Suggestions for front garden-lavender dies every winter!

Derby2

Hello,

I was hoping someone would be able to come up with some suggestions on what to plant in my front garden!

We have a small area about 3m square and we have created a inner square with cotswald chipping surrounded by a boarder. 3 sides get good sun with one staying mostly in the shade.

The past two years we have planted lavender all the way rounf which has flowered beautifully in the summer, this year right up until the end of November, but then each winter it has died. I suspect the ground is not free-draining enough for it..

Are there any alternatives or any particular varieties anyone can suggest? I liked the lavander for it's bee-friendly aspect and of course the lovely smell as you walk to the front door!

Or is there perhaps anything we can do to the soil to give it another go?

Unfortunately buying plants every year isn't turning out very MSE!

Any help or advice would be very much appreciated.

Linda32

I know what you mean about buying plants every year, :eek: and your probably right about it not being free draining enough for lavender However, is it dead? the reason I ask is that I've got to lavenders in pots which certainly isn't free draining and No I didn't trim them back lightly after flowering last year as you are meant to do. I trimmed them back about three weeks ago and I noticed some new growth recently. *fingers crossed*

If they are dead then as the aspect gets sun these lots that you can grow. Thyme springs to mind as being pretty strong, smells nice and lives through the frost. Poached Egg plant attracts insects and Marigolds are also good.

HTH

Pipkin

Not all Lavenders are fully hardy, so it does depend on which variety you have.

The more traditional ones like Hidcote should be pretty hardy, the coloured ones (pink/white) are slightly less hardy and the french lavenders (have the flowers with the little tails on the end) are not hardy at all...so it could be that you just aren't planting the right kind for your situation.

madjackslam

Agree with Pipkin on the Hidcote suggestion. Alternatively, how about box (bit expensive, I know). How about grasses? Something small like Festuca Elijah blue would look neat and tidy all summer, but there's a huge range to choose from and many of them will be happy in a slightly claggier soil. A neighbour planted phormiums in a similar situation - they're larger, and not reliably frost hardy, but they looked nice while they lasted!!

blossomhill_2

If you want to retry lavender just chuck a handful of gravel into the planting hole, that will keep water around the roots draining freely
We grow it on solid clay with no problems by this method

And you could overwinter some lavender cuttings as an insurance policy

walkers-crisps_are_evil

Always plant Lavenders with the roots in horticultural sharp sand. As blossomhill has said gravel should do the same job. The roots do not like standing in water.

WestonDave

Some years back I grew some lavender from seed and having heard the old saying that the harder you treat them the better they like it (in terms of scent etc) I put a surplus plant with its soil root ball into a pile of gravel I'd swept off a crumbling concrete drive - it survived fine!

To be fair we had them in a clay soil garden for a while since we moved in but they've progressively died back over the last couple of winters (i.e before this dry one) and I suspect the combination of snow and waterlogged ground finished them off.

On that basis I'd dig the next planting holes and put plenty of drainage material - gravel, spare chippings etc into the planting hole with some compost to enable it to gain nutrients and give it a go like that.

(Suttons do seeds if that is cheaper than buying!)

Pipkin

Ours are planted in clay too, and I find the purple/blue lavenders do fine, but the pink or white ones it's hit and miss, some survive, some don't, and it's quite exposed and rough here.

zzzLazyDaisy

I've had a very sturdy lavender growing in my garden for years with no problem until the last really hard winter which finished it off. We had two extremely harsh winters before this year, so if you had new plants they might have struggled to survive whatever you did.

I agree you can't beat lavender by the front door, but you could try spending a bit more on one established plant to go by the front door, and then planting up with a mix of rooted cuttings of other plants begged from friends and neighbours plus a few bee friendly plants from a garden centre. If you do this, it is also worth shaking a few seed packets of annuals around as they come up quickly and make an amazing show in a short space of time. In this way you;ll get a lovely cottage garden and next year you will be able to see what likes your garden and what doesn't, and go from there.

juliebunny

As Linda says above, are you sure they are dead each year? I have around 5 lavendars, various varieties (no idea what!) in pots. I was convinced they were dead this year, but had been a bit slack in sorting out my pots and weeding out the dead ones, and lo and behold, this week after some rain and sunshine, they have started to go green again!! The ones in the shelter of the house definitely looked 'less dead' so that must be providing them with some shelter.

I do wrap up some of my plants each year in the garden in fleece - doesn't always work but my camelia limps back into lief each year even from a clay soil in mainly shade.

valk_scot

My Hidcote lavender survived -23'C temperatures two winters ago with just a tiny bit of frost damage at the tips, which I pruned off. I keep it tidy and compact though, no long straggly bits. It makes a nice low hedge if you plant it close and keep it tidy. You can always drop some fleece over it too if it's kept compact. And as you say, lots of flowers for the bees.