Planting a fountain, so that it drips with colour!
 

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.

Planting a fountain, so that it drips with colour!
 

On 20/07/2016 21:36, David wrote:

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.


I am thinking sedums or perhaps sempervivens

--
Charlie Pridham, Gardening in Cornwall
www.roselandhouse.co.uk
National collections of Clematis viticella & Lapageria rosea

Planting a fountain, so that it drips with colour!
 

David wrote:
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

That's just a login page.

Send the photo to tinypic.com and post the link here, no registration
required

Planting a fountain, so that it drips with colour!
 

Sorry. I didn't post the link that let's anyone view the pic. Here it is:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/sda06w8oy2...ntain.jpg?dl=0

Planting a fountain, so that it drips with colour!
 

On Thursday, 21 July 2016 08:33:33 UTC+1, Charlie Pridham wrote:

I am thinking sedums or perhaps sempervivens

Yes, they'd be reliable in such shallow basins, but we'd like plants which after they've reached the edges will cascade over the edge. So I suppose we ought to be considering plants that tumble down walls?

David.

Planting a fountain, so that it drips with colour!
 

On 21/07/2016 18:35, David wrote:

Sorry. I didn't post the link that let's anyone view the pic. Here it is:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/sda06w8oy2...ntain.jpg?dl=0

It's as I thought nice fountain but I'd say totally impracticable to
plant without a lot of work.
It's to shallow to allow much in the plant selection as it would dry out
very fast in summer and of course in wet weather it would get water
logged in no time, I'm afraid I'd keep it as a fountain, would look good
where you are proposing having it and would make it a nice restful area.
Not what you want to hear.
Sorry.
David @ a rain free side of Swansea Bay (For a few days)

Planting a fountain, so that it drips with colour!
 

On 21/07/2016 21:43, David Hill wrote:
On 21/07/2016 18:35, David wrote:

Sorry. I didn't post the link that let's anyone view the pic. Here
it is:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/sda06w8oy2...ntain.jpg?dl=0

It's as I thought nice fountain but I'd say totally impracticable to
plant without a lot of work.
It's to shallow to allow much in the plant selection as it would dry out
very fast in summer and of course in wet weather it would get water
logged in no time, I'm afraid I'd keep it as a fountain, would look good
where you are proposing having it and would make it a nice restful area.
Not what you want to hear.
Sorry.
David @ a rain free side of Swansea Bay (For a few days)

Further thought why not sell the fountain and buy a nice deep urn
http://www.salvo.co.uk/images/userim...4629_1_240.jpg

Planting a fountain, so that it drips with colour!
 

On Thursday, 21 July 2016 21:43:50 UTC+1, Dave Hill wrote:

It's to shallow to allow much in the plant selection as it would dry out
very fast in summer and of course in wet weather it would get water
logged in no time

Thanks for your thoughts, Dave.

Being a fountain, both tiers are well-drained, so it won't get water-logged in the wet season. In the dry season the top tier shields the deepest part of the bottom tier.

So we're now thinking a large globular hemispherical sedum on the top tier, able to withstand hot, cold, dry, and wet. And on the bottom tier, vinca major or minor, which will dangle over the edges.

D.