Street appeal
Conserve water and create a low-maintenance, drought-tolerant border.
To create two 1.2m deep borders with a combined length, of 13m you will need:
- Resene Concrete primer
- Resene Lumbersider tinted to Resene Oyster Bay (main body of wall)
- Resene Lumbersider tinted to Resene Prussian Blue (capping)
- Plants:
- 13 x Rosmarinus officinalis 'Tuscan Blue'
- 7 x Echium fastuosum (pride of Madeira)
- 7 x Argyranthemum 'Bounty'
- 33 x Lavandula dentata
- 5 x Lantana montevidensis
- 4 x Lantana 'Chelsea Gem'
- 2 x Arbutus unedo (strawberry tree)
- 2 x Escallonia 'Field's Scarlet'
- Approx 1.25 cubic metres top-soil (optional)
- Bark chip mulch
Note: Arbutus unedo, if left unchecked, will eventually grow into a substantial tree. In this instance, the idea is to train it into a standard and keep it at a height of approx 1.8m.
Step one
Leave freshly rough-cast concrete wall 28 days to fully cure before painting. Treat planting area with herbicide (or eradicate weeds by hand), remove any rocks or stones, lightly dig over and apply a 10mm layer of fresh top-soil.
Step two
Paint the concrete with one coat of Resene Concrete Primer. Allow to dry, then paint the main body of the wall with two coats of Resene Oyster Bay, and the capping with two coats of Resene Prussian Blue.
Step three
Place the plants in their approximate positions. Back of the border – rosemary and argyranthemum. Mid border – Arbutus unedo (either side of gate posts), escallonia (far end of each border), echium and lantana. Front of border – lavender.
Step four
Once you are happy with the spacing, plant the rosemary along the back of the border, about 1m apart.
Step five
Between each rosemary, plant an argyranthemum. Growing 70cm high, A. ‘Bounty' is a marguerite cultivar that produces masses of double yellow rosette-like flowers throughout spring and summer.
Step six
Plant the mid-border plants, spacing echiums approx 1.2m apart with a lantana planted in between. Plant the Arbutus unedo either side of the gate pillars and the escallonias at the far end of each border.
Step seven
Plant the lavenders along the front and side edges of the border, approximately 50cm apart.
Step eight
Water the entire border and apply a mulch of bark chips. Keep watered until fully established, then water only when necessary. Once plants have filled out, keep trimmed to maintain size and shape.
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