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Gardening

Find tips and tricks to make your garden or allotment flourish on our Gardening forum.

Starting a north-facing border from scratch

26 replies

allthingspossible · 29/05/2014 17:11

I have nearly finished digging out a neglected raised brick border bed at the back of my small garden.

It is 10ft wide by 3ft and also backs onto the back fence which is only about 4ft higher than the back of the border.

It gets some sun after 2.30pm ish, but is mostly dappled shade.

I would love a shade loving rose. I would love a climber (clematis).

I would love a winter flowering jasmine. I can't fit them all in, I know!

I have been looking up shade loving plants, roses, clematis etc. but am getting confused as to what to go for with only 3ft depth to work with.

I am a gardening novice and want to get this right as it is the most visible part of the garden from the house and the seating area outside throughout the year.

Ideally, I would get the most pleasure out of it from April to September.

Any wise gardeners out there for a complete novice?

OP posts:
Pannacotta · 01/06/2014 08:34

I would perhaps choose just a few plants and repeat them rather than have a random mix of many different things as it is a very small border.

IME Geraniums are very good in shade, Nimbus has lovely unusual foliage.
Also look as Ger Rozanne, Chelsea plant of the centenary and flowers for 6 months! Both on this page
www.plantsforshade.co.uk/acatalog/Geranium.html

Try also Epimediums, again on the same website. Some are evergreen, all have lovely flowers and good foliage.
I also would get some Digitalis, the white are the loveliest in shade.

For later in the season you could try Hydrangea Annabelle or Japanese anemones in white, Whirlwind is smaller than the common white form.

I think you could fit in your winter jasmine if you train and prune it as a wall shrub (very easy to do as they are tough). If you love it then go for it! It does look amazing in winter and is best as a wall shrub as it keeps it in check.
You can plant any climber but you will get fewer flowers in shade, that said they will just climb to the top of the fence and find the light that way.
DO you see the border from your house? Would you like some evergreen shrub cover?

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