Plant help for an empty garden!

hanb

Hi all,


I'd really like to plant some plants to help our garden look a little less sad! My problem is, I am clueless and I don't know where to start.


We have two beds. I've tested our soil and it's Alkaline in both. The biggest one is the least alkaline.


At the end of the longest one is a geranium that seems to have survived winter and is back (will flower pink if it continues to survive!). In the other bed is a rose bush that has 3 roses appeared in the last couple of weeks. Apart from that, there's nothing in them.


Ideally I'd like some colour all year round rather than it being completely sad in the winter. I'd also like to be bee friendly as well as not poisoning neighbours cats! Other than that, I don't really know - there's almost too much information out there that I don't know where to start. I do know that I'm not going to be someone who would like to spend hours dealing with plants so low maintenance is definitely what I'm after I probably don't want lots of different bright colours.. I like purples and whites but not really yellows.


My gran has grown me some white lupin bless her so it sounds like I'll be getting some of those at the end of the month


Any ideas of where to start? Or some good, low maintenance plants I should look at? I really am clueless right now!


Some pics should they help (taken before mowing the lawn so much tidier now!)


https://ibb.co/dJOuT5

https://ibb.co/kspwak

Sarahdol75

Will be keeping an eye on this thread myself.

I have no idea on plants, if its got colour on it I keep it, most of the time I get told its a weed.

belfastgirl23

Do you have neighbours who are gardeners or who have nice gardens? My experience is that gardeners are quite generous and often are happy to pass on seeds or clipping. And you have the advantage of knowing the plants grow in your locality. You could try the Nextdoor app and ask for advice?

Kyrae

Wow, where to start, those beds have great potential! I tend to go for low maintenance plants that slugs don't eat and that are bee and wildlife friendly, and I like the cottage garden sort of look If you like that sort of thing and the border gets plenty of sun, here's some ideas:

Shrubs - I love hebes! They generally don't need pruning, you can find ones that stay quite small, lots of flowers, and really low maintenance! If you don't mind some spikes, berberis and pyracantha are lovely and give evergreen colour with berries for the birds. I love buddleia for the bees and butterflies but it does grow petty big if you don't cut it back every year. Black lace sambucus is nice for a different colour leaf too, and flowering quince is lovely trained against a wall, really beautiful pink or red flowers in spring! Flowering currant and lavatera are pretty too for pink flowers.

Trees - If you fancy a tree, there are some lovely small rowan trees, or you can train an apple to grow along the fence!

Perennials - These are plants that regrow every year. I love aquilegia, penstemon, lambs ear, geum, salvias, peony, poppies, mexican fleabane, sea holly, veronica, ox eye daisy, achillea, asters, dianthus, iberis, jacob's ladder, ladies mantle, sedum, pasque flower, alpine phlox, potentilla, scabious, schizostylis, thrift, tiarella. All of those are pretty slug resistant and low maintenance!

Hope that helps!

xMonsoonx

I guess you need to decide if you want decorative and edible?

hanb

Amazing! Thank you, lots to look in to!

Sorry, I should have said it's an east facing garden so gets sun in the middle of the day. The top end gets sun til 6ish about now before it goes behind the house. So not loads of sun but a bit!

I don't think we'll do edible, from what I've read it's quite a lot of effort and for now at least, I'm not ready for that! Also, OH only really eats broccoli and cauliflower so it would be a bit dull

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Nasturtiums, wild style geraniums, primroses, foxgloves, ox eye daisies, various herbs (thyme, camomile, chives, sage, dill, etc - not mint or basil) are very tough and insects love their flowers. You don't have to eat herbs to grow them.

Have a go at sunflowers.

Sweet peas, ivy, a climbing rose trained across the fence (flowers grow from vertical shoots, but have to have horizontals to grow those spurs from), hollyhocks, delphiniums, viper's bugloss, teasel, rosemary, lavender, all seem pretty much indestructible in my garden.

Just faff about with random seeds and see what grows and what doesn't. That's worked for me, anyhow.

springdreams

I'd recommend hydrangeas, lavendar and fuchsias. They are very low maintenance.

tiz

Sign up for the Thompson & Morgan newsletter / keep an eye on their website. They do perennial collections of plug plants where you get a big batch of small plants to grow on that gives you a good mix. You can end up with 70 odd plants for £10. Perennials are plants that stay alive (fingers crossed) year after year. I'd be tempted with some clematis for the side border - they'll need some supports but that will give you hight as well.

For now you might also like some annuals - plants that only last a year. They'll give you flowers and colour now so good for filling in the gaps with others grow. Again look out for offers or have a look for big packs of mixed seeds. Again buying plugs will give you more for the same price and they will grow fast now the weathers warming up.

elsien

You might not want edible that's hard work but what about some perennial herbs? Bee friendly, low maintenance and useful. Thymes, lemon balm, oregano, rosemary, sage, that sort of thing?

Honeysucklelou2

Heucheras are good for colour all year, flowers in late Spring/ early summer. If you choose the varieties carefully you could have purple leaved, orange, vivid green and all kinds of shades in between.

Euonymus is good for all year colour...especially in winter. It stands out then when everything else has lost its leaves. Honeysuckles are good for training across a fence or even climbing through a tree.

Crab apple trees are quite compact and have interest across the seasons.

Ceanothus is a good evergreen plant to have with stunning blue flowers at this time of year.

Consider planting some bulbs that will come up each year. Nerines are great for autumnal colour. Crocosima is good for ease of growth and spread but can spread to the point of being a weed in some cases!