I don't have any good suggestions for you. I have a number of narrow beds at my house and, although they are wider than 6" (more like 24"), I am still struggling to find plants that don't sprawl over. I do, however, have a warning about the baptisia. It is a very large plant. Mine fills every bit of a 3' or 3 1/2' space.

Totally Confused

I agree that the space would be too small for Baptisia. Is this spot in full sun then? Does it get hot because of the cement? Dry or moist soil?

If it is a full sun area and moderately moist then my ideas would be:
Campanula carpatica 'Blue Clips' or 'White Clips'
A compact, long blooming Perennial Geranium like 'Ballerina' or 'Biokovo'.
Dianthus
If you don't mind something that spreads Carex 'Ice Dance' might be pretty there.
A great favorite of mine is Ornamental Oregano 'Kent Beauty'. Lovely cascading over a wall or pathway. Nice scent too ;-)
CMK

Have you considered some of the smaller ornamental grasses?

Thanks for the responses!

Thanks for the warning about Baptisia, Totally Confused. I'll find a different spot for that one then. I actually DO want something that sprawls, to try and cover as much of the cement as possible.

CMK, the area gets lots of sun - it's running from east to west on the south side - there is a house nearby there that blocks some sun, but in summer it's very sunny.

The soil is clay-heavy, but I'm doing lots of amendments to hopefully improve it.

Thanks for the recommendations. I ordered a few Dianthus seeds to wintersow, and I'll look into that oregano - is it annual in zone 6?

Hi flora2b. I haven't looked into any ornamental grasses - I don't know if smaller ones would come up high enough or cover enough space??

I have a similar setting between my deck and my fence. In that tiny place though I planted hedges like cream and cracker dogwood which stands out against my dark fence and also thives in wet situation -as often it happens when water accumulates in these areas.

In your space though if drainage is not an issue, I would suggest first digging it deep and amending the soil so there's more room for roots to grow. And then consider vines instead - like clematis or even climbing roses. You can definitely underplant these with the cascading plants suggested above. The key is digging deep to enlarge the room for root growth.

Thanks ianna - that's a great suggestion. If I can find the dogwood, it might work there, as drainage will probably not be the best.
Unfortunately, I have clematis and climbing roses in a few other areas already, and wanted something different. If I dig deeply, as you said, I think that will help anything I plant there a great deal.

If you want something that will take off and fill in and go up the fence, English ivy will do that. You will need to cut it back right before it flowers so that it doesn't become invasive in your garden (and neighborhood, for that matter!).

I should say that I dug deep and amended the soil so it's not pure clay. Also I did address the drainage issue by sloping the area so excess water drains out into a sunken weeping tile. (What you want to avoid is a deep hole in which water cannot escape and therefore turns into a muddy soup.) The dogwoods then remove the rest of water by suckering up all the moisture. (my dogwood is one of those variagated types with red wood) So what I'm saying is that in these types of spaces, Roses will not thrive. Choose plants that don't mind soggy feet.

Re: vines how about climbing hydrangea which is elegant. or dropsmore honeysuckle. You have many possibilities here.

Serenae, I'm having a hard time picturing the area. It sounds like there is a fence (how tall, what style?), then 6" of planting space, and then your patio? You said 12" in height but then didn't think small ornamental grasses would be tall enough. If you're only looking for 12" high, then do you want the look of vines covering the fence? You have 6" width of soil for planting but what is the ultimate width of the plant you can have with the sprawling? Sorry for so many questions but it might help us brainstorm the type of "look" you're going for.

Sorry Thyme2dig, I'll try to be more clear.

There is a metal fence, about 5' high, that runs along the side of my house, going east to west. It has a cement block foundation to it. Along this fence is a very small (approx 6") gap between the fence foundation and the cement that forms my "patio" outside of my front door.

I want something that will grow in the 6" gap that will come up high enough to sprawl out over the cement, to cover both the gap and the edges of the cement patio area, to help soften it. So, preferably something bushy and wide, but that doesn't need much root space.

Vines would be nice to disguise the fence itself, but I'm more wanting something that will fill in the gap area, and cover the edges of the patio.

I didn't think that ornamental grasses would come up high enough, or be bushy enough, but I'm not really familiar with them.

It could accommodate an ultimate width of 2', even 3'. It can come up as high as the fence itself - I just wanted it to be at least 12" high as a starting height.

Hope this helps! If I'm still being "clear as mud", I can try to take a picture.

I can see what you are saying- you want something to cover as much concrete (both the fence foundation and the patio edge)as possible.

I wish I knew what would work in your zone. Here in Socal I would plant Sprenger's Asparagus Fern and Wheeler's Dwarf Pittosporum.

If it is not too hot, would some kind of daylily work? Tall bearded irises would like that kind of a spot if there's enough sun, and you could plant sprawly stuff around the irises or intersperse with daylilies.

Renee

Ornamental grasses generally have a vase shaped appearance and heights of 12" to upwards of 6-7ft, so depending on the width of cement you wish to soften, they may work.
Here is some pics:
Short oat grass (will burn out if too hot)

Renee - yep, that's exactly what I'm trying to do. I'll look into Daylilies! Thanks for your help.

