Spring Project - Memorial Garden

Since my Mum sadly passed away at the end of February, I have decided to make my front garden into a Memorial Garden.
It's a long, narrow strip 3m wide by 12.55m long.
There is currently a row of mature shrubs along one side against the boundary fence, with a mature eucalyptus tree at the far end.
Starting from nearest to my door, the shrubs are - cherry laurel, photinia "Red Robin", buddleia, holly, pieris "Forest Flame" and the eucalyptus gunnii at the far end. There are also two beech saplings behind the pieris and another shrub I'll need to identify.
In the top corner opposite the eucalyptus, there's a clump of crocosmia "Lucifer" and another small tree I've yet to identify between the crocosmia and the eucalyptus.
In summer, there's a red peony in front of the crocosmia and I noticed a small, white campanula persicifolia flowering between the peony and crocosmia last year.
There is also a clump of day lilies and some spring bulbs (crocus, snowdrop, daffodil).

The garden as it is has the feeling of a woodland edge. My Mum loved woodland, so I'd like to use that as a theme for my memorial garden.
Could anyone give me an idea of which flowers I could plant to compliment this area please ?
I haven't tested the soil yet (I have a testing kit but have lost the instructions - it's a TestWest kit I have.), but as the shrubs already there are thriving and all flowering every year, I'm guessing the soil is on the acidic side ? The pieris is just starting to flower now with a few open clusters and lots of buds. The cherry laurel is starting to develop flower buds too now, with the photinia, buddleia, holly and eucalyptus not flowering until later on in the year.
The garden is in full sun all day throughout the summer months but is exposed to wind from both East and West all year round.

Here's a photo to show the general layout. I've added arrows and text naming each shrub/plant, a star to mark where the peony comes up, a triangle to mark the unknown tree between the eucalyptus and crocosmia and marked North, South, East, West on the bottom of the photo.

I'll be puting a fence up behind the row of shrubs to provide a secure boundary, (I have 2 dogs), and will be puting up a temporary fence alongside the path/wheelchair ramp to stop my puppy from jumping up onto the ramp. The fence at the top of the picture has plastic coated chicken netting attached on the inside to keep the dogs in, and I'll be puting another fence across the bottom (where the blue wheelie bin is) with a gate in it to keep my dogs in/my neighbour's young children out.

So far, I've bought an azalea (Azalea "Brilliant" - grows to 6 - 10 ft tall & wide, evergreen with bright red flowers in spring) to plant, probably this side of the photinia, and I'm waiting for a rose (Harkness rose - "Celebrating Life" - lilac/pink flowers)which should be delivered this week.

I'm open to suggestions for more plants/flowers suitable for woodland to create my memorial garden

 

@CreakyJoints so pleased to see you on the forum been in my thoughts bless you
Great idea for your garden hope this link for sunny windy exposed planting ideas is helpful http://www.shrublandparknurseries.co.uk/shop/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=31_34_132 i've also got lots of seeds that i collect throughout the year that i would love to donate to your Mams memorial garden various Lungworts, Aquilegia's,Honesty, Borage, Cornuta,forget me nots pink and blue well its probaly easier if you click on the link for me albums and see what it is you don't have and like ...please just say
Rather liked this one on the link
Akebia quinnata
Common Name: Chocolate Vine but then i like anything related to chocolate

 

Oh @BeeHappy , thank you. That's so generous of you
I've had a look but I'm afraid I'm one of those "I want all of them" people when it comes to plants, lol. Some Honesty and Aquilegia would be lovely thank you.
I'll be looking on your website at some point soon to buy plants for both my front and back gardens (back garden is sheltered, sunny, free draining neutral - slightly alkaline sandy loam).
Could you let me know when you have more Eryngium bourgaii "Picos Blue" in stock please ? No doubt I'll find lots more to buy though.

 

Hi @CreakyJoints, it's lovely to see you back on the forum you are very much in my thoughts.
How about a rose out there somewhere, there's a really lovely Rose called 'In loving memory' it's bright red & really pretty . I can't set up the link but tap it into Google & see what you think!
I shall look forward to watching your progress

 

How's about some native woodland clearing flowers.

