Easy to care for plants for raised border bed

lennyclon

I have built a 4.8m long raised bed planter for our south facing front garden. It's about 30cm and 40cm wide

We haven't had much success on that border in the past probably because we are not great gardeners and the soil not deep enough. Hence the question and the raised bed!

Have put in some good topsoil with compost mix. We would like ideas now on what we could put in it. Could be the same plant but ideally it should be very easy to care for and add a bit of colour a good part of the year. Someone has suggested lavender. Anything else?

Probably don't want anything over a 1.5m in height either

lennyclon

lennyclon wrote: »

I have built a 4.8m long raised bed planter for our south facing front garden. It's about 30cm and 40cm wide

We haven't had much success on that border in the past probably because we are not great gardeners and the soil not deep enough. Hence the question and the raised bed!

Have put in some good topsoil with compost mix. We would like ideas now on what we could put in it. Could be the same plant but ideally it should be very easy to care for and add a bit of colour a good part of the year. Someone has suggested lavender. Anything else?

Probably don't want anything over a 1.5m in height either

Pieris Japonica, Nandina Domestica, hebes, Bowles Mauve, Skimmia, huechera, various grasses. Lavender can be fairly finicky. All of the above are bullet proof options that should grow well, stay below 1.5m and require very little maintenance. Any garden centre or nursery will help you with picking low maintenance evergreen shrubs with some colour or interest.

okedoke

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Pieris Japonica, Nandina Domestica, hebes, Bowles Mauve, Skimmia, huechera, various grasses. Lavender can be fairly finicky. All of the above are bullet proof options that should grow well, stay below 1.5m and require very little maintenance. Any garden centre or nursery will help you with picking low maintenance evergreen shrubs with some colour or interest.

Geranium Rozanne - needs almost no care and will flower for months during the summer. Could plant some of the above shrubs for structure and intersperse Rozeanne for colour. They’re a great plant

JPup

What is below the 30cm of soil? Is it a hard bottom or access to ground below?

Either way, now is a good time to plant summer bulbs. You can plant them around some small perennials.

looksee

Do be careful buying those packets of bulbs that are in hardware shops at the moment - masses of colourful flowers, but if you do indepth research many of them are fussy/ temperamental/ need to be brought in or minded during the winter/ all kinds of other issues, which are not necessarily mentioned on the packet.

Also be aware of the difference between perennials and annuals. If you plant annuals they will flower - often spectacularly - for this year only, the frost over the winter will kill them. Go for perennials in pots, they may seem expensive but they will give much better value in the long run.

Be aware that the bright red and orange flowers sold as geraniums are actually pelargonums, and while lovely for the summer will mostly die off in the winter. Geraniums are hardy perennials with blue, white or pink flowers and are great value, they will spread and come back with no effort on your part beyond cutting off the dead flowers with a shears at the end of the season. Also be aware that the primulas with the huge flowers will last until the first heavy rain, then they will be beated to death. They will eventually produce more flowers but they will be the normal sized smaller ones, which are lovely but easier to get them in the first place. Likewise with large flowered pansies, treat them as annuals, invest in the small flowered viola types, they will come back much more reliably.

magicbastarder

looksee wrote: »

Also be aware of the difference between perennials and annuals.

and of herbaceous perennials (though it'll be easy enough to tell this time of year, few herbaceous perennials will have made their presence felt yet)

lennyclon

Thanks to all for the advice. That certainly gives us a good start


To Jpup -the 30cm is depth. I lined bottom with polythene and punched holes for some drainage

lennyclon

One other thing, approximately how many plants do you need to buy to cover that area well? Sorry for what might seem like basic questions.

JPup

lennyclon wrote: »

Thanks to all for the advice. That certainly gives us a good start


To Jpup -the 30cm is depth. I lined bottom with polythene and punched holes for some drainage

Interesting. So what is below the polythene? Is it hard ground (e.g. paving or concrete) or earth. The reason I ask is because if it's earth you should remove the layer of plastic and let the roots have access to the ground below.

Also, a photo would make it easier to give advice. Hard to picture it without some context. e.g. is the bed next to a lawn, is it up against a wall, any trees around it etc.

looksee

Agreed, cut a square out of the polythene, just allowing a few inches to turn in from the bottom of the walls.

lennyclon

JPup wrote: »

Interesting. So what is below the polythene? Is it hard ground (e.g. paving or concrete) or earth. The reason I ask is because if it's earth you should remove the layer of plastic and let the roots have access to the ground below.

Also, a photo would make it easier to give advice. Hard to picture it without some context. e.g. is the bed next to a lawn, is it up against a wall, any trees around it etc.

I was advised to put the polythene at the bottom to stop weeds coming up. Oops!. There is just soil below. I have already added the top soil now so can't easily take the polythene out. So what now?


This is the web address below of an image of the planter and set up in my garden.

imagizer.imageshack.com/img922/1203/GCp3sL.png

fryup

if you're looking for a low maintenance veg then - beetroot, never fails

looksee

In a south facing garden that is going to dry out very easily, so you may get away with the polythene in the bottom. If it fills up with water though you will have no choice but to empty it and at least cut a full length slit in the bottom. That is a very small volume planter - is the 40cm the width of the actual soil? You should select maybe just one type of plant and choose something that is fairly hardy in terms of how demanding it is. I suspect you want something upright? Maybe some grasses? Or Agapanthus might work, it is happier in a confined space, is mainly upright and has a good flowering season.

JPup

Looks nice. I guess it depends what you want. My personal opinion is that people are obsessed with weeds and we should live and let live. If a plant wants to take root in your garden so be it. Let it grow out a bit. It might surprise you by having nice flowers. If you don't like it after a while, you can take it out. Certainly no need for any weedkillers or pesticides in a space as small as that.

If you are thinking veg or herbs though, then maybe scratch that. The free and easy attitude to weeds makes more sense in an ornamental garden.

As for the planting, you should look at the suggestions from dancinpants and the others (geraniums would be nice) plus there is room there for roses (smaller varieties). I'd look to add a mix of summer bulbs as well. You can look at Mr Middleton for inspiration but can source locally of course.

lennyclon

Well I went out with a fork this evening and pierced the polythene right along and plenty. Not quite a slit but hopefully it should do the job.

In answer to looksee above, yes the dimensions are 480cmL x 40cm W x30cm D.

Thanks to all for your help

Hocus Focus

You could add Rosemary to the lists of plants advised above, and can be used in cooking. Also some vegetables are a good addition to this kind of a border, e.g. the Beetroot mentioned above, plus Rainbow Chard, which looks quite colourful and decorative, and Kale is quite a handsome, architectural-looking plant.