Plants for garden

S

Sarah

Registered User
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Hi All,

Hope someone can help me.

Im not green fingered in anyway at all and every plant i buy apart from cactus dies on me. Im not into pruning or gardening but i do like the look of plants and short of planting artifical plants im at a loss on how to make my back garden look nice. We have a patio so any plants i get will need to be potted. Can anyone tell me the names of any plants that are easy maintainence and that look well in the garden and perhaps some that smell nice. Also when do i plant these...can i start now for example. Our garden does not get much sunlight so any advice welcome.

Thanks

Sarah
 
Hi Sarah... on the basis that you've said you're garden doesn't get much sunlight, you'll want shade-tolerant plants (although you might want to check the patio area throughout the day - chances are it will get some sun at some stage). I'd recommend getting some hostas, ferns, fatsia japonica (castor oil plant) and perhaps a palm. These are all interesting to look at ("architectural" is the word), will happilly survive in decent-sized pots and require little maintenance. Think about grouping your pots in threes - this usually looks nice.
 
Different grasses and bamboos can look good and are fairly maintenance free too. Invest in large pots. The larger the pots the less they should dry out in the heat of the summer. The will need watering and feeding, so remember that, and if you want it totally maintenance free, you could put in an "irrigation" system too - I don't know much about this but basically it's a length of hose pipe going into each pot with some timer on it.
 
Here are some excellent shrubs providing all year round interest and good flowering season, compact - height + spread: 600mm (2' 0"), and requiring very limited attention during growing season:

Hebe Frozen Flame
Hebe Heartbreaker
Adromeda Blue Ice
Halimium Libanotis

For something rich and different to the run of the mill container plants, try a superb eyecatching evergreen with beautiful scented white flowers:
Pittopsorum Tobira Nana (Japanese Mock Orange) could be ringed in a suitable container with Acorus Ogon, lime striped yellow grass.
 
Not your fault the plants die, sounds like your plants have cope with dry shade which is the toughest evironment for plants. Christmas box (sarcococca) is a really tough evergreen shrub which has heavily perfumed flowers in winter, should be happy there.
If you're prepared to go mad watering you would really widen your scope to lots of gorgeous plants.
Have a look at shootgardening.co.uk
 
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