Is want to decorate this corner with rocks and plants. What I can do to this corner?
I wanted to put some kind of plant and decorate but I dont know much about what types of decorative plants I can use and what type of substrate/rocks I need to use
Is this outside a business? Quite honestly looking at the mess that is there right now, putting stones, flowers, shrubs, is just going to be an attractive nuisance. You will be picking garbage out, kids will be pulling up the plants and throwing any stone they see. People parking next to it will probably walk in it damaging whatever plant is in there.
Best bet is to just keep it clean, power wash the area after cleaning up the crap… This way you save yourself some head and heart aches.
Exotic-Scallion4475
Is there currently dirt in there or just a concrete base? If it’s dirt, you could absolutely make it a small pollinator garden with native perennials.
Previous-Branch4274
What is the deal with this property?
Give us some details.
You buy a storefront?
Seanacles
You could decorate it with Rocks and plants
Admirable_Blood9355
put some rocks and plants in it
semperfi9964
It would be helpful to know where it is, do you get snow? Desert? That would help with plant suggestions.
That_One-Potatoe
Forgot to add. This property is a bakery in its own building. This is in the front parking lot and people throw trash since its empty. The rest of the parking lot doesnt look like this. The location is in Puerto Rico
BaronChuffnell
Does that area fill with water when it rains? Interested to know if it drains properly. You’ll need something that doesn’t require a deep root system, so perhaps an annual flower bed? Depending on the climate you could do a kind of rock garden with yucca and short grasses, too. Good luck!
Key_Minimum_4337
Add rocks and plants
Electrical_Belt3249
I think potted plants are your best/only liable options. Can you and a friend build a planter box for the straight edge? Then line pots along the curved edge—keep in mind some pots will bust when it gets freezing cold.
Small shrubs are the only the that will stay green all year, building something large enough to accommodate that will not be cheap.
Choose perennials to come back each spring thru fall and be dead looking in winter.
Or choose annuals every spring for warm season and fall for cold.
Amesaskew
You can’t put dirt on top of concrete. If you want plants to grow there then you’re going to need to break up the concrete, or put the plants in pots. If you don’t, all of the dirt will wash away.
gentle_viking
OP I would suggest using a grouping of large planters for some plants and then using a combination of decorative stones or gravel to fill the space around the planters. The concrete underneath is going to inhibit most plants growing in a healthy and robust way. At least with planters you can change out the soil and plants if needed, and they can be moved to facilitate any cleaning or maintenance of the space. Things like grasses and annuals would look great and are fairly low maintenance. If you really have to plant something in there,stick to something that is a groundcover with fairly shallow root systems such as sedum varieties. Look for groundcover plants at your local nursery.
FjordWasp
Might not be optimal with the concrete under but if you ringed the edge with gravel and used that as an intermediary to mound up the center with soil, that may be enough growth medium for a sellection of plants.
It may be that you need to drill some drainage into the curb aswell
Fill it with medium size river rocks or lava rocks and planters. I’d probably use different size planters like one BIG round planter and smaller ones around it. Plant whatever is native to your area that you like.
pinkpostit
Clean up the garbage, pressure wash it all, and provide a waste bin nearby… that’ll go a long way to improving the look
LoLThalys
Some trash would do
LeftyGalore
A moon garden with silver leaved plants and white blossoms for viewing at night.
sometimes_snarky
Honestly, I’d fill it with concrete and be done with it. The area looks like it gets hit often. Put flowers in planters around your door. If you feel brave, put a theme park style [trash can/recycle bin](https://trashcansunlimited.com/blog/-7-things-your-company-can-learn-from-disney-trash-cans/) closer to the building (not out on the peninsula) and have a local artist personalize it for your bakery.
Temporary_Cow_8486
Or, hear me out, please. You can decorate with rocks and plants.
SeveralDiving
R/NoLawns try this page as well. Xeriscaping is the term you’re after. Drop too much drop cloth to get started – follow with rocks then arrange drought tolerant native plants there. Good to go my friend.
Jimbobjoesmith
does water pool in there when it rains? i would suggest like a rock garden with succulents but you would have to pile the rocks pretty high. then add small pockets of substrate that can drain through the rocks.
Nimoy2313
You will need something that can live in shallow soil that won’t drain well and will probably dry out on summer days. You are going to need one tough plan that can handle living in a puddle and bone dry during summer.
PS4Dreams
I would definitely repaint that curb first
ThunkAsDrinklePeep
Why is the concrete barrier there at all? Before you backfill it, what is its purpose?
Giblybits
Your best bet is to look around the area you live and try to see what others in the community have done that you like. Advice from people in different parts of the world can be tricky because we all have different resources available to us based on where we live. Personally I’d fill that curbed area with 3-4” river rock and then either a piece of art/sculpture maybe from a local artist or school if you have connections to the community like that.
msmaynards
First check drainage. Try to fill with water. If it won’t fill up then water is getting out. Next, security. It’s easy to pick up an expensive pot and walk off. You can epoxy a long bolt to concrete, add a hole to the bottom of the pot and fasten down with an epoxied nut.
You can fill with any rock you like. Measure and calculate how many cubic yards of material you’ll need. Pots on top of rock if area doesn’t drain, can be on the concrete if it drains freely. You’ll have to pick out debris and blast with a blower to keep it clean.
I’d put in open bottom planting beds instead though. Search ‘raised vegetable bed’ to see how they look. Place the beds according to the drainage. On concrete if it drains fast, fill with good soil and plant or on top of the rocks, line with landscape fabric then fill.
