Hazel nut grove/food aisle behind garden and privacy fence

Apr 09, 2016 08:47:26

I have strip of yard that's partly behind my main garden and partly behind a 6' privacy fence. The fence is on the west edge. It's about 25' x 100'. Two feet from the fence mature hazel nut bushes are about 6' tall and 15 ' apart. Some have thornless blackberries in between. One has a Nikitas gift mulberry and on a service berry bush. The row in the middle of the strip has an apple on one end and an English walnut and two lavender mulberry on the on the other. Also two Chinkapins and two Jans Pride gooseberry. The rest of this row of tree is planted with hazel nut trees that are a few feet tall now. They will be taller varieties with bigger nuts. In between each is a nitrogen fixer tree , seaberries and autum olives. In between each tree is 3 slender bush clovers that I just planted. I just planted a bush hazel hedge 4' from the property line and most of the way across the back. One end already has mature cane. I wanted the hedge to be right on the property but there is a buried cable a couple feet from the propery line the full length of this strip of land.

I'm wondering what I could plant pretty much on top of the buried cable for a border and so I don't have to mow it. I was thinking maiden grass because it makes decent mulch and I need more. I think it might get too big. I don't think it'd hurt the cable. I thought about herbals like borage and some bee plants. I think they'd invade the land behide me. It looks like an open field, but is meant to building sites. Does anyone have any suggestions for the property line? I live inside city limits.

Does any one have any thoughts on what I've done so far? Did I make any big mistakes? Is it going to too crowded? The rows aren't natural- looking but it seemed like the best use of the narrow space . I want this strip filled up with enough shade that the grass doesn't grow much. I also want as big of variety of food plants as possible. I may plant some musk strawberries there later. I planted some last year and I think they're going to be great ground cover. They're in the front yard now.

Sorry if this isn't properly edited. My battery is dead and I don't want to lose all this.

Apr 09, 2016 11:28:39

I think chives are the classic herbal border plant. My garlic chives are exceptionally vigorous and give me an attractive summer flower. I just planted regular chives as a border today. Knowing me, in that situation I would be trying to plants flowering sub shrubs and bulbs. I'm attaching a picture of the garden sage underplanting my rose bush. I hard pruned the rose back to three feet early this spring.

Actually, there are a lot of amazing drift roses available these days, if you get as distracted by the pretty as I do. They've been bred to stay under two feet without pruning. So far the only thing preventing me from buying some this spring is that I've already filled all my available sunny spots with annual vegetables. I still might give in and force some of my squash to just grow around them.

Apr 09, 2016 12:07:12

What about yarrow and mint? This might be a good spot for the types of plants that drive neat and tidy gardeners crazy with their spreading. Comfrey would be good too for mulch. Yarrow is good chop and drop too and in my garden comes up earlier than comfrey.
Ornamental grasses often need to be dug up and divided later in life to continue looking nice. They tend to die out in the center. Not great for being on a cable. I suppose you could throw some wildflower seeds in the dead centers rather than dig them out.
Chives are lovely. I really like putting the flowers in mashed potatoes with sour cream. Garlic chives are nice too and in my garden they get covered in honeybees. They are also one of only a few very late summer bloomers for me.

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