Why not just repeat the cottage garden mix of low-lying perernnial and groundcovers that is in the front-yard. In that way the side yard will be united with the front-yard.

My American Father in law painted a griffon on his white garage door, for a nice elegant effect.

It looks like the area is in shade from the fence at least part of the time. What I have along my garage might work for you too in this location. I have a narrow bed along the garage planted with a mix of 'White Dome', 'White Moth' and 'Little Lamb' hydrangeas. 'Warsaw Nike' and 'Polish Spirit' clematises grow through them. The hydrangeas are all white-flowering 'new wood' bloomers so they can be pruned in spring as much as needed to control size - particularly width in a smaller space - without losing flowers for the year. The flowers bloom from July into the fall with 'Little Lamb' flowers gradually turning a deep pink as they age. The clematises are group 3 - hard prune - types so can be cut back along with the hydrageas without any problem. If they are not pruned hard, they flower earlier than if you prune them down lower to the ground as is generally recommended. If you prune them hard, they bloom with the hydrangeas; if you leave more of the 'old wood', they bloom before the hydrangeas. You could choose whatever group 3 variety or varietes fit with the color scheme of the rest of your garden. I remember your lovely house from previous posts - I think there was a lot of blue in the garden...? If so, you might want to consider a long-blooming blue clematis like 'Arabella' as the companion plant to the hydrangeas. Blue and white make a lovely combination and is neutral enough to go with just about anything else in the garden so should 'fit' with whatever else is there.

Hi isabella and woodyoak--thank you both for your thoughtful replies.

isabella--I kind of want to go tall on that fence just to keep with the scale of the fence. If all else fails, then I will go with the low-growers.

woodyoak--I very much like your idea of clematis interwoven with whatever I put against that fence. I have to do more research on which clematis variety will be better--I know there are many varieties that bloom on either old or new wood. I really like the idea of climbing roses interwoven with clematis.

I do not know whether hydrangeas are the way to go, b/c they may get too wide for that strip, which is about 2 feet wide.

Thank you again for your insights. Everyone, keep your suggestions coming--I need your help! :)

phil

My garage strip is no wider than what you have there. Because both the hygrangeas and the group 3 clematis can be pruned in the spring without losing the flowers, it is easy to control the size for the narrow space. Here's how my combination looks:

In mid-June:
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The end of July:
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Early October when 'Little Lamb' is maximum pink; 'White Moth' is the larger flowers on the right side:
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The picture you posted of the fence shows the area in shade from the fence so roses might not do well there unless it gets lots of sun. If there is enough sun for roses, you could consider swagging a climbing rose down the wall - with or without a clematis companion.

'New Dawn' rose swag:
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Maybe it's just me, but I would want something in front of that fence year round, not just during the spring/summer. So, I would go with an evergreen. I love the sky pencil hollies. I would put a few of those in there, along with some lower growing evergreens (dwarf hawthornes, pittosporum, etc.), then maybe have a couple of the red or yellow barberries (the new ones are not supposed to be invasive), and accented with a couple roses and some clematis. I know that it's not a lot of room but I think you could squeeze this all in and have year round interest as well as hide the fence beautifully.

Woody, that looks great.

I have a garden strip that wide along a fence with a pathway in front of it, so my situation is even more confined, I have been struggling to plant it productively (ie not giving me a headache) for years. The day it occurred to me to plant upright conifers there was a day of revelation. Conifers grow only up against gravity, not out toward the light, so relative to the deciduous shrubbery I had there before, the strip is now a piece of cake - virtually no pruning required to keep the adjacent pathway walkable. The conifers are surrounded at their feet with hostas and things (including more conifers and some rhodos and maples and and and) that spill out at ground level and there is a somewhat ridiculous diversity of foliage there with few flowers, but it works for us. No ducking required to get by.

Other things you could try would be something like a weeping purple beech, a slow one like Black Swan, which, with a couple of equally stunning conifer cultivars, both columnar and weeping, could make a stunning yet very narrow presentation. Like a mural almost.

KarinL

Philosopher - my apologies for a bit of a hijack here...

