Garden advice - photo inc

[RainbowSunshine21]

Hey!

I just wondered if anyone had any ideas on making this space better. The big brick wall was built before we moved here. The border plants die down every year. I’ve put in a couple of climbing roses but wondered if anyone knew of any other plants which would be suitable.

This part of the garden is mostly in the shade until late afternoon.

If anyone also has some design ideas, I’d really like to know too.

Thanks ☺️

You might be better putting this in Gardening section. Have you got a photo of it in the summer? To be honest most borders look a bit like that at the moment! You could maybe do with a bit of something evergreen to give a bit of interest in the winter.

Also, what is the orientation of the garden?

Can I suggest you ask MNHQ to move this to the Gardening board (just report your OP), there's a lot of very knowledgeable people there!

Which way does it face, what's your soil like and also may be relevant to say where in the country you are.

I would plant in large pots and try and add interest with non plant features.
if you want to keep the border add lots of compost and organic matter

Have you thought about terracing the garden with gabion baskets to give more level areas?

What about some espalier fruit trees?

A west facing wall. You could plant a fig tree and tie it in to wires along the wall. It will provide year round interest and give you fresh figs in the autumn for very little effort at all.

For winter colour - forsythia or winter jasmine under planted with bulbs - snow drops and narcissi. They don't need much looking after either.

Add some primulas and daffodils for spring.

Your roses will flow in summer. Perhaps add a summer jasmine or some honeysuckle. Lavender too.

Maybe Sedum spectabilis and crocosmia for Autumn.

All the above are pretty low effort, What sort of soil - clay? Loam? Builder's rubble?

It looks like a fabulous garden OP. I'm very envious 🙂

Yes,a better picture. Aspect? Then we'll ramble on about soil type.

My first thought is periwinkles (vinca) for ground cover. They do spread but you have such a large area to cover that it won’t matter. Lovely purple-blue flowers and evergreen so that will stop it looking bare in winter. Also pink, purple and white flowered varieties.

Honeysuckle to climb the walls. They don’t mind some shade. Also evergreen.

So many choices! 🌺

I would go wider with the border if possible. Add plant which are evergreen and shade tollerant (a quick google search will give you lots of ideas of plants. I love viburnum, skimmias, witch hazel gives flowers in late winter / early spring. Consider hostas and ferns for summer green there are loads of colours. Hebes are lovely too, Cyclamen for winter. If it stays damp hydrangeas are happy in shade as are Rhodadendrums (mine is shaded and dry and currently very green) Camellias like shade and flower early in the year.
You need shrubs to form a structure for all year round and then maybe summer colour in the form of bulbs and bedding plants closer to the edge. work out how far out you need to come to get sunlight (if at all) My best decision in my garden was to make deep beds, feed with manure etc, mulch and plant up. then i went shoping each month in a garden centre, looked at what looked great in the perenial section (they keep coming back) anything i liked i checked to see if it would suit the conditions i was planting in and then bought one or two each month. that way you get interest through all the seasons

If you want really low maintenance along the fence and to cover up the wall you could just plant lots of shrubs with different seasonal interest. It sounds like you are planting lots of ephemeral plants that don't survive winter or don't provide interest all year round. What @ACurlyWurlyTail said re plants, plus my pyracantha has been amazing this year, I'm going to plant more of that along my fence. So many pretty berries just now and flowers in summer for a long time.

What is your objective ?

If you just want to cover up the wall, probably best to plant a row of fir trees down it or some sort of high hedge, or some other fast growing trees or large shrubs. Think about the impact the root system may have on the wall, which looks like it might be pricey to replace. Be aware that if you try to cover the fence with high bushes/trees then it is going to be quite hard work pruning the tops given the height of that wall/fence.

I wouldn't plant anything that grows directly on the wall/fence because it will just destroy it over time and create a maintenance nightmare.

If I had a bbq table and chairs or if the lounge window was where the photograph was taken from I would put in a wideish but not tall evergreen tree/shrub so when you look out you see greenery. And not the wall.

Eleagnus, mahonia (bit spiky), prunus lusitania (I think the name is), a bit boring but could grow something through it in summer. Or rhododendron, camellia.

Personally I would put a tree to break it up. Something with roots which are not invasive, in order to avoid risking damaging the wall. A magnolia, japanese maple, or crab apple would really break up the view and make it much more appealing year round.

Some ideas for winter flowering cover and variegated evergreen plants.
The flowers are ‘winter beauty’ an evergreen clematis. This is a photo I took today and I love have flowers to look at during this dreary time of the year. This is the second garden I have grown it in. I have had it blooming some years as early as Christmas and other years until the end of February. It will grow to 3 metres, but we keep ours trimmed to 6 ‘.
The lollipop trained variegated tree is ‘Pink Marble’ Photonia. A different variety of Red Robbin. Again it is evergreen, but instead of red, in spring the leaves are edged in a vivid pink.

It looks really bitty at the moment with all the little bits of trellis and hanging pots. I'd go for some big evergreen plants; climbers ,shrubs, small trees... There's a garden near me which is squeezed between two houses and gets pretty much all day shade and it's lovely. Really densely planted with greenery, a few mirrors, some interesting statuey thing... I think with shady gardens you need to really embrace the shade to make it work.

Definitely evergreens.

I'd put in lots of spring bulbs which will come up every spring: daffodil, narcissi, tulips and Muscovy. That would give it colour. Also winter flooring pansies. I'd plant honeysuckles along the back against the wall with some supports, as it copes well with shade. You can also buy fruit trees like apple and plum that only grow 1.2 metres tall that could go against the back wall.

Thank you for all of the advice. I’m sorry I posted it on the wrong board - I hope we’re in the right place now.

I’ve attached a couple more pictures. The garden goes round to the right of the pictures with views over our village. It’s a tiered style garden so we will be needing a lot of help in the future too! We’re quite high up.

Garden is North West facing with clay like soil. Ferns and heathers do well in the soil but I wanted a bit of height as the wall is a bit severe when we look out the back, especially this time of year.

I love the idea of a winter clematis and honeysuckle - I’ll definitely be on the hunt for those this weekend.

Thank you again for all the advice so far 😊xx

Think of the winter bones as well as the evergreens.

Many plants lose their leaves in winter but keep architectural forms, or interestingly coloured stems. They make for a more interesting winter landscape than just evergreens, which can also be a bit boring in summer.

I'd still definitely pop in a winter flowering camellia in there. But I'm a sucker for them, and think they're definitely worth their blandness in summer.

I am glad that you like the idea of winter flowering Clematis.
Just to say that you will mainly find these for sale later in the season, (I checked out some on line suppliers, and you can buy now, but they won’t be delivering these types of plants until late March.)
Mostly you would be advised to plant after the last frost, so that they develop good roots and settle in, months before their first winter. They tend to be cheaper closer into summer too.
I also have winter flowering honeysuckle (also confusingly called ‘winter beauty’ same as the clematis) but mine took several years to flower, unlike the clematis. It produces a lot of outward growing shoots -so more bushy in habit, so it needs much more pruning once it gets going.