The Shady Side of The Fence

And I don't mean it's acting suspiciously.

One side of our back garden is bordered by my next door neighbour wooden fence which is rather tall (said neighbour has moved away now, but after the fence was installed she visited our house for a chat and was appalled, then apologetic, at how high the fence was on our side compared to hers, though, to be fair, the old fence was almost as high).

The point is that the bedding border on that side is almost constantly in shade. There's a bush I bought many years ago which is doing quite well, but other than that only grass, weeds, and bluebells seem to do well there.

So, I'm after some suggestions of easy-to-look-after plants, bushes, shrubs, small trees, etc. which I could plant there.

Attached are some pictures showing the current state of the border, including the bush and the most common weed (both unidentified), plus a satellite image including a compass to give the NSEW aspect of the property, with said fence highlighted.

TIA

Jeff

 

As "M" has rightly pointed out, I've not mentioned where our house is.

Beckenham, Kent. So, it's in a built-up area, with a railway and tram track at the back of the garden. No particular issues other than the already-mentioned shadiness. Drainage seems pretty good, but I've no really idea what the make-up of the soil is other than I'd say it's not clay.

 

lots of heuchera's do fine in shade and you have to do minimal with them my favourite is lime marmalade because its really zingy and bright and cheery



but you can get oranges and pinks and purples etc

heres another option

http://www.amazon.co.uk/GardenHouse...UTF8&qid=1431945219&sr=8-22&keywords=heuchera

 

Thanks, Dips.

I should add, just in case it makes any difference, that the border has a little bit of a slope to it (down from the fence to our brick path. Years ago I put in some short bamboo edging to mitigate against this but that's all rotted away now.

 

Here's a question about heucheras, do snails and slugs like them? We have a lot of those darned things slurping around...

 

Just googled aparently slugs dont like them

I was also going to suggest hostas but as tou have lots of slugs and snails maybe not but i have just read that the blue waxy hostas slugs dont eat and im pretty sure the blue ones prefer a lot more shade and are bluer in shade

But not 100% so feel free to correct me if im wrong

 

just had a thought some azaleas like shade i have one in full shade and that is happy

 

Nice! And I thought the heucheras were colourful:

 

yep between them two you will have a really bright border lol

they don't flower for long tho but they do at this time of year which is nice

 

For colour later in the year have you thought of putting any climbers in, e.g. Clematis, Roses, Lonicera ( Honeysuckle).

 

Astilbe, mine are thriving in shade.

 

Crocosmia would look nice down that border too. Mine is in the shady parts of my garden

 

Funny old thing, wifey was gifted a clematis from the aforementioned neighbour, and said plant is still sitting in its pot. Finally it has somewhere to go!

Have also found a forsythia minigold in a pot (another gift!) but I see from the label that that needs sun.

 

That's not to say wifey is a funny old thing.

But she is.

 

I'm in the process of ordering loads of plants for my shady borders. Here's what I've got so far (mostly perennials):

Hostas
Heuchera (they come in lovely shades of apricot, red, etc)
Dicentra
Dodecatheon
Trollius
Ligularia
Roscoea
Digitalis
Hepatica
Primula
Tiarella.

Or you could go for small shrubs:
Dwarf Rhododendron (I particularly like Molly Ann and Baden Baden)
Sarcococca Confusa
Acer Palmatum (Little Princess is small)
Japonica Skimmia Rubella

Have a look at plantsforshade.co.uk