Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design 1 Aug 24, 2013 1:09 am Hi all I have a 2m x 15m space down the side of our house that I want to garden. Our family and theatre room looks out to this so I would like to disguise the fence and add some interest. I was thinking maybe crepe myrtles or magnolia little gems outside the windows but worried about them being close to the foundations. Any other suggestions for some height (windows are 1m from ground). Also this space faces north west so does get some sun but also well sheltered by house and fence. Any suggestions welcome. Re: Plants/Trees for narrow space 2Aug 24, 2013 9:03 am Depends on how much you want to spend, maintenance & care you can give, desired maturity height etc. If your window is that high, you obviously need something to grow even higher than 1m so you can have some "usage" of your hard work. So, one simple idea first ... I have a few strappy variegated red-pinkish cordylines(? I think) (I could find the tag of the exact variety), and mine look beautiful against the colourbond fence. They can get tall, probably to 1.5 or maybe even 2m, depends on the exact variety. I am suggesting this as it grows quite fast to your desired height; I am not sure of their root system, though. My signature is distracting people from my wise posts ... Re: Plants/Trees for narrow space 3Aug 25, 2013 4:27 pm Lex Depends on how much you want to spend, maintenance & care you can give, desired maturity height etc. Yeah, what he said. Were you thinking evergreen or deciduous? What's on the other side (for example a neighbour with a water feature would prolly go crook at a row of crape myrtles dumping their leaves in it every autumn)? Re: Plants/Trees for narrow space 5Aug 26, 2013 10:10 pm Thanks Lex, don't mind high maintenance - love being out in the garden. I have decided that trees aren't a good option. Its only 2 m and right next to the house. Neighbours wont be an issue as fence is 2 m high as it is. I was thinking about rigging up some trellis to the fence and then planting either bougainvillea or pandorea Lady Di to get the height without having the trees. Then I can plant shrubs and grasses like the cordylines without being stressed that they wont be high enough, Re: Plants/Trees for narrow space 6Aug 27, 2013 9:31 am The funny thing about this is that we have exactly the same situation and on the same W/NW side! Only, we are leaving it plant-free because it's not the area that we'd need to look at (we only have 1 window on this side and we never use it, ie. never open the blinds anyway as it's a long room and it has 2 other windows which both look to the street). I agree no trees here at all! It would be too close to the house and would eventually grow too high. I think most of the plants or shrubs planted here would tend to grow faster in height because, if it's anything like our own situation with the fence and then the neighbour's house shading the area right along to the fence, the plants would be keen to grow taller (and slimmer) to reach that sunshine for a longer period of the day. Just my experience. My signature is distracting people from my wise posts ... Re: Plants/Trees for narrow space 7Aug 27, 2013 9:35 am I also always look for dwarf varieties of my favourites. Amazing how many there are. Re: Plants/Trees for narrow space 8Sep 14, 2013 11:15 pm Thanks for your replys all. I have changed my thinking and have been thinking about putting some camellias down that side to give me some height. I may even espalier them if I can be bothered. Camellias don't have crazy roots do they ? Then adding some smallish ferns and bordering with some lambs ears. On the sunny side close to the house I was thinking some geraniums ( easy, hardy, like sun and look nice). dimensions on your original plan are inconsistent and with accurate dimensions (including site plan, upstairs and down) i could make a proper scale drawing with furniture… 3 7501 Thanks again for this information. If you do hear anything different, would be great to know 4 8215 So it looks like we finally have some movement on site! Definitely later than expected, but I'll take any progress at this point. I'll drop by over the weekend to get… 5 27587 |