Karin - can you please post some pictures of your evergreen strip? As you're no doubt aware by now, evergreens are not the first thing I think of! There is a young holly at the end of my garage strip and I do have some - mostly broadleafed types - of evergreens here and there in the garden with larger, more mature ones as backdrops to the perennials and mixed borders and beds. I don't find bare shrubs - or bare ground - unattractive in the winter so don't find the 'winter interest' arguement for evergreens compelling on the smaller scale of a border. And it's a heck of a lot easier to rejuvenate/control an overgrown deciduous planting than most evergreen ones. I've seen too many overgrown, dull evergreen plantings and rarely seen attractive ones where they are meant to be the primary show (as opposed to a backdrop or frame for herbaceous or deciduous things) so I'd be very interested in seeing your mixed evergreen border.

Hi Woody, Yes, I will take some today and post them later. It seems a lot of people have these narrow beds, no matter how often the "ideal" is touted to be six or eight feet, so it might be of interest, not entirely a hijack. But maybe I'll do it as a new thread nonetheless.

I've hesitated to post as it isn't really grown in enough yet to illustrate the principle, unfortunately. It is not that long since I took out the wrong stuff and the right stuff isn't substantially grown in (or rather up) yet. Of course, by the time it is, I may not be taking photos any more. I'll get on with it! And of course, my gardening has to follow the principles as well as accommodate a ridiculously large plant collection... so it doesn't always illustrate principles as well as I'd like!
I totally agree that "deciduous" and "winter interest" are not mutually exclusive, as I love branch structure and character, and I also agree that most commonly-available evergreens are dead boring. Regular reading of the conifers forum can help address the latter problem, as there are specialty suppliers galore for a spectacular variety of plants in that family.

Selective shopping is really the key - whether for boxwoods, which boast hundreds of varieties, conifers, or rhodos. In rhodos, I almost completely ignore bloom colour and focus on structure and foliage - which rules out most of the green blobs that most nurseries carry.

As an example in the conifer family, do an internet search for Chamaecyparis 'Wissel's Saguaro". (One link that will come up is of a picture of mine that I posted on the conifers forum (linked below), and it breaks my heart to see it since that beautiful plant has since died due to my mismanagement. Grrrrr! It was originally planted in my narrow strip and would be looking great by now. The next one I found for sale locally was 4 inches high and still won't even show up on the photo I'm going to post - it is still hiding under a fern and a hosta that will someday grow at its feet!) But flip around the conifers forum while you're there, and you may find some photos of plants that will change your mind, as they did mine a couple of years ago!

Philosopher, you might actually get a host of good suggestions, if the idea appeals to you, if you post your photo on the conifers forum and ask for suggestions for likely cultivars. Set off with maybe columnar Japanese maples, the beech I mentioned, Ilex crenata "Mariesii" or a sky pencil type ... some perennials in between... it will take time to grow in, but fortunately that's a nice fence!

One key to growing a narrow garden, whether of evergreens or deciduous stock, is also training; after you get the right plants, you still need to tie back a bit and prune to shape as they grow. Even vines on trellises need a lot of that against fences, as they keep trying to grow to the light, away from the fence.

Till later,

KarinL

Here is a link that might be useful: Wissel's Saguaro

Many years ago my parents had some sort of euonymus which trained itself to grow flat up a north-facing brick wall. Quite attractive (shiny round evergreen leaves, small flowers, and perhaps berries?) and was happy in zone 5A (suburban Chicago area). In my memory, it didn't require much pruning to produce a two-dimensional effect -- but then, I was away in school during pruning time.

It may have been Euonymus fortunei sarcoxie. Is there anyone who would know if that is suitable for this fence? One web site says it uses holdfasts -- would they damage the fence?

Woody that is just beautiful! I think the OP should do that.

Care to share any pruning tips for the hydrangeas? Do you just prune them back hard, or prune throughout the spring as they are growing?
Once again, just beautiful.

