Planting near a drain cover

At the front of our front garden there is a drain cover, but we'd like to plant a few bits there as it's a very plain uninteresting space. We're thinking of maybe a choisya which can easily be kept under control, or a number of smaller plants. What are the best plants to plant near drain covers? Obviously the roots need to be non-invasive in case access is needed. Evergreen is the only thing that we are definite on, if it flowers at some point or has interesting colour then even better.

I've attached a photo (hopefully it is showing the right way up, flipping iPads always send it wonky) - its the section nearest the road up to where our hedge ends.

I'm a complete novice so hopefully there's some good advice out there!

Thanks

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner small_vee.

Because of the drain situation and of course what it covers I wouldn't suggest planting large shrubs there in case the roots damage the drain. Something the size of Lavender would be best.

I have the mains sewer running through my garden and an electricity cable pole in the middle of a bed. In the picture below you can see both a pot standing on the sewer cover and the pole.



You could make the area of the drain into a feature, perhaps a small flower bed round it and as above stand a pot of flowers on the cover.

 

That's so pretty, I love it! Thanks Sheal, something like that would be lovely and would definitely brighten up our boring patch of grass!

 

Thanks small-vee, that picture is a couple of years old now, I need to take more this year. I thought it would give you ideas as to what you can do. Most of the plants in the bed above you could use, let me know if you want any named.

 

Armandii.....with my own experience of root damage I would still suggest not planting shrubs. Even though, as you say, shrubs probably won't damage and inspection area, but there are pipes leading into that and roots will find those as I know to my cost.