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Planning a 40 foot Labyrinth, need help with plant material

16 years ago

Hi, I am going to plant a 40 foot diamether labyrinth. The labyrinth will have 7 circles. I would like a hardy evergreen that will stay nice and compact. I would like the evergreen to be about 1 foot high and about 1 foot wide. Overall I was thinking of planting a mixture of spring and fall bulbs in front of the evergreen plant. I am open for suggestions on additional colorful plantings. Overall the walls of my labyrinth would be about two feet wide with a 2 ft walking path. I was thinking about Korean Boxwood but it is a bit expensive, gets about 3 feet high and 3 feet wide. I am thinking of mulching the ground in and around the labyrinth. Any pictures of ideas would be appreciated. Even a cheaper plant alternative would be helpful, Bev

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Comments (4)

gottagarden
16 years ago
I would suggest boxwood. Slow growing, stays small, deer resistant. Some nurseries will sell small boxwood starts, but it will take awhile to get nice sized. Hard to find the nursery as well. It will be hard to keep anything to 1 foot by 1 foot though.

Yew gets too big.

Although not technically evergreen, I saw someone use thyme for a hedge/edging. It grows fast, is cheap, resistant to all pests, and has good form in the winter, doesn't get large. Just needs a quick haircut in the spring.
maggie_berry
Original Author
16 years ago
I just finished looking up Thyme. I think for the first year I am going to try Thyme because of all the reasons you listed. I can then slowly fill in with Boxwood. Thank you so much!
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mad_gallica (z5 Eastern NY)
16 years ago
Instead of thyme, look at germander - 'poor man's box'. It's a relatively strange plant, short but quite upright. It seems to grow to about a foot tall.

I wouldn't try to keep Korean box at one foot tall.
leslie197
16 years ago
Lavender Cotton (Santolina chamae-cyparissus) also makes a nice short hedge. I used it for years in an old raised vegetable garden to make it look sort of like a parterre. Gave a very nice effect. Soft grey-green, yellow flowers in late summer if you don't cut it back hard.

I also edged some of the planting triangles & squares in Candytuft (Iberis sempervirens 'Snowflake') for contrast. Nice crisp evergreen(ish in my climate) with white spring flowers. Also hedges nicely.

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