Design help for shrub background for perennial gardenn

11 years ago

I created a backyard shrub/perennial bed that's about 35 long and 8 feet wide. (no flowers yet, still thinking). I need a couple of different shrubs (a few evergreens would be nice) for the background up against a 6' slat wooden fence. Experimented with camellias last year and they did not thrive. We brought in good garden soil and installed a connection to the sprinkler system and the hydrangeas that are across the path from this new bed are thriving. Morning shade and about 4 hours of pretty hot afternoon sun.

Comments (3)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
11 years ago
the words 'shrubs' and 8 foot bed.. do not leave me with the thought .. that you will have much room for any flowers ...

unless you find some micro shrubs .... and even those will get toward 4 feet wide.. and planting them 3 feet from the fence [half of 4 plus one foot from the fence.. since you dont want the shrub ON the fence]... for future growth.. and the 2 feet it will grow away from the planting spot .. will leave you three foot of bed left ... and if you plant the perennials half way out.. you will have a line of such 1.5 feet from the bed edge ....

you need to focus on mature size of the shrub.. not the tiny thing that you will plant there ....

that math makes sense to me.. i hope you understand it.. lol ...

and why shrubs??? .. if its to hide the fence.. anything that gets tall enough to do such.. will end up.. wider than your bed ...

can you widen the bed??? and there would be NO REASON to build a bed for shrubs .... plant them in native soil.. and if you want to develop a bed of great soil for the perennials.. then do so for them.. but dont waste the time, money and effort on the shrubs ... other than to buy the plant

boy that ought to make your head spin for a while.. lol ...

good luck

ken
reyesuela
11 years ago
You will be hardpressed to do a row of shrubs with perennials in front with that depth, but you can intermix perennials and small shrubs.

If you want to hide the fence, perennials would be a better choice than shrubs for the most part--trying to get a 6' height with only a 3' or less width leaves you with only a few shrub choices, most of which will continue to grow and will eventually get quite a bit taller and wider. Choosing low shrubs that get no bigger than 3x3' in 5 or 10 years and mixing them in with the lower perennials would be the easiest.

For tall/skinny shrubs, there's always sky pencil holly. For the smaller shrubs, there's everything from tons of conifers to artimesia to some of the smaller laurels and tons more....
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User
11 years ago
Lynn,
In the back, August beauty gardenia,sky pencil holly,
Ostrich fern (for texture, will get tall), emerald green arborvitae,(takes forever to grow tooo big ),you can alternate between these they would look nice. There is also another conifer that grows tall that would look really nice, I have it, but it looks silly at this point so I am not going to reccommend it, can't remember the name of it. The leaves look like pinwheels.