Snowdrops, bluebells, honesty, white campion, pink campion all spring to mind.

 

Sorry about the delay, my neighbour called in to see me.
Thanks @Beckie76 I have ordered a rose which should arrive in the next week. I liked the look and name of this one - http://www.suttons.co.uk/Informatio...oses/Rose+Plant+-+Celebrating+Life_245348.htm

I see they have Rose "Loving Memory" too, which I like and will buy at a later date - http://www.suttons.co.uk/Gardening/Flower+Plants/Roses/Rose+Plant+-+Loving+Memory_255815.htm

I also bought this azalea which was delivered on Friday morning. My Mum loved rhododendrons and azaleas - http://www.suttons.co.uk/Gardening/...Azelea+Evergreen+Plant+-+Brilliant_254720.htm

@clueless1 I think that's a great idea. I have some wild primrose seeds and a few other packets of native wildflower seeds. I'll get some sown either in pots/plug trays or in situ to flower next year. I need to get the fencing done first before I can think about plants.
I was wondering about native cornfield flowers too, like you see in the field margins between a hedge and a crop field ? Poppies, cornflower, ox-eye daisies etc. Or, maybe do something like a wildflower meadow type of planting with a narrow grassy path meandering through it ?
My Mum would have loved that too because she grew up in this rural village

 

Wild primroses. I knew I was forgetting a stunner. They are beautiful.

 

@CreakyJoints, wow that Rose is beautiful , great choice

I got into bed last night & thought cowslips, CJ needs cowslips! My nan loved those

 

@Beckie76 and @clueless1 s. Exactly what I was thinking ..hey great minds n all that as I've said there all in me garden @CreakyJoints I have all the above seeds so please once again I can gladly send them to you bless you ...i lost my Mam at only 57 but she is the reason for my love of gardening and the place that I feel closest to her we talk constantly and i often ask her advice and every year i have at least one self seeded Godetia in my wildflower borders .....so I have a chuckle as I'm sure she is too they were one of her favs but being very blousy May West types... very similar to one of your Mams favs Azaleas ....she knows their too fancy to sit amongst the cornflower, poppy,flax,oxeyed daises,fox and cubs,calendula,etc but she still seems to get one in ..... that's her norty sense of humour please look at the link at the bottom of my page next to my signature my wild flower pics are in there

 

Hi CJ,
Looks like you've git a nice little garden there

Have you thought of something like a Pyracantha to attract more birds?

How about a Fuchsia, but not a modern blousy one. Something like " Hawkshead " ( all white ), " Gracilis " , or " Riccartonii " ( both red/purple ).


Here are a few more suggestions for you, annual Lupins, Candytuft, Clarkia, Mignonette, annual Chrsanthemum, Toadflax ( Linaria) and Linum.

They're all nice old fashioned things which should fit in with what you're trying to achieve.

 

@BeeHappy Oh wow, you have some beautiful flowers there. I could list everything I like but I'd be here all day . I do like the Centaurea Amethyst In Snow . Out of interest, Amethyst was my Mum's favourite precious stone.
My thinking re the azalea AND the wildflower/cornfield planting is that the azalea flowers in spring, about now in fact, and the cornfield/wildflower plants don't flower until summer. By the time those were in full bloom, the azalea would be a green backdrop of evergreen azaleaness .
I'm sure my Mum's love for azaleas and rhododendrons comes from childhood wandering along to the big country estate just a mile along the road from here. You go through the stone gateway, which has a lion on top of each gate post, (known locally as the Lions Gate), then the long driveway is lined with a mixture of native woodland and lots of rhododendrons. I love walking my dogs along there.

@Anthony Rogers Thank you
It's a lovely little garden which hasn't had anything done with it for at least 20 years. It was my Gran who planted all of those shrubs and the eucalyptus. She was in her 70s at the time and died 14 years ago aged 98. She loved plants but wasn't a "gardener" if you know what I mean. The shrubs came together in an order from Spaldings and my Gran just dug holes and plonked them in .

