We have a shrubbery at the bottom of the garden and I'm hoping to plant a silver birch at one end of it. I want to create a kind of den/children's play area in front of it, so I need some advice on some planting that could go around and under it - not so high that it encroaches on the birch and swamps it, but bushy enough that children could turn it into a bit of a den.
I also want to screen the garden fence as it's rather ugly.
The garden is west facing, and the other plants in the shrubbery at the moment are (in order from south to north), a ceanothus, a viburnum (tree rather than bush), a rowan and a laurel bush. The birch would go in the north-west corner.
As the planting needs to be child-friendly, nothing prickly or with poisonous berries, but all ideas welcome! I have thought of using willow to make a dome structure, but I'm not sure the space is quite big enough for that.