Low maintenance plants for front garden?

littleme96

We recently bought our first house and are wanting to tackle the rather neglected front garden. It's currently a weed covered lawn, with flower borders on the perimeter, which are also completely weed infested!

We are wanting to keep the borders and to plant some easy to look after plants which look good all year round. The soil is horrible clay, but the garden gets sun all day. Any suggestions for plants to consider?

In addition we'd like to put another plant in the middle of the lawn (to break up the carpet of weeds!). A small tree or something similar would be good, but we don't want anything which would cause problems with roots and the foundations as it not be too far from the house...

Any help greatfully received on what sort of plants would be suitable.

Thanks in advance from a keen (but only just starting out) gardener!

amcluesent

I'd consider replacing a poor lawn with gravel and planting - https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3289850

>Any help greatfully received on what sort of plants would be suitable<

crocus.co.uk do a good plant-finder where you can specify the conditions and type of plant and it'll suggest.

cootambear

strawbs in the border after weeding

blossomhill_2

Hardy geraniums could give you a lot of colour and if you included geranium nodosum it is evergreen, and underplant with bulbs you would get year round interest - as the bulb foliage dies down the geranium foliage would spring up to cover it. Chose a few with the Award of Garden Merit (AGM) and a range of heights to keep interesting and a long flowering period
A packet of cosmos sprinkled between would complement and give very easy-care summer colour too
Crabapple is nice in the middle
Why not cover the lawn with fabric and bark chips and just have borders? - as you start to enjoy the borders more you can peel back the fabric and make them wider

PS - if I had a garden with all day sunshine I would grow short bushy sunflowers!

torbrex

Eonymus and cotoneaster for evergreen and Hydrangea and Mahonia for size and colour of flower will give plenty of interest year round and you should consider as many perenials and bulbs as your budget will allow.

A tip my dad gave to me when I was starting with my first garden was to dig the borders over and have a blank sheet to start with then visit the garden centre every month to see what was in flower and that way you know it will be in flower at roughly the same time next year.

caeler

Hi OP I am in a new build and I'm finding it tough to grow anything and the lawn has failed miserably. In winter the clay stays water logged and in summer it dries not completely. Thanks to amclusent for the link to the post with a solution, really fantastic and I am sorely tempted!

I found Erica Heather has grown well, rosemary is doing okay. Hydrangea is doing well and so is my Red Robin (apart from those pesky caterpillars!!). I'm trying Hebe and Cotoneaster at the moment, fingers crossed apparently both will grow in shade and in clay like soil!

poppysarah

Fake plants.
Astroturf.

blossomhill_2

caeler wrote: »

Hi OP I am in a new build and I'm finding it tough to grow anything and the lawn has failed miserably. In winter the clay stays water logged and in summer it dries not completely

Roses roses roses! - they love clay and cope with drought once they have establshed - you will need to give a few washing up bowls of grey water in the first year - and some ground cover ones among the hybrid teas will give you lovely colour for most of the summer if you choose the varieties carefully

Add a handful or two of compost to the hole when planting and rose feed during the year and you will never look back