I have now planted the Akebia and the Nelly Moser against next door's
garage wall. In doing this, I had to remove at square of turf at each
planting location. Although the plants are looking good (making their
way up the trellis he kindly allowed me to screw to the brickwork), the
ground where they are planted looks messy. I am planning to add a
decorative mulch around the bases. Is there anything I should avoid ??
Would I do any harm by using gravel / stones / slate chippings etc ??
How about bark chippings ?

"NC" wrote in message ...
I have now planted the Akebia and the Nelly Moser against next door's
garage wall. In doing this, I had to remove at square of turf at each
planting location. Although the plants are looking good (making their way
up the trellis he kindly allowed me to screw to the brickwork), the ground
where they are planted looks messy. I am planning to add a decorative mulch
around the bases. Is there anything I should avoid ?? Would I do any harm
by using gravel / stones / slate chippings etc ?? How about bark chippings
?

The best mulch is a plant or two.
Why have boring bark chips when you could plant a few nice flowering shrubs
or even a few annuals.

Rupert wrote:
"NC" wrote in message ...

I have now planted the Akebia and the Nelly Moser against next door's
garage wall. In doing this, I had to remove at square of turf at each
planting location. Although the plants are looking good (making their way
up the trellis he kindly allowed me to screw to the brickwork), the ground
where they are planted looks messy. I am planning to add a decorative mulch
around the bases. Is there anything I should avoid ?? Would I do any harm
by using gravel / stones / slate chippings etc ?? How about bark chippings
?


The best mulch is a plant or two.
Why have boring bark chips when you could plant a few nice flowering shrubs
or even a few annuals.



The space at the base of each is only approx 1'x1' cut out of the grass
which otherwise runs all the way to the garage wall. I dont think
there's room for any other plants in there.

In article , NC wrote:

The space at the base of each is only approx 1'x1' cut out of the grass
which otherwise runs all the way to the garage wall. I dont think
there's room for any other plants in there.

Wait a few weeks, and the weeds will tell you otherwise :-)

There are plenty of plants that make restrained ground cover. Anyway,
it doesn't matter - neither need a mulch, and neither are sensitive.
Pebbles, bark, many plants, broken bottles etc. will all be fine, as
would nothing.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

OK - thanks. I'm doing it more or less purely for cosmetic reasons -
but did not want to use anything that might leech 'nasties' into the
soil. I have read that bark chippings are not liked by some things, so
wanted to check to see if anything else shoudl be avoided for use with
these plants....

In article . com,
writes:
|
| OK - thanks. I'm doing it more or less purely for cosmetic reasons -
| but did not want to use anything that might leech 'nasties' into the
| soil. I have read that bark chippings are not liked by some things, so
| wanted to check to see if anything else shoudl be avoided for use with
| these plants....

Short of lumps of rock salt, not much.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.