[teach nua]

i'm looking at planting a bed with a variety of mainly evergreen shrubs and maybe one deciduous shrub. Some shrubs i'm thinking of using are red robin, berberis, viburnum.

when planting, should the shrubs be spaced based on their ultimate spread, in order that they will all in theory meet each other when mature, or could they be planted closer?

Some of the berberis I was thinking of using has a spread of 10ft, but I was thinking that the shrubs will initially look very spaced out if I plant it 5ft away from where its neighbouring shrub is going to spread to.

I'm just wondering if there is a rule of thumb that could be used. I don't want everthing looking too sparse for years but I don't want things to look too cluthered after a few years either. Maybe i'm asking for too much!

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Teach nua

[cooler]

Add up the spread of plant A and plant B, then divide by two. Then you have your spacing. don't fall into the trap of planting too close together, unless you want to be really busy in 5 years time.
Good luck with in.

[teach nua]

thanks for that cooler