What to plant along this border?

Slinky

We've just had our drive replaced, previously there was a strip of 'grass' along the side between the drive and the shrub border which has been difficult to mow and full of weeds. We want to take the last of the grass out and plant up with suitable plants to edge the drive and suppress the weeds, in particular we have bindweed.  The soil is a light silty sand and it faces south.  Suggestions would be welcome please.

Farway

Bindweed will survive, there is nothing that can smother it.

However, systemic weedkiller carefully applied will keep it under control as will removing it whenever you see it

That strip looks ideal for lavender, loves dry & neglect, trim once a year, loved by bees, smells & looks nice

twopenny

I think there are some really good shrubs in there already.

How much of the border are you wanting to add to?

If it's just the little bit in the front you're going to struggle to get something to grow because there will be the cement haunch for the bricks making it shallow along with the sandy hot soil - also the roots from the established shrubs.

You could tidy the shrubs to look neater. Feed them to make them flower. You could get a lavender or two in there and let them grow outwards over the dry but don't plant till autumn.

Easier would be to use some weed control fabric and either pebble gravel or (something I don't often suggest) the grey slate shingle which would enhance what you already have and blend with the drive.

The bindweed I just have an hour pulling out or cutting as near the root as possible. That seems to stop it mostly for the year or at least most of it.

Or do you want the whole lot out and start again?

Slinky

Thanks both, we have some lavender already further down and would be happy to fill in some of the gaps with a bit more.

The weedproof membrane and slate is a very good suggestion. We already have plum slate under our kitchen window nearby so it would tie the two areas together.  We're keeping the existing planting, too much hassle to dig out and replace particularly as we're still planting up the back garden after bulding works.

This is the existing slated area you may have seen on another of my threads. The tarmac and block border now comes all the way up to where you can just see that line cut across the concrete path.

twopenny

Then that would look nice, tie stuff in while you finish off the other stuff.

The photo isn't clear enough to suggest how to tidy it up but just pruning to shape might help.

While you're working elsewhere and using the drive some bright ideas may come to you or you may find it suits.

It's always worth having a bit extra space on a drive for winter wet when you are dragging stuff out of a car or standing back to close open car doors etc. That's what I've found with mine

Slinky

Yes we've gone about a foot wider which will help us park a little further away from our neighbour's adjoining drive. Previously we've been overlapping a bit when opening car doors.  The bushes need a little tidy, there's quite a lot of holly in there which is a bit of a pain, literally, to prune, but whoever planted it up in the first place did have some idea about planting there's a good mixture of flowering stuff

theoretica

You could try some sedum - they can grow in shallow dry soil, stay low, but won't out-thug the bindweed. 

Slinky

We went for lavender plants and plum slate in the end. The slate is very dusty at the moment, only laid it down today, so it will hopefully go darker when it's had some rain on it. Found a really good deal for 800kg £134 delivered rather than the 20kg at £14 bags we had for the area under the window. Ended up with about a third of a bulk bag left over so have put these under our raspberry canes out the back to keep the weeds down.