Carolina Gardening: Knot Garden Suggestions, 1 by salad

salad wrote:
Good Morning,
This is my first post and I would dearly love some help. I’m in Goldsboro, NC in zone 7b (I think). I want to plant a very small knot garden around the brick pump house in my front yard. The bed is only 15 ft. by 15 ft. with a 5 ft. by 5 ft. pump house in the middle. I need two plants that contrast and I believe a good choice for the 1st one would be the dwarf boxwood “green velvet”. I have several specifics for the plant choice that I know make it rather hard to find an answer for the 2nd plant.

I need an evergreen that is compact or dwarf or easy to be kept sheared small (max sheared height of about 15 to 18 in. tall) since we need access to the pump house and the bed is so small. I need it to contrast well with the “green velvet” to show off the knot design. I’d really like it to be of a hardy constitution here and one of the more disease and pest resistant cultivars because I need to buy around 30 of each plant and since the big ole hollies that were there were covered with scale and sooty mold that I could never get on top of. This bed is very close to the road so it is the most prominent spot in the front yard and is another reason I would like it to always look good. It, of course, needs to lend itself to being sheared since it is a knot garden. I’ve been told euyonomous are prone to scale here and as far as barberries are concerned, I’ve killed several and I don’t know why, probably over watering, but we just don’t get along well.

I’m aware these parameters leave the field for suggestions very small but I hope someone has the magic answer anyway! I’m going to attempt to attach the design I’ve come up with for the space but since I’m “techno challenged” there’s only a slim chance I can make that happen! Thanks so Much.