Thanks drtygrl! We quite like it too...:-) Pruning is quite casual. The 'White Dome' is the loosest grower (it's a H. arborescens) so I cut those back a bit further than the H. paniculatas (White Moth and Little Lamb). I wait until you can see where the new buds are showing green. Then I cut any branches on the paniculatas that are looking like they will grow more than a few inches out over the edge of the bed back to stems that are closer to the back of the bed. The White Dome I just try to cut back to 12-15" from the ground. Since the clematises are all tangled up in the shrubs, they get partially cut back when I cut back the hydrangeas plus I cut any bits of them back that are sort of hanging out over the edge of the shrubs. As things leaf out and start growing, any time I walk past and there are bits that are longer than I want, I just snip them off regardless of what time of year it is! All the things that are in that bed are easy-care, tough plants that don't need a lot of fussing and can take a bit of 'abuse' (i.e. by not following pruning 'rules' or being planted in less than ideal conditions.) I have very few fussy plants in the garden. Easy maintenance - as opposed to low/no maintenance - is an important characteristic I look for in plants.

Going back to your original list of ideas, I think it bears reiterating that your challenge is not so much finding something to plant in a narrow bed, but making it grow upright.

These one-sided light situations mean that anything you plant will have to be either forced, trained, pruned, or cajoled into growing upright when its instinct is to lean for the light. Any of the ideas you mentioned would work; it would just take different inputs to make them not look "messy."

The only option that will cover the fence with virtually no work is using conifers or other evergreens that grow upright naturally no matter what the light situation (and even these may need some watching). Deciduous shrubs including roses will require annual reminding all growing season even once their vertical framework is established. The amount of correction required will depend on how much annual growth the shrubs put on. And for both perennials and annuals, or even vegetables such as tomatoes, beans, etc, which might be perfect here, it would need to be done from scratch every year.

I like Woody's distinction of easy maintenance vs. low maintenance. Next to a fence this high, even if your bed were two or three times wider, you would have a maintenance task in front of you, and a plant mass of some sort seeking to grow in an airspace other than the one you have in mind. The choices you have involve determining how high that plant mass will be, whether it is prickly or not, and what tasks are involved in controlling it - tying, pruning, staking, trellising....

Also regarding your question about the snow - is there a reason you are more concerned here about root rot than in other parts of the yard?

You could always pave it over or just plant ground cover, and hang art on the fence :-)

KarinL

My designer's approach to this question would utilize the KISS principle. I would not encourage a client to spend many dollars on this adverse growing situation, at least not until it was understood after several growing seasons in Zone 5. Note: I have numerous years of Zone 5 growing/designing experience.

My simple approach:

1. The corner of the fence and garage is a perfect spot to train a large, white flowering clematis. If you do this, after planting the clematis place a medium size, new concrete stepping stone over the root system. This shades, protects and slowly releases lime to the clematis root system.

2. Locate the middle of the fence. From this point string three parallel rows of grape wires through screw eyes attached to the fence for a total length of about 15'; 7.5 feet on each side of the middle point. First row of wire should be set at 3.5 feet. Now, plant one pyracantha at the mid point of the wires and espalier (tie, train, prune) the branches to the wires. Pyracantha is a fast, strong grower adaptable to this treatment. Keep it controlled and tight to the fence. May be partially evergreen in this protected site.

3. Low annuals along the fence line? Here I would be frugal, purchasing discounted annual seed packets available during the summer months; sowing them along the driveway space on top of the last lingering, melting snow of the winter. This is a method seldom used by northern gardeners. Easy, cheap and productive.

Hi all--

Thanks so much for your thoughtful comments. I am worried about the root rot b/c that is where we pile the snow from the driveway. So it gets very wet very early in winter, and it stays soggy through spring. Then, in spring, b/c of the slope of the driveway it dries out and stays very dry until winter again.

Even though the sun shines on the other side of the fence, the reflectivity off of the driveway makes that fence one of the hottest/sunniest on our property. So it really is a punishing location.

I think I have made my decision: I am going to have that be my annual bed. That way, I do not have to worry too much about winter rot/damage. In keeping with my color scheme up front (cool, glaucous colors/foliage), I will focus on white annuals--white cosmos, cleome, zinnias, a few dwarf white sunflowers.

I won't do this until next spring. This year I will focus on lots of soil amendment and preparing the bed for next spring. I may even grow my own annuals from seed, something I haven't done for years.

I'll post snappies once the garage door is fixed up again.

Cheers & thank you again!

Can't wait to see your photos. Till your next post I hope to see more from you.

I will take the photos soon. I probably won't be planting that fence patch until next year, though--still cogitating on things.

We are getting a new garage door on August 8. Maybe I'll wait until then to post. Keep checking back!