A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Plants and Flowers Forum Shrubs and Trees new borders at front of house.......help!

This springtime I am going to plant the 3ft width borders. Ideally I would like things around 4ft(for privicy) at the back, then smaller, and colourful towards the grass lawn.
I am in zone 6.
Feeling daunted and confused.

that would make me daunted and confused... except, you are here, and folks here will help.

one thing i've learned to love is bulbs. all kinds of bulbs. they make me happy!

if you "sprinkle" them in the border around the other plants, you can be surprized at what will give you color when you least expect it.

JIffy is right you cannot go wrong with bulbs. My favorite are Oriental lilies and another plant is Daylilies.

I am a zone 5/6 for the height I guess you will need to do bushes in the back and for privacy I would do evergreen. So the short plants for color would be your bulbs, daylilies and my new love for constant color are heuchera.

Google the "heuchera". They are colorful leaves evergreen and you will not have to wait for blooms to have color. Also you can get some very pretty evergreen conifers.

The bonus with heuchera is that hummingbirds LOVE the red bell shaped flowers!

In the back, the 4 ft, do you want flowering stuff or things that stay green all year?

First of all, what's the length of the bed and are you in shade/part shade or sun?

I would like flowering things at the back too, but it must be around 4ft tall. I am in sun in the mornings till around 2pm in the height of summer, then its more shaded, the length of the border for planting is 40ft.
The soil is sandy and dries out quickly in summer.
Thank you for your help so far, hope that this information will give you some ideas of what I should be going for.

Hi Glenda,
I'm in zone 5 so most of the plants in my garden would also work in yours...The only one that I have that consistantly grows to 4 ft is Bee Balm in pink, burgandy, and purple. In the dry heat of summer it can get leggy on the bottom so I planted Gay Feather Liatris in front of it. Neither of them need staking. My Maltese-Cross reaches 3 - 3 1/2 ft but needs dead heading to keep it flowering. This will stay in a 3ft border nicely.

You may wish to consider adding an evergreen Holly called SkyPencil. I have a 2 ft wide border next to a walkway and that is the one that actually became the backbone of that border. It can grow up to 8 ft tall but is easily maintaind at 4 and is very slender. Mine are currently 4 ft tall but only 10 - 12 inches wide. Never needs trimming. Once I had them in and placed a few tall flowering plants between, picking the rest of the plants became much easier.

I see now that you re in the UK....we lived in Harrogate Yorkshire for a couple of years (that where my love for gardening really took off) I had a coreopsis that always reached 4 1/2 ft but I don't remember which variety. The ones I have now never make it that tall. Hope this helps give you some ideas.

Hmmm, still thinking Glenda. I am trying to come up with a plan for you.

Thank you all. Im still eager to hear your suggestions.
Kathy..sunshine seeker I am in Doncaster, South Yorkshire. What a small world I know Harrogate quite well, I love the Valley Gardens there.

At the back of the boarder I'd put in a colorful array of roses. Infront of those I would companion plant a variety of alliums. They help keep down the aphid population. And then again because I love them I would go for a selection of Double Bloom Peonies. They don't bloom for long but the blooms are well worth it. Infront of those I would have the miniature sunflowers Snowdrops, daffodils, crocuses, tulips and the mums. And infront of those would be the petunias, lily of the valley, Hycinth and pansys. This should give you a riot of color from March through October.

Thank you so much, that sounds like the garden that I am after TK. Ive made a note of the flowers, and shall source out suppliers tommorow. A big Thank you again.

your very welcome. I hope it turns out exactly like you picture it.

The beauty of having a border is it can be turned
into an expandable garden. Mine started with some
lilac and privet hedges,and over time I'd add a couple
of peonies here,daylilies there, and then some irises,
and so on, at the same time the lawn shrank to about half
its original size. I'm still adding plants to it, like this
year I'll add more yellow border bearded irises along the
frint of it.
This is the backyard:

work on it a little at a time, I have a border started around my yard and I just work on filling it a little at a time and I plant on all sides so that I don't have one area filled more than the other. I've been moving bulbs for almost 2 years now and everything (or almost everything ) I get goes into the border line