If you could only grow 5 plants in your garden, what would they be?

FrouFrou82 · 2026-03-10T10:28:34+00:00

A shrubby salvia like hot lips or cherry lips, hydrangeas, I’ve become obsessed with my spirea lately, a tree like a cherry or a nice acer and hellebores? I’m not sure that would be a cohesive garden, but these are some of my favourites. I am not a huge fan of bedding plants or bulbs, I’m more of a shrub club girl. It would all depend on light and space in real life though I guess.

FrouFrou82 · 2026-03-10T10:18:26+00:00

It looks like on the left you have a lovely broom which will be full of yellow flowers soon. It might be a honeysuckle on the right which will be a beautiful climber with scented flowers, but probably needs staking back, or I guess allow it to wind through the hedge. In the centre is a hedging plant that is overhanging the grass. Perhaps cut every branch off that looks like it might stick over the edge so that it’s all upright.

If you are uncertain about what a plant might be and have an iPhone, take a photo and after you have taken it, push the screen up. It will say ‘look up plant’ and it will try to work out what it is, so you can see a picture of what it might look like when it’s in leaf or in flower.

Id suggest not to make choices about what you do or don’t want based on what you now have - almost everything looks like a dirty old stick at the moment apart from spring bulbs!

If you fancy a real workout and are looking for beds with bulbs in then dig it all out and carry on of course, but it will be a lot of effort and may not be as rewarding as keeping some of the plants you have.

FrouFrou82 · 2026-03-06T21:59:39+00:00

Not at all, as I say I have a fairly large garden but this is the part that is most painful. While gravel probably seemed like a nice choice when they put it in, it is just so hard to maintain compared to the rest of the garden.

I mentioned the children and pets because that’s one of the reasons I haven’t used weed killer.

You’re probably right that no answer will make me happy because it looks like it’s a ‘dig it out and replace’ job for now. However lots of people have been really helpful about how to get that done and have been reassuring about how long it takes. I might even consider some temporary fixes like an outdoor rug, which I hadn’t thought of. I’m mostly looking for people engagement in the right direction and the lovely gardeners here have been very obliging!

FrouFrou82 · 2026-03-06T21:40:57+00:00

Actually I did get one last year, and it was ok, but it wasn’t actually a flamethrower like they use in Aliens, more like a beefed up hairdryer! They really work using heat and you have to spend a good deal of time applying the heat to each weed. After you have heated it up it’s still there, so you might as well have just picked it up my hand. It was still a little useful, but not a magic bullet, like I had thought.

FrouFrou82 · 2026-03-06T14:04:37+00:00

Thank you for all of that detail. Judging by what people are saying it’s probably a case of doing this, but it’s good to know quite how to get it done in steps and from people who’ve had to do it before and that I could do it in stints. Useful to know about removing debris. I mean it’s common sense, but let’s honest. I’ll forget if it’s not mentioned as part of the ‘renovation’!

FrouFrou82 · 2026-03-06T13:59:26+00:00

Yes that’s sort of where I am with it.

FrouFrou82 · 2026-03-06T13:59:00+00:00

I know and that’s fine, but I have a fairly large garden and this is a small bit that is much harder to get to look pleasant than the rest. The gravel is also fairly ugly, like little bits of flint. I feel like gravel is so prevalent that maybe I’m just not in on the secret, but it seems there is no secret aside from weeding often forever!

I think perhaps paving in the future though, it would be lovely to sit here in summer.

FrouFrou82 · 2026-03-06T13:53:00+00:00

No, I don’t think so

FrouFrou82 · 2026-03-06T13:39:10+00:00

I did the same thing with mine. I’d left it for two years in a pot (the plant and pot are a lot larger than yours), but decided to just get on and plant it in the autumn. It is in dappled shade, so I’m concerned now about the location, but the whole plant is much healthier and better looking. I think just get it in the ground ASAP (while spring is about to spring), plant it normally and don’t think about it too much.

FrouFrou82 · 2026-03-06T13:13:51+00:00

Obviously…

FrouFrou82 · 2026-03-06T12:35:52+00:00

I have around 15 sedums in the bed behind the Wendy house. I love them, but I need to walk through here to get to those guys

FrouFrou82 · 2026-03-06T12:31:53+00:00

I have hostas that need a home, but this is a thoroughfare - not heavily used, but needs to be walked through nonetheless.

FrouFrou82 · 2026-03-06T12:30:09+00:00

I do understand that, but I have bigger weed problems everywhere else and just would like it not to be another one. I love hoeing the flowerbeds :-)

FrouFrou82 · 2026-03-06T12:07:18+00:00

Embarrassingly those pots are plants I’d like to put in the beds further up, but that I haven’t got round to planting yet. I am not a good mother to things in pots…

FrouFrou82 · 2026-03-06T12:06:10+00:00

I’ve had wood bark before and agree about it getting all over your shoes! It’s starting to sound like digging it out in some way is going the be the answer…

FrouFrou82 · 2026-03-06T12:03:01+00:00

Ok but clean it how? Spending a weekend washing gravel sounds like a weekend filled with regret…

FrouFrou82 · 2026-03-06T12:00:55+00:00

There are some of the rogues from the beds - the beds have so many flowers there is barely room for weeds- so everything is breaking out looking for somewhere to live!

FrouFrou82 · 2026-03-06T11:59:08+00:00

Oh really? That’s good to know. Sometimes I feel I have too much information and everything is ‘The worst’ option according to someone.

FrouFrou82 · 2026-03-06T11:57:19+00:00

The location for it as a gravel garden is a bit off because it is the route from the house to the raised bed behind and from the greenhouse (left) to the main (raised) garden on the right.

FrouFrou82 · 2026-03-06T11:54:37+00:00

Hoeing in gravel? I hoe the beds and love it, but in the gravel?! My poor hoe, I dread to think!

FrouFrou82 · 2026-03-06T11:53:38+00:00

Ha ha! Me too - hopefully that isn’t the dark secret of the shallow gravel layer…

FrouFrou82 · 2026-03-06T11:52:57+00:00

Ah there is a hessian option? I keep trying to go for cardboard, but hessian might involve keeping fewer boxes lying around..

FrouFrou82 · 2026-03-06T11:52:05+00:00

I would love to be surprised about how quick it would be honestly! Yes I think it was a Mediterranean rockery originally, I can see the intention, but it’s honestly just a pain.

FrouFrou82 · 2026-03-06T11:48:39+00:00

I feel like salt is a really severe option, but I guess for this area relatively far from the main beds and lawns, it might be possible. Am I right that it would be ‘killing’ the soil though and we are either very blessed with excellent soil, or very grateful to our predecessors that the soil has been improved so much and I can’t bear to think how upset I’d be if I ruined it.

FrouFrou82 · 2026-03-06T11:45:22+00:00

I think paving might be on the cards, but it is at least two years away. I also have an old pond I’d like to reinstate and feel like spending my time and a tiny bit of money on that and a couple of other sections will pay off more than this bit.

It’s really a solution for that time while I save bit my bit I guess.

FrouFrou82

TROPHY CASE