably didn’t look after them properly.

Based on your responses, I think rosemary would be a good option. Most evergreens are shrubs/trees and will need a lot of watering in such a small container. Rosemary is fairly drought tolerant, flowers in Spring/Summer and looks good all year round. It can also be clipped to whatever shape you like: a formal hedge or a looser, more naturalistic look. I bloody love rosemary. It might only just grow tall enough for you, though...

A foot deep is not much for permanent shrub planting. There's not much room for root development and they'll need a lot of watering.
Do you want year round privacy, or just in the summer when you're out in the garden?

Ok. If you were away for 2 weeks during the drought and your plants in planters died it's not likely to have anything to do with the choice of plants! It's because the drought killed them. Sorry.
Bit like having an animal and leaving it without food and water for two weeks, coming back and finding it dead and asking what was wrong with it. Nothing, until it got left without food and water.

So starting again take out all the dead plants, give the soil a good bit of attention to break up any dry clumps, add some fresh, make sure it's really moist (but not waterlogged) before you put anything new in. Then go to the garden centre and choose some small shrubs - the labels will tell you what kind of growth to expect. And keep them watered. Even now it's not raining enough to keep anything alive.

Rosemary is a good shout.
Also lavender.
Various euonymus. These are great little shrubs, many are evergreens, you get silver and gold and green foliage varieties and variegated (more than one colour on the leaves).
Euphorbias are beautiful, some annual and some longer lived lovely foliage and great shapes.
The smaller ceanothuses will give you blue flowers in the summer, blue flowering things are quite rare. Lovely plants.
Maybe some dwarf conifers, junipers for instance.

But water water water. And if you leave them during a drought either set up an automated watering system or pay someone to water them or you'll return to a bunch of dead plants again. 😂🌿🌿🌿🌿🌿

Christmas box. It has a wonderful winter scent and white flowers

Rosemary is the best answer here. Dwarf conifers and Christmas box with scorch and die in full sun.

My rosemary and lavender has done very well.this summer.

Have a look at cordylines - a structural palm like plant that comes in different colours and sizes- the red ones give year round colour and you can pop a few bulbs like miniature daffodils or grape hyacynths around it for the spring. They don't like too much water and can cope with sun or part shade.

I would line the planters with some plastic if they're not already (bin liner or something) and make a couple of holes in the plastic at the bottom. Wood will absorb water away from the roots. The planters will last longer this way too as not getting sodden. Can you get them onto some little feet? A planter slightly up off the ground will succumb less easily to ground frost.

A foot of soil won't really support a meter tall plant. It will run out of nutrients quite quickly.

You can google your preferences and put in the lowest winter temps for your area and it will throw up some good suggestions for container plants. There are loads to chose from ! 😊

Thank you so much everyone. Yes I can see that not watering this summer was stupid! But this isn’t the only year I’ve failed. Interesting that they may not be deep enough for the size of plant I was trying to grow. Thank you for the tip about lining them. And realise I need to be much better at watering.

I will look up the plants suggested. I have rosemary in the back and lavender in a front bed and they have done well but are not very high so I hadn’t considered them.

Should I plant something now or wait until Spring do you think?

Hi @Iamnotanumberiamafreewoman . Autumn is actually great for planting. The ground is still warm and the weather should be wetish (mostly) and it gives plants a chance to settle in and get comfortable before spring requires them to expend energy starting to grow bigger! Now is ideal - I wouldn't leave it too much longer, even though we are unseasonably warm it's definitely getting colder. Bit more advice in this article if you're interested.

Go and see what's nice in the garden centre now. Anything that looks healthy and is recommended for containers and won't grow too big is worth a punt.

https://www.richardjacksonsgarden.co.uk/planting-shrubs-and-trees-in-autumn/?srsltid=AU7gw4XqC8HJ9IFxBsrlmz1NkszTt5FSo0vDN3sTZpZwpjSz3kYViYVI

Now is the ideal time for planting in the ground because the roots can get down before next year's heat arrives. In pots it doesn't matter as much, but you may as well get them started now I think! You might want to buy some topsoil to use in them because it'll hold on to moisture better than compost. You could grow rosemary standards (like small trees) and underplant them with something else around the bare trunks/stems.

Just a thought OP. Are the planters standing on concrete or soil?

If it's soil you would be much better off getting rid of the planters and planting directly into the soil. It'll be less watering and your plants will stand a better chance.

Because these pots are against a wall they'll get doubly hot and the wall will radiate heat back at night. It's a tough spot for plants.

If you're stuck with pots as it's concrete here's what I'd do.

Are the pots metal? If so planting anything will be pretty hopeless. They just get too hot.

The best pots are terracotta/china and as big as you can fit in the space.

Make sure the pots have good holes in the bottom. If they don't the plants will drown when it rains a lot. Also, stand your pots on something to raise them up off the surface as if the hole is directly on the concrete water won't drain out and again, your plant will drown.
Plant now so your rosemary can get established over the winter.
Before you plant empty the pots out and get new compost. The old compost will be exhausted and possibly have pests/disease in. Throw the old compost on your garden as a mulch - it won't do any harm there.

Buy the best compost you can afford from a garden centre.

Plant now and give them a good water in. Buy the rosemary from a garden centre, not the little pot you get at the supermarket.

A topping of bark or chippings on top of the soil will keep water in and stop it evaporating so much during hot days.

When the spring comes keep watering - you might need to do that every day.
That compost will only have enough nutrients for six weeks or so. After that you'll need to add some sort of plant food to the water. Ask at the garden centre for what they'd recommend.

Hope this helps.

You could plant rosemary. It's evergreen, growns up to 1m high, drought-resistant, flowers in summer, attractive to bees, blue scented flowers, the leaves are scented too, and you can add it to your roast lamb. 😊

Some lavenders grow quite tall, just have a browse through any online nurseries. Plants like cosmos and verbena bonariensis will add height in the summer months, though cosmos is an annual.
Definitely add some topsoil to add a bit of oomph to the compost.

Thank you so much for the further advice. The planters are wooden and have feet so are raised. Under is large stones and under the stones is a ground sheet thing to keep weeds down. This was done by previous owners.
Trip to the garden centre this weekend!

If it was me I'd have the large stones and ground sheet up, dig in some compost and plant into the soil. After the first year you'd only ever need to water in extreme heat/long dry spells.

One of the great mysteries of modern gardening to me is that people cover up the soil - spend money on fabric membrane and stones, then buy pots and compost to grow something that will be high maintenance where a plant in the ground would be a cheaper, lower maintenence option.

Wooden planters that size willl dry out in a flash in summer and would need watering every day. They aren't really suitable for the long-term planting of evergreen shrubs.

This!