please help me fill a big empty bed

[licquorice]

I have an empty bed in my garden about 4m wide and 3m deep. It is in full view from the kitchen window. It slopes upwards away from the house, and is the upper of several tiers, so it is at a higher level than the house, so I don't want too many dense tall plants to obscure the view of what mischief the kids are getting up to beyond. It will also be viewed from the other side so needs to look reasonable all round. It is in full sun and quite dry because of the slope. We have normal soil. I have no idea where to start to fill this space. Suggestions please........

wild flowers,buy in bulk,and lay loads of seed.
no maintenanace and will improve every year

Will be very bare in winter though. Need some all year round structure as right outside the kitchen window

I'm not very good at planting up a bed in one go so not the best person to ask. But a friend of mine had something that sounds fairly similar and planted it up with lots of fairly compact growing shrubs that flowered at different times of the year. One tip I read is to go to the garden centre each month and buy a couple of plants that are in bloom that month so you get colour most of the year round. I guess you could then also plant bulbs for the various seasons as well.

I agree a structure of shrubs is what I need. I'm rather nervous about just randomly picking at garden center

Japanese maple - leafy and delicate
Lavatera - flowers through summer and into autumn for late colour, grows fast too so will quickly fill a space in summer. Cut back hard in late autumn.
Dogwood - lovely winter colour from their stems/branches. Again, cut back hard yearly as it is the new growth that gives the colour through the winter.
Maybe some grasses? These do well in dry soil.

Philadelphus (mock orange) will smell gorgeous in early summer, but you might prefer Choisia as it is evergreen.

Agree cornus (dogwood) is dramatic for winter/early spring and provides structure. Get lots of spring bulbs to plant in the autumn.

You could also set some slabs in at random intervals and sit seasonal pots on them.

philadelphus and cornus are quite tall aren't they? I don't mind some spikes to give structure but don't want a dense shrub to block view

My cornus is pretty big, however much I try to keep it to a manageable size.

Maybe some ideas here

There's an application on the BBC Gardening website called Virtual Garden - you can design your own garden - might be worth a look?

virtual garden link here

Nice evergreen shrubs are a good place to start.
Pittosporum Tom Thumb is rich purple and lovely, Pittosporum Tobira nanum (dwarf) is gorgoues with scented white flowers.

www.crocus.co.uk/plants/_/shrubs/classid.4262/

www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/plants/plant_finder/plant_pages/11190.shtml

I also like Choisya Aztec pearl which is moe delicate than C ternata and has pretty scnted white flowers twice a year.

www.scentedshrubs.com/proddetail.php?prod=CHO1

All slow growing and easy to clip and will do ok in dry soil (if they are well watered as they settle in).

Once the shrubs are in you can choose some pretty perennials, good idea is to go to a good local garden centre every month and choose something lovely which is in flower then so you have colour all summer.

Hardy geraniums bulk out well and come in lots of lovely colours.

Lovely website to peruse here
www.woottensplants.co.uk/

Thanks for the suggestions all

Message withdrawn

I am really not a gardening expert (though I do enjoy it & have a big garden to look after/try to do something with at the moment..) - but your description just made me think it sounds ideal for a rockery!

The rocks would help fill the space and give it some interest in Winter, and you can plant it with alpines, mini shrubs and cushions of stuff like aubrieta so it would all be quite low and not block the view. We inherited a rockery which has a few different types of pulmonaria which look fab this time of year, you can also put in Spring bulbs and then things like sedum for the Autumn, and some evergreen leafy things, mini conifers and maybe some Winter bulbs (what are those yellow flowers??) for the Winter. What do you think?

herbs - rosemary, bay, lemon balm,thyme, etc

easy to care for and don't mind a good pruning, every now and again!

think mediterianian (sp?)...

I like the rockery idea, and herbs too although I already have a herb bed elsewhere. Thanks

Try putting in a few Veg, some look really good as they grow and you get something out of it at the end. Tomatoes are easy.