Please help me with a difficult spot.

[SimonBridges]

This is the very bottom of the garden.
It is south facing however is completely surrounded by very tall trees so is almost entirely in the shade.
Any idea what I could do?
I have lawns, a seating area and more formal planting elsewhere so I want to keep this natural really.
The shed is knackered so I’m planning on getting rid.
Any ideas gratefully received.

Mahonia grows in dry shade. But is quite a slow growing shrub.

Lily of The Valley, aquilegia, comfrey, mint, bluebells (unless the soil gets very dry) snowdrops, hellebores, honeysuckle, toad lilies, cowslips and primroses (unless too dry) and foxgloves will all grow well. Idea of a seating area sounds lovely.

And my favourite plant is Lungwort - one of the first to flower in spring and forget me not too.

And maybe bleeding heart/fuschias too?

it's a big area !

Careful planning needed I think .

I think we need the experts ,until they come along...

I love forget me knots ,so pretty and easy to pull up those you don't want.

And lamium .
.
Hydrangae ?
And apparently some roses are ok in shade ..I'm coveting rambling rector .

and of course www.plantsforshade.co.uk/

It is big, but it is literally one 8th of the garden!

I’ve got a million of aqualiga already. I love them.

Can anyone tell me what I need to get shot of? I need to get it under control first. I haven’t done anything down there in about two years.
Also I have dreadful ground elder!

I moved a hydrangea down there but I don’t think it survived. The garden has loads of roses already.
Oh and I think there are foxgloves. They grow like stink in the slightly less shady bit.

I think you’ll have to get rid of the ground elder first, or it will smother anything you plant.
www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/solve-problems/ground-elder/

No chance of getting rid of the ground elder. There is so damn much of it plus the gardens either side are not tended in any way and I back onto a woodland.
Even if I shift it it comes back in from somewhere else.

In that case, you’ll have to let it go wild.

If you don’t tackle the ground elder it will creep through the rest of your garden in due course

If/when that’s under control ... foxgloves, comfrey, hellebores, hostas, snowdrops, anemones, pulmonarias, ferns, woodrush, golden millet, variegated ivy

I suppose you could plant some taller shade-loving shrubs through the elder but they would have to be a good size to start with or they’ll get swamped. Maybe try aucuba, butchers broom, snowberry, hydrangea again (if not to dry and dark), Christmas box. Plant in autumn as elder dying down and keep moist so they have some chance of establishing

I'd tart up that shed or replace it with a bigger one. I like it.
How about googling she sheds?
Yy to hydrangea. Lots of different varieties around at the moment and they're really easy to propagate. They look great in a massive vase too. Maybe put some camelia in for evergreen.

I like that and agree with others, like the shed. Have a google of ‘stumpery’. You could do a stumpery and then some shade loving flowers as listed above leading down to your shed.

It reminds me a bit of Monty Don’s writer’s garden shed, I think it has real potential. At the very least you need a comfy chair, camping stove and kettle.

I had loads of elder. I just kept digging and digging. Just have a little now and fairly easy to control.
Another poster told me about this site. I've found it really helpful

www.plantsforshade.co.uk/

Or you could fight fire with fire and plant rhododendron.

OP I'm so pleased you posted that. I have a spot along the fence that looks exactly the same! Also quite large.

I'm really benefiting from the helpful ideas here!

I'm in a similar position re ground elder ( and ivy ) as land on 3 sides is not tended .

I just keep digging it up /cutting it back . I don't waste too much energy despairing over it ,I just live with it and manage it .And try and concentrate on how lucky I am to have so much privacy .

I think I'd renovate the shed and put down a path to it to try and increase the "hard" landscaping and decrease the ground .

I've not ooked at the links to ground eder but would smothering it for a year with cardboard help ?

Your garden looks lovely !

The shed really isn’t worth saving. It’s not used anyway as we have got other better storage. It’s completely rotten.

Might it work as a structure to grow some kind of rambler /climber over - honeysuckle/hydrangea/jasmine?

What I would do is glyphosate everything thats there. Then level the ground and seed it with grass,, maybe not lawn grass but something you could let grow long. It will still need strimmed maybe a couple of times a year or the dead grass from the winter dominates. But you could chuck in some buttercups, or other 'weeds' or poppies, daffs in the early part of the year, and let them grow. Keep it separate from the lawn somehow so it doesn't spread into it and have a wild garden. Grass and buttercups probably won't grow well but if you don't walk on it they should be ok to look at.

Ah. I try to be as organic as possible.
Also we are a wildlife haven. I get frogs, toads, newts, hedgehogs and snakes!!

I want it wildlife friendly as I can.

Well ,smothering it with cardboard for a year will surely help as a prep before tackling .

I don't think you can be organic towards ground elder if you want rid of it. To be honest it doesn't look too bad. Other thing would be to plant bulbs amongst it and other shade/dry loving plants of which there must be a few, and just leave the ground elder there, maybe pulling up the leaves if it gets too much. At least it's nice and green.
Ihave a comfrey plant growing in a dry shady spot, it looks quite architectural from a distance though some might consider it a weed. see pic

You can actually eat ground elder. The roman's brought it over as a salad vegetable.

I've dug mine out. It took a while. I still get patches of it and I just dig it out again. I did try round up I think but it didn't really work. You just have to be persistent. And if you can buy a garden sieve. If you leave any part of the root in, it comes back.