Pond aquatics and water garden plants without debris
We have got some raised borders around the edge of our patio, about 2ft from the pond. We would like to replant these borders this spring but want to choose some plants that will shed minimum debris so all the leaves don't end up in the pond. Can you recommend some pond friendly plants?
Answer: Now is the perfect time for getting in the summer bedding like Busy Lizzies, Begonias, Antirrhinums and Lobelias, the list is endless. If you pick off the dead flowers as they grow, the colour will be endless too until the first frosts of autumn. So whilst plants you choose to go in your raised bed permanently, get established, they will fill in the gaps between them to make a splash of colour right from the start. It sounds like you want the permanent plants to be as maintenance free as possible.
They certainly will be if they don't shed any debris and it will generally mean they are evergreen, although not all evergreens are tidy underneath. If plants flower, especially in profusion, there is always a mass of petal litter when the flowers 'go over'. A raised bed in my area is always the perfect opportunity to have a range of small rhododendrons, azaleas or even camellias. They prefer an acid soil, which we haven't got, but that can always be 'bought in' for the benefit of a raised bed. Otherwise there is a range of maintenance free plants that are the landscapers' favourites for neatly and quickly growing to a certain size and slowing down.
They tend to be mostly grown for their foliage and many of them make a neat dome shape. Look to the smaller Hebes like Hebe rakiensis or Hebe albicans ' Red Edge'. These are quite small, hardly 30cm high but spread over 80cm, but there are a profusion of all sizes and leaf colour and shape. Choisya 'Aztec Pearl' is one small shrub with the bonus of being very fragrant flowered, whilst Choisya ternata 'Sundance' is a show-stopping splash of gold all year. For another gold try the golden privet Ligustrum aureum.
As a contrast there is a small dark bronze leaved Pittosporum tennuifolium' Tom Thumb' that is purple leaved with bright green new growth. The Viburnum davidii forms a long low hummock that can hide any unsightly edge, whilst some of the golden and white variegated forms of Euonymus fortunei make perfect ground cover.
For a relief from the dome shapes try a spiky leaved Mahonia x Charity or the Osmanthus hetrophyllus 'Variegatus'. For vertical stripes choose a slow growing New Zealand Flax like Phormium 'Rainbow Sunrise'. All these will survive in a little bit of shade but need full sun for part of the day and in return will give you a spectacular display of colour, a bit of fragrance, but no showy flowers I'm afraid.
There you go,
All the best
Peter May