[kittiwake]

I am having four large conifers, which edge my driveway, replaced with a 3.5 foot high close board fence. I would like to grow some flowers in the border created between the fence and the drive. The soil is currently very dry and nutrient poor so I will replace it with good quality soil and add manure  / home compost if needed.

The border will be only 12 inches wide but I am happy for plants to spread onto the driveway. Although  north-east facing, the border will be reasonable sheltered from prevailing winds and it gets a fair amount of sun in the afternoon. I would like to have some colour from spring to autumn and and am happy to have a mix of annuals, perrenials and bulbs. The border will be 12 feet long.

Has anyone got any suggestions for plants that I could use or can suggest a planting scheme. I will add a photo as soon as the fence is installed tomorrow.

Thanks

Kitti

[Yorkie]

I've just got a bare front garden, having cleared (courtesy of Dad!) some conifers and other shrubs.

My thought process is to decide what sort of colour scheme I want, and the flowering / leaf interest seasons.  You might find that helps initially.

Also, aim for slightly taller species at the back and lower at the front.  It's often recommended to plant in odd-numbered groups rather than single plants.  Don't forget bulbs.  Have a look round a garden centre to see what's around.

The other thing I'd suggest (and will do myself soon) is to check the pH of your soil.  Conifer 'leaves' will doubtless have been falling onto the soil over the years and they are acidic.  So avoid alkaline-loving plants unless you've checked the pH.

P.S. Forgot to suggest a planting scheme.  I'm considering lavender, tulips, paeonies, alliums, delphiniums and/or lupins, and something for later in the season.  I like purple, white and pink.  Might sneak some daffs in there too!

[Carrotcake]

Will this be your only green space out the front? If so I'd make sure you have some early flowering bulbs like snowdrops and crocuses. There's nothing like coming home from work to see the first of these and know that spring is just around the corner.

Have a look at Crocus.co.uk. They have some really good bed schemes ideas.

[sunshineband]

Perennial geraniums give a good show and come in quite a few colourways. 

[tam]

You could add wires to the fence and grow climbers up. That could give you height without too much width so you had room for shorter things in front.

We're going to put a clematis 'pixie' out the front, that's about 3' tall climber and evergreen. Winter jasmine has very early flowers - it doesn't climb as such but you can tie it in.

[granjan]

Euonymus Emerald and Gold or Euonymus Emerald Gaiety are great little shrubs for a situation like that.  They will hug the fence without any support and don't grow very deep..  They're also evergreen.  It might be worth trying a creeping thyme too if there's enough sun.  Maybe a painted lady fern.  Lots of bulbs overplanted with herbaceous perennials. 

[kittiwake]

 Thank you all for your fantastic suggestions. I have lots of ideas now. I think I will go for lots of bulbs (flowering from Feb - late october) - thanks for the reminder about crocuses and snowdrops Carrotcake - they will really cheer me up on a cold morning.

I will also put in a variety of low spreading perrenial plants and some hardy geraniums (Campanula, Aubrieta, Geranium Johnson Blue have caught my eye so far).

Tam, I love the idea of a low climber on the fence as my side of the fence is the one with the posts on so that would disguise them abit. I can easily fix wires to the fence. Clematis pixie looks perfect. Is there anything similar (ie small evergreen flowering climber) that would flower later in the year at all ?

Some of my choices dont like acidic soil so I am planning to dig out much of the old stuff and replace with something fairly neutral in pH.

Unfortunately now the fence is in the border is more like 8 inches than 12 inches so fitting in plants will be a challenge. It is the only green space on an otherwise plain paving brick frontage so I want to try and maintain colour and interest  for most of the year.

Kitti

[tam]

I can't think of another short evergreen climber off hand but there must be some. I don't see why you couldn't prune/train some of the taller ones along the fence instead of up if you've got 12' to to cover though. Star jasmine and pink jasmine can be grow in pots so presumably can be kept quite small (you could sink pots in the ground if you wanted to restrict their size).

You could also mix evergreen and non evergreen together to get foliage over winter but flowers through out the year.

Shrubs like cottoneater can be trained flat, we have one growing against a trellis fence. It looses it's leaves in winter but is covered in bright red berries the birds like. Pyracantha keeps it's leaves and can be trained flat (white flowers and red/yellow berries) but also prickly!

[Runwell-Steve]

As an alternative, we have a completely block paved front garden, and to add some colour and interest we have acquired a large number of half barrels which we have planted up with various shrubs and quite a lot of different  Acers.

We are also thinking of adding a few bulbs to the pots for a bit of early spring colour.

It looks effective and is really easy to maintain.