Please help my shady, damp, north-facing bed....

[notjustamummythankyou]

When we moved into our house, we inherited a beautiful cottage-style garden, which - although lovely to look at when we viewed the house - was incredibly hard work once we moved in. Unfortunately, two novice gardeners plus one toddler and one newborn means that it has been all but neglected in the last year or so.

We have slowly tamed the beds into some shape again, choosing plants that are more low maintenance. I'm a bit stuck with what to do with one of the beds though. Can the MN gardeners help?

Our back garden is southfacing with an old apple tree at very bottom just a few feet from a 6-7ft hedge. The flowerbed just behind the tree and in the shadow of the hedge is effectively northfacing and is quite damp as well as in shade. All that is in there at the moment is a few weeds and a rather large japanese anemone at the front of the bed.

What can I do with it? I am open to any ideas - ferns, perhaps? Or bamboo? DH is adamant he wants some flowers though, but what else apart from the anemone can grow in such a shady / damp spot?

And can I move the anemone? It's pretty tall but right at the front of the bed with a huge gap behind it.

Any tips / ideas gratefully received . . .

Yes you can move the anemone - I'd do it in early spring, not when it's in full growth. You can also divide it if you want more.

Periwinkle is great for ground cover in damp shade although it can get a bit invasive.

My Rhododendron and Camellia grow well in the shady parts of my garden

cantspel - I've always thought that rhododendrons and camellia were quite hard to look after - is that not the case?

Periwinkle - yes, will definately put some of that in. I've got some elsewhere in the garden already.

Rhododendrons need good soil preparation as they dont like clay. They like a nice acidic soil so a mix of peat and leafmold with some sulphate of ammonia when preparing the bed is ideal. Plant the rootball just below the surface of the soil as they dont like being too deep and dont mulch.
They dont need much feeding, infact i only feed mine once a year in spring and you dont need to prune them.
Camellia are pretty much the same but they dont like being watered with tap water so make sure you keep the water butt water for them. They can cope with small doses of tap water but watering them with it over a period of time will reducing the acidity of the soil. They need mulching twice a year in spring and autumn and then shouldn't need to much watering unless by some miracle we get a long, hot summer. Mulch with leaf mold (if you have it) or a 5-6cm layer of bark.
A bit more effort than some but well worth it for the lovely flowers to brighten up the garden each spring.

I have a similar bed - things I have in it are woodland aster (its latin name starts with diver but cant remember it all!) astilbe, tricyrtis, epimedium, hosta, ferns, bergenia - there are some great plants you can have here.

Hostas - they do gorgeous flowers too that last all summer! There are loads of kinds, with different size and shape and colour leaves. Bamboo would be good too, to add some height and 'rustle'. Grasses? Anemones and autumn crosus also like shade. And bleeding hearts - they're pretty.

Some great ideas here - thank you!

I've had a look on the Crocus website too, after seeing it mentioned on another thread. They've got a good plant selector that I found very helpful too.

Hardy geraniums too, will grow ANYWHERE!

I've said this so many times here that I want to start charging them commission, but www.plantsforshade.co.uk have a brillaint choice of plants for your garden.

Highly recommended.

Use Vinca minor not major if you want periwinkle. Minor had lovely purple flowers but doesn't spread as much.