Mirrors to put more light into a shady corner? Or am I mad?

[SkodaLabia]

I have a largely rectangular garden except for a corner where the end wall veers off at an angle and meets the side boundary a bit further away than it would if it hadn't veered off, IYSWIM.

The direction the garden faces and the height of the wall/fence means that this triangular corner is always shaded, no direct sun goes down to ground level at all.

There used to be a shed obscuring this, but I've moved that, and want to plant it up. My lovely local nursery fella suggested a Coleanthus, and says that it will definitely survive there, but not be particularly fulsome in the flower department.

I was wondering about hanging a mirror on the wall, to bounce sun that I do get into this corner. Is that ridiculous?

How funny, my first design for the garden (I have actually done proper drawings with stuff in, not just the outline I here!) had the lawn like that!

I did consider putting the shed there, but our dining table is by the patio doors, and from there it's not possible to see the whole garden, just the left hand third, so I thought it would be nicer not to have the shed in that bit. Totally see what you mean about putting it in the shady bit though, all unsure now. Have actually planted that boundary, that's the one metre I've actually done! I've got evergreen climbers, some broom, some foxgloves, the Ceanothus is in the corner and some campanula at the front.

Would love a Magnolia Grandiflora but the garden is v exposed (about 200 yards from the beach and the wind whistles across fields before hitting our house). I want evergreen and dense screening, which took me to laurel.

Love what you're doing with that curved bed.

Now, would you butt the lawn right up to the patio like that, or would it be Mowing Hell?

The sun aspect is the one on the right, by the way, we face due West.

Anything you like about this?

I'm not great at plant names, so when I say 'tall stuff' I'm meaning about 4 foot and more vertical than bushy.

Not sure about the floor surface, on the 1m I've done so far I'm going for gravel on top of weed membrane lazy git emoticon. Don't want to spend a fortune on gravel, so maybe the lawn could come out as far as the right hand edge of the path and put the stepping stones in the lawn rather than making a path?

It must be soooo lovely to live that close to the beach! Wow! But agreed that it would probably make a laurel a LOT more suitable. You can get really lovely varieties, too.

I'd probably do edging on any lawn because I'm a lazy cow!! And then put trailing plants in troughs all along the edge of the patio so it was kind of concealed. A better designer than me could work out a way to put in some sweeping curved raised beds like in that garden I posted a while back.

Your border sounds divine and really balanced with something interesting happening at all seasons. I love foxgloves. Still waiting for mine to come out this year (my garden is north-facing, so everything is slow).

Hmmm, totally take your point about the shed being right in front of the windows too. Unless you go for one of those exceptionally pretty ones that sort of looks like a summerhouse/posh beachhut. My friend has a very nice one that is octagonal and looks dead posh. I imagine they would push the budget upwards, though, I think hers was £££. I like this picture of one used as a feature (I've posted it before).

If you have the shed in the shady corner you could paint the shed and then put an attractive screen or trellis in front of it, and grow something lovely up it.

I saw these at Chelsea Kyoto screens and they look great even without plants.

or maybe a corner shed? we have one of those, and when it first went in it was as though it had disappeared.

Oh lord, that's two votes for shed in the shady corner now. Am I going to have to dig up everything I've just planted?

I think I've become a bit obsessed about screening in the top right corner, that could be a good place for a shed but I was hoping to get something tall growing to blot out the building behind.
Bugger.

I've never seen anything like like those screens, really unusual.

traviata - those screens are drop-dead gorgeous! I've actually been looking for something like that for inside my house. Thank you!

You could do BOTH a shed AND screening in the right hand corner. Your laurel would cope behind one, I'm pretty sure. Just give yourself enough room to cut it back!

Oh, and to add - moving plants is not a problem at all - takes a few minutes. Moving a shed because you have it in the wrong place, however, is a big job. I speak from experience, having just removed one shed from the sunniest spot in the garden and put in another on the opposite (dank, dark) side!

We had some huge mirrors (Acrylic outdoor sorts with trellis in front to soften them) to make our tiny garden look bigger and brighter and they looked really nice. Everyone commented on them.

Then we got the garden done to make it look even better with a lovely central area of fake grass. It still looked great, honest (though i realise mentioning fake grass on a gardening forum is close to suicide) and we were really pleased.

Then it was sunny one day, and because the mirror was acrylic, it had bent just ever so slightly, forming a concave shape. The suns rays bounced off, focussed on one area, and burnt a hole in our nice new fake lawn. The mirrors are now in the garage :-(

Just wanted to share :-D

Oh my word! It's like the garden version of that walkie-talkie building in London that burnt cars!

Haven't read the whole thread sorry but wanted to give some info on wall painting. We painted a dank grey rendered wall in our garden that grew algae through the paint badly. We tried resistant paints and algae killer etc to no avail. Kept repainting etc. Then somebody recommended algon and we've not had to repaint since and it's kept its nice bright white colour

I'm now in love with corner sheds. Although upon closer inspection my garden doesn't actually have a right angled corner except for the two by the house, the end wall is on an angle. Will consider more fully.

I keep returning to your picture, holly. I really like it. Having done a bit more reading, it seems that curves are the way to go, as not only are they nice, but apparently it will disguise the garden being not quite square and also on a downwards slope towards the top right hand corner.

A bit of googling also suggests that short wide gardens look longer with diagonal designs, so I'm thinking maybe I should keep the circular lawn idea but bring it lower and to the right, and do a second circular shape of some sort around the apple tree, so the whole thing gives a figure of eight or s shape.

And then you must come round for tea and a bun!

Just realised other people had posted since I started my post.

Good to know about the Algon, Merkin I've used it before on decking without much success, but wondered if it was better on concrete. Did you need to treat the wall before you painted, or did you just blast it with a jet washer and hope for the best?

Hhm, that's a bit worrying about the Mirror of Death. Although it's appropriate for your name, WiIdfire.

Skoda - that is almost exactly what I've done in my garden! Only mine is long and narrow. I'll try to get you some pictures!

We didn't treat the wall before hand; just sprayed it on as per directions on a dry day. Very very worst (totally green) patches took two applications and it takes a week or so to take effect but I really have this down as a miracle product it was such a dramatic change

Ooh, sounds good. I love a miracle product.

Those screens are beautiful! Imagine having little nooks screened off by them around your garden. How heavenly.