Interesting space! Looking at the pictures, I certainly don't think 'evergreen' - I had to look closely to see the conifers. Add a bit more color to it and it wouldn't look to out of place in my garden :-) I do like the broadleafed evergreens as they seem to blend in better with perennials. It looks like you have quite a few - are they all small varieties too? What are they?

It appears that to avoid being too dull, the conifers need to be special ones and not the run-of-the-mill garden center choices for the most part. I did scan a few of the threads on the conifer forum -and got a chuckle out of the 'buns on a stick' comments on one of them! If you ever are in this area, you should check out Vineland Nurseries in Beamsville. They specialize in dwarf evergreens, Japanese maples, rhododendrons, and rare and unusual plants. It's where I got my 'Waterfall' Japanese maple a couple of years ago and a 'Butterfly' Japanese maple this spring. I actually thought of you when I was there in May when I saw this plant:
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I have no idea what its name is or how big it will grow but, based on the comments you've made here in the past, I figured it might be something you'd like! The picture didn't do it justice. The new growth was almost pure white and the older stuff was very blue.

From you comments above, it sounds like even a dwarf evergreen garden will eventually outgrow the space. One of the drawbacks to many coniferous evergreens is that you can't rejuvenate them by pruning or cutting back. One of the things that gets mentioned from time to time but I don't think is absorbed by a lot of people is that it is quite acceptable - in my opinion at least - to plant something that you know will outgrow its space if you are prepared to later remove it or extensively rejuvenate it if it is a type that you can do that to. I think too many people are reluctant to remove things - especially woody things - if they're healthy but just too big for the space.

Nice space. This forum doesn't get enough pictures. That narrow a space is extremely difficult and you have done a great job. I, personally, would not like having to remove plants that are too big, even though most of us will have to do that at some point, you perhaps just more often.
Thanks, also, for the tip about the steps inlaid with grass. I was thinking about doing just that - now I know not to. :)

I really like the range of greens with the reddish JM mixed in and all the textures. I also like the added interest of the pot in photo 3 and the round metal accent on the wall. The narrow bed is a very personal statement and a very successful one. This slice of garden demonstrates how flowers can be optional, or the icing on the cake. There is obviously an experienced hand at work here, and it is worth noting this was not done in a single installation, but evolved over time. When it comes to gardening, patience is a virtue.

Here's another example of a very narrow bed. This one is much plainer than Karin's. It's in a very restricted space between the porch foundation and the driveway and underneath the roof overhang for the porch, so it's shaded and dry with very poor soil. It's a dumping ground for driveway snow in winter so it gets salt too. For a month or so in spring and 6 weeks or so in late fall, it looks a bit odd because of the rodgersia being dormant at those times, but once the rodgersia returns in spring or once the void is filled with snow, it's simple but attractive. The rodgesia has nice big fluffy spires of flowers in late spring. It would be nice to have something to fill the gap times but the rodgersia and Emerald Gaiety euonymus have out-competed anything we've tried to add, although a few daffodils still manage to appear and lily of the valley still lurks under the porch in virtually complete darkness!
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I really wish I could get rogersia to grow like that! It is just borderline hardy in my region...so it takes a number of years to get this plush.

Great examples of narrow beds. I have one I am going to try to photograph tomorrow to add to this discussion - if i remember :)

Thanks for the comments, and I appreciate people being able to see what I'm trying to accomplish. It will take some time.

Woody, you're right, that is just the kind of plant that I like. As both you and Catkim noticed, it is the interplay of foliage that I garden for. So I do use "garden variety" plants but I always plant close and plan for layers of foliage. It is true that conifers can't be rejuvenation-pruned, but if you keep them pruned to within boundaries from the outset, they can stay functional for many years - hedges being the prime example! The point, I think, is one that applies to growing all woody plants - you have to have a plan for them and pretty ruthlessly enforce it, because if you don't, they'll follow their own plan, which may not suit your needs at all (and with a fence in the picture, their plan often has them following the sun). Your Rodgersia bed, Woody, is an example of the serendipity of a plant whose plan happens to meet your needs perfectly. It does look great, and that Euonymus obviously either grows nicely upright or is well trained. That's what "right plant, right place" is all about.

Some conifers, incidentally, resent having their foliage shaded out by other plants, and are not as co-operative of my gardening style as others. Spruces, for example, which I think that one you posted is, are like that.

By the way Holley, the main reason our spaced pavers don't work is that we didn't fill the gaps with enough dirt before planting grass, and honestly, I think the soil is getting gradually washed away too. But even if you can keep the surfaces dead even, there are limitations - chair legs have to be carefully placed, and if you put something like a pot on the patio across a gap and then move it, there goes the grass and here come the weeds. So you may be able to make it work... I can't! Also, ours happens to be where we walk a lot, it's a defacto pathway. Perhaps on a destination patio where you weren't always charging across it wouldn't matter so much. My mistakes needn't be a complete dissuasion; perhaps they can help you to get it right.

As for removing plants when they've outgrown their space, I couldn't more heartily agree that it's hard and I have a lot of trouble doing it. Sometimes you can move things around, or find new homes for them. But we've seen overgrown landscape disasters so often that we do, I think, realize that no installation in a yard is ever permanent - if nothing else, the next homeowner will often tear out plants treasured by the resident before. It helps when one of the plants is actively bullying others, you feel like a hero for rescuing the underdog :-)

OK, drtygrl, your turn!

KarinL

Sorry, I can't seem to post this picture without linking it.

This is a 24 in wide bed mainly designed to soften this drainage area. It was strange project because the gravel area was mandated by the town when the red building was built. Although you can't tell from the picture this is the side of the building that faces the road and is the main approach to enter and park. The owners wanted to soften the appearance of all the gravel, boulders and parking.

Surprisingly, it has turned out to be a really nice part of the oveall landscape of this building complex.

Here is a link that might be useful: narrow bed

Here's another view.

I think in a narrow bed either a repeating pattern or a massing of elements is key to making it work. It is interesting that in Karin's bed the large leaves of the Rhodies becomes the repeating element that pulls it all together.

Anyone else have an example?

Here is a link that might be useful: another view

Its good to see even though you have a narrow garden the plants are still looks healthy and the flower blooms are so beautiful.

Oh lord, is gardenlover25 another Landscape Design China? Or a resurrection of the original? Actually come to think of it, I missed the departure of the original.

Drtygrl, you may be right about having repetition and that the Rhodos are it in my case. It certainly works in your bed - and for me the hostas are what the eye moves to and stops at. And it may not even be necessary for it to be the same hosta but I must say it makes a calmer impression when it is. I often wish I could make enough of a commitment to a single plant to use it more than once, but the drive for variety is the plant collector's demon.

What I find intriguing in what you've done is the strip of gravel at the wall, which forces you to plant out further, thus giving the plants a more even lighting situation and allowing them to grow more as if in the open. Nice work!

KarinL

Just speaking to the narrow planting area between the stepping stones, I'd suggest that something tougher like Dymondia or Dwarf Mondo Grass would work better than turf. I feel fortunate that here in California, there are plenty of evergreens that both bloom yet can easily be trained as espaliers in narrow areas, without the constant pruning. I like to use Abutilons, Grewia occidentalis and Camellia sasanqua for such areas, in particular, and love the tall clumping yet narrow Walking Iris/Neomarica caerulea for the drama of form and gorgeous flowers right now. Cyperus textilis is another tall vertical grower that I use a lot in very narrow spaces when I want height, but not width.