Need some advice on what to plant

JackieO

I'd appreciate some advice on what to plant in this section of my garden (this is by far the worst corner).

I think a few plants that are there need to come out and I need to add a bit of colour but I've no idea where to start. I'm a total novice.

Anyone have any ideas on what I should remove, replace or put elsewhere?

(Obviously the first step will be to paint the fence - I do know how to do this! )

Hoof Hearted2

JackieO wrote: »

I'd appreciate some advice on what to plant in this section of my garden (this is by far the worst corner).

I think a few plants that are there need to come out and I need to add a bit of colour but I've no idea where to start. I'm a total novice.

Anyone have any ideas on what I should remove, replace or put elsewhere?

(Obviously the first step will be to paint the fence - I do know how to do this! )

The best advice you'll get is have a look around at other gardens and see what you like and come up with your own ideas, it's a trial and error process and that way the garden will have your own personal stamp and you'll enjoy it even more.

JackieO

Sorry, I guess my question is more around what is there already. I would like to introduct some colour but need to make some space by removing some of what is there and I'm not sure what I should leave and what should go. I don't really know how big most of these things are going to get or what they even are.

JackieO

I have some hydrangeas I'd like to put in and I think I'd like to replace the creeper with something not so agressive as the one thats there.

Hoof Hearted2

JackieO wrote: »

Sorry, I guess my question is more around what is there already. I would like to introduct some colour but need to make some space by removing some of what is there and I'm not sure what I should leave and what should go. I don't really know how big most of these things are going to get or what they even are.

Remove what you don't like and keep what you like, the height of the plants already planted is determined by the person doing the pruning!.

JackieO

Thanks for your help!

Hoof Hearted2

JackieO wrote: »

Thanks for your help!

Your welcome!

looksee

Its a bit difficult to tell, but I think from the left you have a tree that seeds itself, I don't know what it is called but they are all around the place and grow like weeds. Not very attractive but gets quite big. Remove it.

I think the big yellow one is golden privet. Again not very exciting, good for a hedge but totally pointless as a specimen carved into a random block. If it is not trimmed it will grow another couple of feet or so, get straggly and not very attractive. I would remove it.

Not sure what the next one is, has it flowered? Looks a bit more like a herbaceous plant than a shrub, but I cannot tell. Maybe leave it.

The next one is a sad little conifer - it is healthy but it has been aimlessly pruned into submission.

I think the next one is most likely lonicera but it could be box, either way it is not doing much.

The climber is Virginia Creeper which is healthy and doing well, and could cover the fence if you wanted it to.

I would remove all of the shrubs, clear the area, put some new edging across and top-dress with some new topsoil. What you plant then depends on how much sun the area gets - what time of day was the pic taken?

JackieO

Thanks Looksee - that is incredibly helpful.

Funnily enough, the tree to the most left was first to go! I cut the whole thing out last week. As you say, it was pretty unattractive and it was growing in all kinds of weird directions - behind the shed etc.

Thats about as far as I've gotten so far.

The area gets some sun. Pic was taken in the evening but looking out there now, the tops of some things are getting sun. Its being a bit sheltered by a big shed on the right.

JackieO

This is another pic of the one you weren't sure about. I'm not sure what it is either, but after having a closer look - it seems my husband has gone after this one with the hedge trimmer also! Once he gets going with that thing he just cut everything in sight!

looksee

I have a suspicion you have two things going there. I can see some flower buds that could be passion flower and at the moment I have a passion flower that has collapsed onto and has covered a shrub - on your one I can't tell what the other one is but it just might be a honeysuckle. You will not get flowers unless you take the hedge cutter off himself.

looksee

It seems as though it is north facing so you will be better to get things that suit that situation. If that is a passion flower it is not likely to fully bloom where it is situated.

I go back to my previous advice of taking out everything, putting in a bit of new topsoil, then plant ferns, berginias (look for named varieties with good colour, the common one is rather anaemic shade of pink), helleborus niger (Christmas rose), and your hydrangea would be good there too. Get colour with pansies - don't expect them to last indefinitely, replace them at intervals.

JackieO

Thanks for that Looksee.

I'm just attaching a few more pics of that shrub you thought was a passion flower. There is definately only a single plant there anyway. You might have an idea from the attached.

Just a question about the smallers shrubs - if I take these out will they tolerate being moved elsewhere easily?

looksee

Oh no, that is not a passion flower, or a honeysuckle, I don't know what it is. This really is not a good time of year to be moving plants, if you could leave them till the late autumn you would have a better chance of them surviving.