We recentley moved into our new house and were just getting round to sorting the garden - its a newish house and the garden consists of a pathetic excuse for a patio - about 8 paving slabs and the rest is grass. We are going to leave the patio area until next spring and then have a new proper patio laid. I have been feeding the lawn and its now looking really good but it goes right up to the walls and I want to make a border. Can anyone advise me what to do with the borders when we have dug them out? Would we be better putting large slate chippings down and standing a few pots around or planting plants - I was thinking maybe a few dwarf connifers and some of those rockery type plants that spread (I have no idea of plant names, I really am a useless gardner). Can anyone give me some ideas? I would love the garden to look really nice but I don't have a clue where to begin!

Thanks

Hayley

Personally i'd go for all those cottage garden type plants like delphiniums, foxgloves, lavender etc.   Harder to maintain but glorious in full summer & a wildlife haven.

Hmmm, harder to maintain??? We have some lavender in the front and it looks awful, it looks half dead and I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with it

When your lavender's finished flowering clip it neatly, but not hard back - don't go into the old wood or it won't like it at all! Take it back as far as you can while staying in the green and it'll look much better. :)

This is what I'd be going for!

I think the secret to having a lush looking garden without too much work to it is climbers.  They raise the level of interest and fast :)  Clematis, ivys, honeysuckles, jasmines etc are all pretty easy and you can plan it for flowers and greenery over the entire year.  It's pretty easy to add some trellis or frames if there are no fences or walls to be utilised.  You can also use your shrubs as a frame.

for the first year dig your borders out , slap on loads of compost and fork well in then simply sprinkle on some mixed perennial seeds of easy stuff to grow like California poppies,foxgloves cornflowers,aqualigia etc- they'll provide loads of colour and create a really good effect and come up year after year. This will give you time to look round for other stuff you might want to add like Lilies, old fashioned roses, delphinuims etc - there you go instant cottage garden in the first year !:D

Yvonne

Thankyou for the ideas. I will have to check which plants are dog freindly as my Harvey is quite partial to the odd plant:rolleyes: I'm going to spectate as my husband digs the borders out tomorrow and we'll take it from there.

Thanks again

Hayley

Have a look at this site .......
http://www.rhs.org.uk/conservation/horticultural_themes/hazardous_list.asp
HTH
Lea:)

Thanks for that Lea, had a look on the plant finder too

I used that when I had to plant up a childrens nursery!!!!!!
And, even thourgh my job and training, I was still shocked at the plants that were on it!!!!
lea :)