ideas to `gardenise' small pathway :)

21 years ago

Good day everyone! :)

I have a small strip on bare space on the side of the house that I never use. It's just bare ground with a cement path on the side (the other side is the fence dividing the neighbour's place) because the laundry door opens to it. I never understood why some houses have such small side spaces as it usually never gets used, because of it's odd long and narrow shape.

But that's the way it is, and now I'm wondering how I can perk this area up. It's small, say 5 metres by 1, and it's south facing and doesn't get much sunshine. Where I am we get morning frosts for the colder parts of winter, but I suspect this area is shaded and is not affected.

Is this space screaming fernery?

But being a small space right next to a wooden fence, this area do get birds lingering and hence droppings in the area. Which means during warmer days this area is prone to weeds (from their droppings) as I've discovered. So I'm also thinking along the lines of some sort of raised platform (perhaps) with a kind of plant that is hardy to weed invasion.

I'm thinking of having a dog in the long run, so it will have to be a dog friendly setup...and I have no grass in my garden at the moment. I'd like a small patch of it incorporated somehow, as I have guinea pigs that so deserve a grassed area.

So with all these random thoughts, I have yet to come up with a solid decision. Can you share ideas with me, or even show me pictures of any garden setup you have in small spaces like this? :)

Kat

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Comments (4)

meldy_nva
21 years ago
Yankees: that's a bit less than 16 1/2 feet long by 3'4" wide. And I think the Australian south-facing is the equivalent to our north-facing.

That's just a wide walkway. Really fast, what comes to mind is pots of several heights, maybe with new guinea impatiens, ferns and hosta. Get long narrow pots, and/or use smaller pots and hang them on the fence. If it's not already [and you are allowed to], paint the fence white and plant vines -- I don't know your climate, so I won't make any suggestions other than suggesting at least one evergreen type and a couple that flower at differing times; plant at each end and train the vines towards the middle. Get the birds a bit more located by providing a feeder and/or water bath at one end. Thickly [10 cm] mulch the soil with chips or bark chunks and put down pavers, stepping stones, or those new recycled-rubber tiles to walk on. That should eliminate most weeds, while giving you an all-weather surface to walk on. For both visual pleasure and anti-bird, you might consider hanging "window-boxes" from the fence top - they come with water reserviors for ease of maintenance, and you could put in both flowers and small hanging vines to drape down. Use slender twigs or bamboo skewers to stick up every 5 or 6 cm, along the back of the windowbox, most birds won't risk getting their wing-feathers stuck so they won't try to perch on them. Also consider hanging old mirrors (or framing a flat piece of shiny stainless steel) on the house-wall to help reflect more light into the area. (Protect wood frames by painting with a marine-grade polyurethane.) If you can use any space beyond the walkway, consider having a buddleia - wonderful plant for attracting butterflies, and one will grow in a large pot almost as well as in the ground. It is possible to prune buddleia in such a way that it becomes more like a tree than a shrub. This would add visual interest as well as semi-screening the walkway.
socks
21 years ago
Really?? In Australia south facing is the same as our north facing? I don't doubt you, but it just seems so odd. Maybe it relates to the position of the sun rather than the poles? Interesting.

I'm going to Australia next year and want to be sure to be "up" on all this stuff.
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meldy_nva
21 years ago
Sorry, Sue -- I should have clarified that statement, which was based on comments made by a family friend who was from New Zealand. In discussion of the problems/benefits of planting on the "cool side" of the house, we used to thoroughly confuse each other by referring [us] to north-facing, [him] to south-facing. Yes, I would expect that the shade effects are due to the position of the sun; certainly there is no difference in relation to the North/South poles. If you are fortunate enough to visit Australia, don't forget that our summer is their winter! Although weedummie's mention of morning frost in cold winter, makes me suspect her/his climate is more similar to our Gulf coast or southern tip of Florida rather than the mid-Atlantic states.
vetivert8
21 years ago
I may have gotten confused: your laundry door opens onto a path at the south side. Do you use it to get out to the washing line? Or do you use a drier instead??

The reason I ask is that if you're struggling out to the line with a loaded basket the last thing you need is plants slopping dew over your jandals/thongs.

Pebbles don't seem to pick up the same weed burden as shingle and are not so likely to get kicked over the path by bug-hunting birds as bark chips, IME. Less tidy-up work.

South end plants: Aspidistra, Chlorophytum (spider plant) which is reasonably frost hardy and will bounce back from a light touch. Dianella and Libertia - especially some of the newer hybrids. Epimedium, which is also reasonably drought hardy, too.

A fence. Clematis? Particularly if it can get it's head into the sun. C paniculata might be worth a try.

Ferns. Pellaea and Asplenium (native for both of us) and Blechnum and Athyrium nipponicum or some of its cultivars.

The trouble with the south end is the soil is often heavy and a bit sour. Worth top-dressing with leaves. Do you get a leaf-fall period on the native plants in spring as we do? Useful for increasing the humus content for ferns ahead of the summer dry if you can collect enough. A fresh layer of about 25mm on top of the old stuff would be good.