Shady Area

This has finally come to the top of 'things to do next'. I'm planning to put some hostas and other slug food in it, so thought I might put slate or gravel as ground cover. If I do this I might as well put the black weed suppressing stuff there too, but then it would be difficult putting new plants in and I wouldn't get any seedlings either....any advice? :rolleyes:

 

Good shade plants: Clematis Nelly Moser, heucheras, tiarellas, ferns, fuschias, geraniums..I'm sure there are more (and slugs don't like the ones I've mentioned).

 

Astilbes, if it's damp! And pachysandra is a nice evergreen ground cover with a difference.....

 

I have a nice ground cover curnus, my beloved podophyllums, dog tooth violets, asarum - oh but slugs do like them, arum italicum....etc

Read Beth Chatto's damp garden and you will want to buy a house in a damp garden like mine!

 

Hi everyone,
the back of my garden used to be a real problem with regard to what would and wouldn't grow. Not only did I have a problem with shade but there was a problem with heavy clay.

I took the step of removing what top soil there was and mixing it with a load of leafmould rich compost and horse manure.

I removed the very heavy clay and then replaced it with the topsoil that was enriched with the leafmould and manure.

I still had the problem with shade so I filled the boarder with mainly shade tolerant plants.





I used several varieties of hostas, a shuttlecock fern, pulmanaria, huchera, houttyunia, alchamilla. I've just planted a couple of arum lillies to eventually give the boarder a bit more height. I also have a climbing hydranga in the far corner and a couple of clematis, there's also a rodgersia in the middle that seems to have done a lot better this year than in the previous years since I planted it, perhaps they take a few seasons to get going.

suburban.

 

That looks smashin' suburban

Ferns, hostas, ligularia and pachysandra, can't beat them for shade

 

There should not be a problem putting new plants in. I have just dug over and put bark on a bed at my in laws. They are in their mid 80s and I did not want to spend half my life there weeding.
I raked the bed down and pegged down the membrane. I then cut through the membrane making two cross cuts for each plant. I carefully rolled it back and using a trowel dug out a hole big enough for the plant, putting the soil in a bucket. Firmed in the plant using just enough soil from the bucket, rolled the membrane round the plant and covered with bark. Afterwards I put new plants in the same way, just scooping the bark away first and then putting it back afterwards. You end up with surplus soil afterwards and it takes a bit longer to plant but its worthwhile in terms of zero time spent weeding.
P.S If you have a dog there might be a problem. I had the membrane for years under the rhododendrons and I never ever had to weed them. Within a day of rehoming a labrador the membrane was strewn across the lawn. Get the more expensive membrane. The cheap plastic stuff is useless, you might as well use black bin bags. I use one called Plantex soil membrane and it is a type of fabric.

[ 04. June 2007, 11:17 PM: Message edited by: geoffhandley ]

 

I'm with Geoff on this. I've used it all round the garden while trying to get it how I want, cutting through it to get the plants in the right place. Now that I feel borders are becoming established, I would like to put some bulbs in, so I can either cut parts out or remove sections completely. Definitely put the good stuff down - the lady who's garden I gravelled had some cheap membrane and old carpet down - the weeds simply broke through and matted in with the membrane / carpet, and that was a nightmare to remove. I've had none come through mine except at the edges - If you can put it under whatever border edging there is to pin it then you won't have even that minor inconvenience.

I put bark on top and so far my only problem has been some seedlings in the bark, which I simply hoed back in. Unfortunately I think they might have been hibiscus - so I'm leaving a couple now.