Hello.
We would be so grateful for any ideas you may have.
We're a retired couple in our 60s with a tiny back garden and we've planted it with waldsteinia ternata (barren strawberry), so as to avoid having to mow the little patch of grass, as well as to avoid covering the whole garden with paving or shingle. And now that the waldsteinia has spread we have bought a piece of attractive stonework (a stone fountain) to sit in the middle of it all. We want it to be a pleasant centre-piece, when seen from the nearby kitchen table.
Here's a photo:
https://www.dropbox.com/home/Public%...d+fountain.jpg
The fountain is going to be placed on a slab in the middle of the waldsteinia.
Behind the fountain is a hedge of Portuguese Laurel. So the laurel and the waldsteinia together provide us with year-long dark green. The waldsteinia also provides a lovely carpet of bright yellow flowers for about three weeks in the spring.
Our idea is to plant the two tiers of the stone fountain with an evergreen plant, or even two or more varieties of evergreen plants, which will provide colour to the space from spring to at least late summer.
Deep blue, deep purple, and deep violet would be good colours. If they are present when the waldsteinia is in flower, then there wouldn't be a clash with the waldsteinia's yellow. If the colour of the foliage of the fountain plants contrasts with the dark green of the laurel and waldsteinia, then all the better!
The wider tier of the fountain is about 12 centimetres deep, and the small upper tier is about 6 centimetres deep. So the plants need to be shallow-rooted and quite tough. Both tiers have good drainage.
Ideally, we'd like the plants to cover the tiers completely and then to "drip" or "cascade" off the edges, recreating the idea of water.
Though the garden is west-facing it starts getting sun around midday. It's sheltered on all sides, by the Portuguese Laurel and by the west-facing wall of the house. We're on a bank of the Severn in Shropshire and the temperature in winter is generally mild, though not as "warm" as the south-east.
All or any ideas you may have will be most most gratefully received!
Thank you.
David.