GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post - Recommended shrubs for common land on our estate

Stewart Robert Hinsley · 16-04-2007, 05:15 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening

In message .com,
writes
... by which I don't mean the acre of my country estate where the
peasants go to graze their sheep, rather the useless patch of land
that is supposed to be the garden for my flat in Camberwell (dodgy
part of London for those unfamiliar with it) but which looks like a
redundant piece of land on my housing estate.

I thought I'd try to put some low maintenance shrubs in it - the sort
of thing you find planted in supermarket car parks, or other "utility"
areas.

Do you know what I mean? Uninspiring but tough and low maintenance
(I'm not home very often so can't spend much time looking after them)

Can anyone recommend anything - it's part shade, not sure of soil type

Typical supermarket plantings are a couple of shrubby honeysuckles
(Lonicera nitida and Lonicera piliata), Euonymus fortunei cultivars,
such as 'Emerald Gaiety', Barberries, including Berberis thunebergii,
Berberis darwiniii and Berberis x stenophylla, and Skimmias.

The problem with this sort of planting is that they're not easy to weed,
so they end up with straggly grass and other weeds growing through them;
an estate planting in this style a few hundred yards away from me has an
infestation of cleavers.

On the way to that planting the council put a row of rowans underplanted
by Lonicera nitida and Skimmia (note the coincidence of names with some
of the above). The rowans are surviving, with some damage (like being
half ring-barked by kicking-damage), but the other plants didn't survive
long due to theft and vandalism. I was rather shocked - this is supposed
to be a suburban dormitory town (the locals call it a village), rather
than an inner city estate.

For a different, non-supermarket, style, you could try Buddleia davidii
(which you can grow from seed) or Lavatera x clementii cultivars. Both
produce lots of flowers, and can hard pruning, so wouldn't be too
bothered by the odd branch being broken off.
--
Stewart Robert Hinsley