Yes to the pyracantha, I do like to help wildlife where I can so that's a great idea.
My Mum liked the older type of fuchsia too so that's another good suggestion.
I have a few lupins that I grew from seed. Supposed to be mixed but they all produced purple & white flowers, so those would fit in with what I'd like the front garden to look like. They are still in pots , because I didn't know where to put them. I had fencing, raised beds and a raised gravel area put up in my back garden last summer so that's why I have plants still in pots. Seed sown in autumn 2014, flowered all summer last year and are now putting out lots of new growth so probably best to plant them now .
I'll have a look through my seed packets because I'm sure I have some annual chrysanthemums, linum and toadflax. I don't have any godetia or clarkia seed so I'll buy some, and I've never heard of mignonette before so I'll look into that too. My plan is to have year round interest in the front garden. The back garden will have an area for growing veg and wildlife friendly cottage garden type planting. The back garden isn't very big either at 8m long by 4.56m wide, so careful planning will be needed to fit everything in

 

Here's the cherry laurel. It had shot upwards and outwards last year after the wet summer we had. Because it was starting to block the path down to the back garden, I got a man in to give it a hard trim. It is now half the height it was in this photo - now level with the roof of the shed.
I'll need to get out and do a bit of pruning again to keep the growth in check where the path runs in front of it. It's starting to grow outwards again already.
That shed in the bottom corner of this photo is at least as old as I am (49) if not older. Apart from the floor needing replaced and the bottom 2 rows of tongue and groove needing replaced, this shed is still sound and in good condition for its age.
My Mum had wanted to get rid of it and replace it with a smaller one, but I think I'll keep it and have any necessary work done to repair it. It's a solidly built 8' x 6' shed and still has the original lock on the door.



This photo was taken from my front door, (well, my only door because I'm in an upstairs maisonette ). From my door, you go down the steps you can see then turn right to go into my front garden. My wheelie bins will be relocated once I've had some paving put down at the opposite end of the shed. Between the shed and my back garden, there's an ancient concrete coal bunker (still in use as I have a coal fire). There's a space behind the coal bunker which is roughly 5' wide by 8 or 9' long. That's where the bins will be going so I'll have more planting space where they are right now.

This next photo was taken from the top of my front garden, beside the eucalyptus tree, looking down towards my back garden.
I'm not sure what the little shrub on the left, against the wheelchair ramp, is.


Close up of the little shrub. If I remember correctly, it has little spires of creamy white flowers in summer.



Here's a close up of the cherry laurel. It's roughly 8' high now (level with the roof of the shed but starting to put out new upward growth) since being cut back last year, but I'll have to get it cut back around the sides now to shape it and stop it from expanding any further outwards. I'll have to do that very soon before the local wild birds start building nests again. There were 2 nests, (small ones, possibly robin, dunnock or chaffinch although there's a possibility it may have been house sparrows...the cherry laurel is full of sparrows all summer. They use the leaves to lie on for a bit of sunbathing and you could hear them still chirping in there after dark ), used but recently vacated, in the cherry laurel when I had it topped last September.



Close up of the flower buds starting to form on the cherry laurel.


This photo is a close up of the flowers on the pieris "Forest Flame". There are a few open like this already but the whole shrub is covered with new flower buds waiting to open.

 

What was your mum's favourite colour? Just thinking you could get a lovely Rhodo with blooms that colour.

 

My Mum's favourite colour was green @merleworld
But...she loved flowers of every kind, so anything will be fine as long as it can grow in the conditions in my front garden.
The top end of the garden, (from the buddleia up to the eucalyptus), is fully exposed to wind from every direction. The bottom third has some protection from winds by the house (shelter from West winds), both mine and my neighbour in the next block's fences (shelter from East winds), and is sheltered from the North by my cherry laurel and the shed.
The soil is slightly acidic, freely draining sandy loam. In sun all day with some dappled shade under the shrubs and eucalyptus.

 

This has got to be one of the most beautiful conversations I've ever read on any forum.