I've been asked by a potential customer to provide suggestions and price for her front and back gardens. She wants a general tidy, including removing weeds that have grown through fabric and gravel in the front garden.
She then wants suggestions for planting shrubs/small hedge along a low 15" brick wall along the front perimeter, plus ideas for planting in containers on the gravel, including one by the front door which they got for their wedding and which now has a small dead hydrangea in it. Her planted out hydrangea in the back is fantastic!
For the front garden I have a few ideas for putting shrubs along the front wall (instead of a hedge) but have a few questions which I hope people can help with.
1. Will it be ok to remove gravel then cut back the fabric along the wall to provide space to dig, feed soil then plant shrubs? I know it's possible to slit fabric to plant some things but I want to be able to feed the soil before planting so would need more access.
2. Similar to above, is it ok to move gravel and cut sections from the fabric to spot plant in a couple of places? I'd thought of maybe a dwarf pampas grass.
3. Does anyone have any good ideas for a small half standard sized tree for the planter by the front door, and advice on where to buy good quality ones?
4. Any ideas for relatively easy maintenance plants for the small pots/containers? There is already some lavender in a couple of pots, which looks ok.
The idea generally is for not too much maintenance plus all year colour/interest. There is a toddler in the house so thorns and poisons are off the list!
I'd appreciate any suggestions. Thanks.
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Have you not thought about just taking up the existing felt and replacing it?. A lot of the time the stuff that is used is the cheap thin stuff that doesn't actually work and in my opinion is a waste of time. Doing it that way your giving yourself access to the ground you want to dig over and feed and a decent length roll of it is about £5-10.
As for moving the gravel and cutting the felt, you can move the gravel yes and when it comes to cutting I tend to make a X and plant in the middle and fold any touching edges back on themselves. this helps you to retain the use of the felt for weed control and not have a over sized hole.
For small trees theres plenty of small size ornamental ones i.e. bay leaf. I am not sure how hardy these are so its probably best to do your own research into what suits when the planters will be placed etc.
In planters I've always used things like lavender, rosemary, dwarf conifers, unominous etc as they're slow growing and have colour/smell and they're good for kids to touch :)
Thanks Rory. I'd thought about replacing the whole sheet but was trying to keep cost down and also thought that cutting back a strip along the wall (as opposed to cutting X's) would make it easier to dig and feed before planting.
There are plenty of Bay standards doing fine around here. I also came across nice looking Buddleja, Photinia and Viburnum standards.
I've seen some nice containered little Hebe's as well. I'd read that Euonymus can attract blackfly and also has poisonous berries, but that might depend on the type. I'll look at the dwarf conifers as well.