Help me redesign flower bed please!

Hi, please see attached photos.
We just moved to this home and would like to re-do the flower bed in front of the house. Right now as you can see it has lavatera and nicotiana.
The bed is 15' long by 4.5' deep.
Want to do a purple, red and chartreuse color scheme.

My idea:
Back row: three plant groups: either Evil Ways Buddleia in
the middle with purple delphinium on either side or vice versa. (Should I have the bushy plant Buddleia in the middle or the straight plant, delphinium?)--this Buddleia will be 4' tall and 5' wide. Generally delphinium in my area seem to grow 3-4 feet high only.

Middle row: Red Carpet Flower rose and Lorapetalum Ever red
and Nicotiana Langsdorfii

Not much room left in Front: maybe chatreuse and purple sweet potato vines? Or maybe chartreuse Sedum Angelina

ANY AND ALL ADVICE APPRECIATED!




This message was edited Sep 18, 2012 8:55 PM

PHOTOS

My advice would be to get out some tracing paper, clip this onto a board along with a good picture of your house, lay the picture under the photo and start to draw either new shaped beds OR work with the beds as is.
Next find some gardening books on Borders / beds from library or book store, they all have good clear pictures of mature plantings as this will geve ideas of final size of plants in most areas, it will give ideas of textures and colours growing side by side.
Take notes of names plants, flowering months, winter colour IF any, when to cut back, what soil type needed so you can add manure, other huimas or other plant nutrients to help plants grow strong and well.
These books also give ideas re colour ALL year sound, spring bulbs go into a border before planting permanent shrubs / trees ect, winter colour is from evergreens, berries, or leaf colour changes like oranges /gold ect.

I would look on this project as a great chance to enhance the whole picture / setting, of the outside space at the front of your new home and stamp your own mark on it. Don't rush at this, do good ground work as to looking for the plants that suit your situation and this may not include any that we all fancy but they don't like the area for shade, too much sun of soil all wrong.

The Autumn / winter is a great time to design new borders as there is not always a lot growing at these times and best for pruning, emptying and replanting dormant plants ready to show off their flowers /colours ect ready for spring / summer.

The autumn / winter is also a good time to send off for plant catalogues, tree's / shrubs do best id planted early autumn /spring as they are not fighting the heat if summer.
This time also gives you the time to dig up and pot any plants that are keepers for border or elsewhere, or add loads of manure IF needed to help nourish, add air and feed to the soil in preparation for new planting. in early spring.

Lastly, IF you want to change the size / shape of a border or even make a new one, the easiest way I know is to use garden hose, lay it out on the ground, move it about to get the shape you want and THEN when happy, look from inside house out window to see what it looks like too, then cut around the shape using either the spade or half moon cutting tool to cut through the grass or soil and lift any turf that is not required, if you lay the turf upside down ans store it that way over winter out of the way, it will rot down and when now green / yellow grass is left, gig this back into the border / bed as it saves buying loads of topsoil ans it can be broken up using the spade, make sure this is added UNDER some soil as IF any tiny bits of green are still there, the light will encourage this to regrow.
Hope all this helps you out a bit, there are many ways to remake /plant and dig but after you get the hang of gardening, like all others /Myself included, you will adopt the way that suits you, I have just gave you guidelines on the easiest way and the things that are most important to save you wasting money a few years later when your dissappointed with the results.
Lastly, remember gardening is supposed to be fun so don't let it become a chore, just do as much as you want in ant given day, take your time and you will get much more pleasure for your new garden.
Best wishes for your new home and enjoy your gardening project.
WeeNel.

Hi mmedici
I'm sorry I don't have much to offer in way of suggestions but I did wnat to drop a word to wish you luck...looks like a very interesting project! Do you plan on showing after pics as well? I love brag shots! Gives me inspiration to try my hand at it too! Best of luck!