plants to cover a small wall

[GoldenSnitch]

Our front garden was designed by DH's Grandmother in the mid 1980's (when she bought the house) It was supposed to be a sort of rockery with a front retaining wall made from pieces of broken paving slabs. The garden then slopes up towards the path which is at a higher level than our house.

It looks as rubbish as it sounds.

Last summer, we dug out all of the ancient plants which had gotten too big or woody and covered the whole area with weed supressing membrane and wood chips. We've filled in some of the gaps between the remaining shrubs with new plants - we have a few more gaps to fill this summer.

The other thing I would love to do is cover the 'crazy paving' wall with some nice plants (actually what I'd love to do is rip out the whole lot and start again but I don't have the cash to do it so will have to settle with plants for now)

What sort of plants could I use to cover the wall? It's about a foot high and about 6 inches thick. There's nowhere to plant in front of the wall so I need to plant things in the front of the bed which will grow over and down the wall without spreading over too much of the bed behind. In front of the wall is our path to the front door so I wouldn't really want it spreading over that either. The lower maintainenece the better. Something like Ivy would be a nightmare.

I've got in my head an image of a bushy little plant with purple-y flowers but I'm not sure what it's called or if it'd be suitable.

Am I asking for the impossible?

I can't quite visualise what you mean.

Could the bushy little plant with purple flowers be a hebe? Plants that are described as prostrate will grow sideways rather than up, and there are prostrate varieties of hebe and ceanothus (which has blue flowers) but most prostrate shrubs will have quite stiff branches and so won't flop down over the wall.

If your plan is ultimately to rip the garden out and redo it, perhaps you could have a temporary solution with annuals? Nasturtiums will trail and you can find cream or black varieties if the orange is too garish. Ipomoea and convolvulus will trail if you don't give them a stick or trellis to grow up.

My description was a bit rubbish wasn't it

I've added a photo to explain it better. It was taken while we were clearing and putting the membrane down so it's not great but better than nothing.

I'm not sure we will ever get round to ripping the garden out. We'll probably move before we ever get round to it.

It's that little wall at the front I want to disguise.

I've tried annuals before but they tend to get eaten before they can get very big.

Did you mean Aubretia with the purple flowers?
You could try a small leaf trailing Ivy (these types wont take over) or Vinca minor which has a trailing habit, purple or white flowers and is evergreen.
Some hardy geraniums are good for trailing over low walls, sanguinieum is one which has white or hot pink flowers and is quite tough.
www.easytogrowbulbs.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=710

After some internet searching, I think Lobelia might be what I was thinking of.

The geraniums look good though.

I need something that will trail over the little wall without taking over the garden behind.

Just found a pic of Aubretia - that could very well be the stuff! Thanks Pannacotta

Would it work where I want to put it do you think?

The house is West facing so the front garden only really gets sun in the afternoon/evening

Aubretia will grow pretty much anywhere. In my last garden it grew like a weed. It comes in several shades of purple including a lovey bluey-violet colour as well.

Will the weed supressing membrane stop it spreading backwards and taking over the whole garden?

Will look for Aubretia if so.

Anything else I could use? It's an awfully long stretch for just one plant. Although I could get a few colours I suppose

The other thing witrh Aubretia is that whilst lovely it only flowers for about 3 -4 weeks I think. It is good for trailing though.

What sort of soil do you have? Is it a sunny spot? If its sunny and well drained you could consider lavender - either normal hedging type which although it wouldn't trail would after a few years fill out to cover the edge or the prostrata sort might be good?

There's this place near us which sells loads of different sorts, visit or mail order.

We live in DH's grandparents' old house too.

Ooh, didn't know about the flowering teffetacat!

The soil out there is rubbish. Very clay-ey and damp. House is west facing so it only gets the afternoon sun too and that is filtered by the trees in the park so I would say it's shaded.

I love lavendar and planted loads in the back garden around the patio - all different sorts, lots of bunny ears, pinks and whites as well as good old hidcote. It died

I've got a couple of Hidcote's doing OK in another bit of the back garden now but they're staying quite small. I'd love a lavendar hedge like my Grandma used to have but I'm not sure it'll ever happen in this house.

Hellebores are doing really well out the front but they don't trail.

I like living in this house - I love knowing that everyone who ever lived in this house is related

Mine always flowered from about March until July - if the weather was nice they would still have some flowers on them at the end of August.

I love the idea of a lavender hedge - I planted some last year and it all died. Ever the optimist I shall try again.

If you have clay, you might find that roses do well - there are some varieties which are good as ground cover. Some are described here. Lots of rose nurseries sell online.

There are already 4 rose bushes in the front garden but some of those look lovely. I've got a couple of gaps in the bed itself which some of those shorter bush forming roses would look good in too...

Right, Aubretia sorted. Now I need something white I think...

Do you mean white ground cover? Snow in summer is very attractive if you have the right conditions and it might flop prettily over the wall.

Would it cope with very heavy, clay soil?

Ah, I was forgetting that you had clay (which was why I recommended roses, duh ). I have clay and it did well at first but then expired - I don't think it likes to be soggy around the roots. You could add some fine grit for drainage, I guess.