Flora, what gorgeous pictures. I'm going to look up miscanthus varieties right now - thanks. Lavender might work. What variety is that in the picture? Maybe a hardy Salvia would too? I was hoping to plant those in a different spot, but....

In my experience salvia doesn't stay as neat as lavender, but some of the newer varieties probably would be better behaved. The lavendar in the pic is Hidcote.
I agree daylilies would look good too, but the varieties I have can look messy with dropping flowers and foliage browning out early....again different varieties would probably be much improved. Whatever you plant it will have to be small to be able to dig in a 6" space.
Flora

With that small space I would personally use Sedum Blue Spruce. Gets about 6 inches tall plus the flower height. I have a small space about 8 inches wide between my paver sidewalk from front to backyard and the side of the house. I planted several groundcover sedums there. I also included Sedum Angelina and at some time will probably just have those 2 growing there as they fill in for the color combination. I like that they are also evergreen so I have color there year round.
Cher

lavenders are nice but then again, make sure there's good drainage.

I like the ornamental grass idea too and have the same calamagrotis, but I don't know if that will work in a tight space. It's worth a try. Another sort of ornamental grass is blue fescu.

you can also use siberian irises which won't mind wet conditions and they when they no longer flower, they do look like grass.

veronica candelabra are nice as well. Another suggestion is trolius(yellow).

coreopsis moonbeam.

astrantias.

Hostas are also a good candidate for tight spaces. I also would recommend lamb's ears - the one that has large leaves.

I like sedum autumn joy but it does not bloom until late in the season.

I agree that salvia will look ugly once the blooms are over.

So many great suggestions! Thanks everyone.

At this point, I'm thinking of using lavender and interspersing other, smaller plants and bulbs.

Any plants I'm not considering are because I already have lots of them in other places! So please don't think I don't appreciate your ideas.

Serenae, thanks so much for the extra info. It is very helpful especially since the metal fence, cement patio and full sun will be hot, hot, hot! The cement patio and fence foundation may also suck quite a bit of moisture away from the plants. 6" of space with cement on both sides may cause for perennials to be rootbound at some point unless their roots can travel down depending on how far down you plan to dig out and ammend soil.

I didn't ask how long the planting area is. If it is very long I do think some height here and there throughout will help balance the space. If you have all short plants it may look out of proportion for the length and height of the fence/planting area.

My other thought is that you may want to order from some good, quality mail order companies that ship smaller perennial plants so their roots can really grow and find their way into the space and you won't be trying to jam large nursery plants into a small space. Bluestone Perennials or High Country Gardens (HCG has a lot of plants for hot, dry climates/gardens) come to mind.

Or another option, and I don't know if you start seeds, is to stick with annuals that will really fill in and bloom all summer and well into the fall for you. There are many annuals out there that like hot/dry. I'm almost thinking of your area like a window box if that makes sense. Just because it's so narrow and where will the roots go with cement on both sides? That may be cost prohibitive to have to do each year though.

If the choice is perennials, I do like Flora's idea of getting grasses into the border.

Hope that helps a bit. It sounds like a challenging space, but I think that makes gardening fun!

A friend of mine used the shasta daisy...she had barely 3 inches between the driveway and the foundation of her house. It was absolutely striking when they were in bloom! A whole line of them 30-35 feet long; hers were probably 20-25 inches tall.

flora2b, is that YOUR garden?
Renee

Hi Thyme2dig, thanks for following up!

I'm growing a lot this year from seed, trying winter sowing for the first time, so there are a lot of things I could try in the space. It is a very long space, of course I don't have to plant all of it this year. Maybe this year could be an experimenting one, so that I see what does well there and don't lose too much money.

It is very much like planting a window box - a hot window box! Thanks for the names of the mail ordering places. Unfortunately, I don't think they would ship all the way to Serbia. Since I'll be doing WS for most of my plants anyway, I'll be able to put the seedlings in while they're still small.

Annuals might work while I'm establishing some perennials, especially if they self-seed.

Do you or anyone else know if Korean feather reed grass "sheds" a lot? I really like this ornamental grass the most out of the ones I've found, but I have a pond near the area that I don't want to constantly be skimming fluffy grass seeds out of!

Ginnier - thanks for the recommendation. Daisies could be cute and give good height to the area.

Yes Renae, those pics are a few tidbits of my garden. I recently took cuttings of the lavender to make a long hedge (100') where the deer are a real nuisance.
I have many grasses near my pond, with feather reed grass beside my pond and because it is sterile, it remains well behaved for me. I basically just clean up in the spring by cutting it back. Excess snow will collapse it in the winter though.
Flora

Thanks Flora. You have an incredibly beautiful garden!

The annoying spot that seems to have every problem under the sun also gets snow dumped on it in early spring - falls from a neighbours roof onto the area. I could build wooden shelters for anything there, I suppose, but I just realised that that is another issue I have to contend with. *sigh*