If it drains freely then you could plant in ground like this is a large shallow planter. Line with landscape cloth and fill with fast draining soil. Plant smaller stuff with shallow roots that you see growing in your area in full blasting sun in there. Succulents would be an excellent choice.
The plants need to be the toughest of the tough as surrounded by light and heat reflecting concrete and in limited amounts of soil. If there are street plantings figure out what plants are in them. A search might be ‘tropical full sun container plants’.
26 Comments
Is this outside a business? Quite honestly looking at the mess that is there right now, putting stones, flowers, shrubs, is just going to be an attractive nuisance. You will be picking garbage out, kids will be pulling up the plants and throwing any stone they see. People parking next to it will probably walk in it damaging whatever plant is in there.
Best bet is to just keep it clean, power wash the area after cleaning up the crap… This way you save yourself some head and heart aches.
Is there currently dirt in there or just a concrete base? If it’s dirt, you could absolutely make it a small pollinator garden with native perennials.
What is the deal with this property?
Give us some details.
You buy a storefront?
You could decorate it with Rocks and plants
put some rocks and plants in it
It would be helpful to know where it is, do you get snow? Desert? That would help with plant suggestions.
Forgot to add. This property is a bakery in its own building. This is in the front parking lot and people throw trash since its empty. The rest of the parking lot doesnt look like this. The location is in Puerto Rico
Does that area fill with water when it rains? Interested to know if it drains properly. You’ll need something that doesn’t require a deep root system, so perhaps an annual flower bed? Depending on the climate you could do a kind of rock garden with yucca and short grasses, too. Good luck!
Add rocks and plants
I think potted plants are your best/only liable options. Can you and a friend build a planter box for the straight edge? Then line pots along the curved edge—keep in mind some pots will bust when it gets freezing cold.
Small shrubs are the only the that will stay green all year, building something large enough to accommodate that will not be cheap.
Choose perennials to come back each spring thru fall and be dead looking in winter.
Or choose annuals every spring for warm season and fall for cold.
You can’t put dirt on top of concrete. If you want plants to grow there then you’re going to need to break up the concrete, or put the plants in pots. If you don’t, all of the dirt will wash away.
OP I would suggest using a grouping of large planters for some plants and then using a combination of decorative stones or gravel to fill the space around the planters. The concrete underneath is going to inhibit most plants growing in a healthy and robust way. At least with planters you can change out the soil and plants if needed, and they can be moved to facilitate any cleaning or maintenance of the space.
Things like grasses and annuals would look great and are fairly low maintenance. If you really have to plant something in there,stick to something that is a groundcover with fairly shallow root systems such as sedum varieties. Look for groundcover plants at your local nursery.
Might not be optimal with the concrete under but if you ringed the edge with gravel and used that as an intermediary to mound up the center with soil, that may be enough growth medium for a sellection of plants.
It may be that you need to drill some drainage into the curb aswell
Tried to visualize it here:
https://postimg.cc/V5HzQc34
Fill it with medium size river rocks or lava rocks and planters. I’d probably use different size planters like one BIG round planter and smaller ones around it. Plant whatever is native to your area that you like.
Clean up the garbage, pressure wash it all, and provide a waste bin nearby… that’ll go a long way to improving the look
Some trash would do
A moon garden with silver leaved plants and white blossoms for viewing at night.
Honestly, I’d fill it with concrete and be done with it. The area looks like it gets hit often. Put flowers in planters around your door. If you feel brave, put a theme park style [trash can/recycle bin](https://trashcansunlimited.com/blog/-7-things-your-company-can-learn-from-disney-trash-cans/) closer to the building (not out on the peninsula) and have a local artist personalize it for your bakery.
Or, hear me out, please. You can decorate with rocks and plants.
R/NoLawns try this page as well. Xeriscaping is the term you’re after. Drop too much drop cloth to get started – follow with rocks then arrange drought tolerant native plants there. Good to go my friend.
does water pool in there when it rains? i would suggest like a rock garden with succulents but you would have to pile the rocks pretty high. then add small pockets of substrate that can drain through the rocks.
You will need something that can live in shallow soil that won’t drain well and will probably dry out on summer days. You are going to need one tough plan that can handle living in a puddle and bone dry during summer.
I would definitely repaint that curb first
Why is the concrete barrier there at all? Before you backfill it, what is its purpose?
Your best bet is to look around the area you live and try to see what others in the community have done that you like. Advice from people in different parts of the world can be tricky because we all have different resources available to us based on where we live. Personally I’d fill that curbed area with 3-4” river rock and then either a piece of art/sculpture maybe from a local artist or school if you have connections to the community like that.
First check drainage. Try to fill with water. If it won’t fill up then water is getting out. Next, security. It’s easy to pick up an expensive pot and walk off. You can epoxy a long bolt to concrete, add a hole to the bottom of the pot and fasten down with an epoxied nut.
You can fill with any rock you like. Measure and calculate how many cubic yards of material you’ll need. Pots on top of rock if area doesn’t drain, can be on the concrete if it drains freely. You’ll have to pick out debris and blast with a blower to keep it clean.
I’d put in open bottom planting beds instead though. Search ‘raised vegetable bed’ to see how they look. Place the beds according to the drainage. On concrete if it drains fast, fill with good soil and plant or on top of the rocks, line with landscape fabric then fill.
If it drains freely then you could plant in ground like this is a large shallow planter. Line with landscape cloth and fill with fast draining soil. Plant smaller stuff with shallow roots that you see growing in your area in full blasting sun in there. Succulents would be an excellent choice.
The plants need to be the toughest of the tough as surrounded by light and heat reflecting concrete and in limited amounts of soil. If there are street plantings figure out what plants are in them. A search might be ‘tropical full sun container plants’.