I have narrow, maybe 3' wide bed that goes all around 3 sides of the house, including the back. The sides are fine, but the back is pretty ugly... Imagine a rectangle against the back of the house with a bed around it. No curves. Just straight. One half of the rectangle is a raised deck, the other half is brick patio. Previous owners had azaleas in front of the deck and dwarf rhod's that look like azaleas around the patio. They're planted every 5 feet or so. Half of the rhods were dying and pathetic-looking, so I dug up pretty much all of them and replanted healthy ones (only 3 rhods) on 1 side. I'm left with an empty, long, 3' bed that goes in front of the patio, continuing onto the deck with just 2 azaleas. What can I plant here? I don't want anything tall - we need to be able to step out onto the backyard. No bee-attracting flowers as DH is allergic to bees, and I'd like to be able to enjoy being outside without getting pestered. Nothing high-maintenance either. I have an option of converting the area to grass, but it would make the patio look smaller... Someone suggested cobblestones, but the bed is sloped a bit. So it doesn't have to be flowers or shrubs, I guess. Any ideas?
for sunny area: ornamental grasses, vinca (viney groundcover - flowers in the spring), sedum is good too - doesn't get too tall and is green all summer until it flowers in the fall - would be a good mix with the vinca and the grasses would offset the two. ferns or hosta if it's a shady spot. even the sedum if it gets some sun. there are a ton of ferns - some get taller than others so you could use taller ones to offset the hosta/sedum. the vinca can be used in shade as well - just won't be as vigorous a grower. you could also put in a few flagstones for walking through. even do most of the area in that with a few items added in on either end for color and height and put moss in between the flagstones - most can handle light foot traffic and some give off a nice scent when crushed (and bounce back with little/no damage). that's just off the top of my head. if you can post a pic of the area as well as the beds that go around the yard, i'd be able to come up with something that would match/flow with what you've already got going.
Here are the pictures. They're from June. 1st pic: All the dwarf rhods have been moved to the side (the same side as the daylilies if you can see them). 2nd pic: The tall evergreens are gone, so just 2 azaleas left. It gets full sun in the afternoon. The deck provides a bit of shade in the morning. Thank you! I love the vinca idea!
