Ideas for woodland garden

[cornishpixue]

Hi All,
We have a great garden, half lawn and half 'wooded'.
I want to try and slightly tidy up the wooded area, to make it a bit more accessible and brighten it up a bit.
It has four or so large oaks along the right, and a line of conifers (on the other side of the fence) on the left. So quite shaded by the tree canopy. The floor is ivy / grass a few random shrubs and in the spring daffs, bluebells etc. Right at the end is a fox mound, don't want to disturb that.
Any ideas for plants etc as I think the first step will be to clear a couple of areas so we will actually make use of the space. TIA

Get Beth Chatto's Woodland Garden book - loads of inspiration!

What species of conifer are they? They might not support much wildlife at all, and it could be worth taking one or more of them out and replacing with native species such as larch or Scots pine. Or perhaps deciduous trees like hornbeam or birch.

Snowdrops (you can buy them in the green at the moment, ready to plant)
Winter aconites
Cyclamen
Crocuses
Foxgloves
Pulmonaria
Wood anemones
Wild primroses would look very sweet

What will you use the space for?

First thing to ask before you do any work on it.

Thanks, I'll have a look for some of those. With regard to the conifers, I'm not sure, but they aren't ours, just the other side of the fence.
We seem to be really lucky with wildlife, family of foxes, lots of birds (beautiful Jays on occasion) and lots of butterflies, so I don't really want to loose the feel of it or disrupt the wildlife, just clear a bit / plant some nice flowers and maybe put a couple of benches up there so we will actually bother to go up there

.... with regard to what we'd use it for, I think that's the problem - at the moment nothing! We keep the brambles at bay and leave it to the wildlife, but I'd like to incorporate it into the garden a bit more

Sounds a lot like our garden - I want to try to bring a bit more order and colour into it this year. There's a patch of brambles I want to get rid of. I made a list of plants suited to shade that I thought I'd try - will see if I can find it.

Not sure if this place is anywhere near you: www.woodlandsplants.co.uk/ but it is a really stunning garden and well worth a visit.
They have lots of benches around little nooks and corners, areas planted up that all love shade and despite being less than an acre you feel like you could get lost there

Does it get sunlight in spring when there are no leaves on the trees? If so, there are some really lovely and unusual woodland plants that will grow in spring sun then summer shade. A few of my faves:
Hellebores (not so unusual but lovely)
Sanguinaria/bloodroot
Arisaema/cobra lily
Martagon and other woodland lillies
Hepatica nobilis
Trilliums

Also worth putting some ferns in. You could go for native British woodland ferns, they will give a lush woodland look and are tough as old boots. There are loads of species, I have a couple of dryopteris.