Long, narrow bed in shade - please help with a design

[WellTidy]

I have a bed that is between a tall fence and a shed. The gap between the shed and the fence is about 4 feet deep, and 2 feet of that is gravel path, leaving a bed of 2 feet deep by about 15 feet long.

I can see the whole of the bed from parts of the patio, so I am looking to fill the bed and put climbers.

It is east facing, but because of the shed, gets very very little direct sunlight. I would estimate maybe about an hour a day. So when I've looked for plants, I have assumed that it is 'complete dry shade'.

Plants I've thought would do well there are:

Climbing hydrangea against the fence
Ferns
Euphorbia
Aquilegia (I have heard that Green Apples is good for shade)
Pittosporum, if I keep them small

So I think I know what generic plants I want. What I can't do is work out how many of each of them, or which varieties of each of them, or the placing etc, so I am asking for your help!

I am keen to avoid the 'one shade of green' look, so I am always looking for something a bit more interesting. For example something like Pittosporum tenuifolium Elizabeth has variegated leaves with pink tinged edges, and that would be my choice of pittosporum.

I have no idea which ferns, euphorbia or climbing hydrangea though.

All ideas welcome!

I should add that I have discounted bergenia as I have a lot of it in another shady bed in a different part of the garden, otherwise I know it would be a good option.

Start off by improving the soil as much as possible to give everything a fighting chance.

I was thinking climbing hydrangea. But looking at this you could add in a clematis or two as well. Which would give you some seasonal colour.

Also some bulbs might do very well there - I'm thinking the kinds of things you'd get in forest floors.....

and Christmas box as well.

And some lovely ferns...there's some beautiful limey green ones.

Thank you Ptarmigan. A shade loving clematis would be fantastic I hadn't thought I would be able to have one.

When you say to improve the soil, what would you add? Multi purpose compost, or something else?

I am wondering whether to have a narrower list of plants and just lots of repetition. Like:

Climbing hydrangea and hopefully a clematis or two
Euphorbia - just one type like this shade loving one
Fern - just one type that contrasts with the lime green in that shade loving euphorbia like this
And then some dwarf spring bulbs and some aquilegia for summer

I'm not sure. I think I might need more height. Which is hard, when the border is only 2 feet deep.

Watching with interest as I am planting one side of the pathway down to our garden ( long area divided into 2 gardens with our upper flat having the distant one ). It is against a fence ,north facing ,shaded .

So far I have the v invasive but pretty woodruff ,archangel , and Brunnera macrophylla Jack Frost .

Sounds similar peridito. I have the book Planting for the dry shade garden which I have found helpful. It also mentions your Brunnera and has lots of other suggestions. It is the fact that my bed is so long and narrow, with fence behind it and shed in front of it that is limiting me. I can't have that much 'spillage' onto the path either, as it is only 2 feet wide and then you're up against the shed.

Thanks WellTidy .Yes similar here - we need to be able to walk down the passageway and sometimes take a wheel barrow .
It's only about 3 ft wide in total with a a 4 ft fence on one side and a 6 ft fence on the other .Plus overhanging trees . About 60 ft in length .And the only bit of our garden that I can see from our flat .

I've got a fan trained morello sour cherry thriving on a very shady north east facing fence. It only really gets a bit of sun in the middle of the day but always has loads of bright fruit in the summer

cinnabunbun what a good suggestion. I was hopeful for something that flowers, so this is right up my street. How bushy is it please?

It's pretty narrow as long as you remember to tie in the new growth and bend back any new beaches growing the wrong way. The other climber in that pic, nearest the camera is some kind of honeysuckle which also seems to be very happy.

Sorry for the mess in the pic. I was trying to show it from the side. It's less than 30cm from the fence to the tips of the leaves at the front near the bottom of the plant including the air space between the fence and the tree

Thanks so much for the photos. This has really opened up potential for me. Something climbing that flowers in shade that isn't a climbing hydrangea would be perfect.

Hijacking a bit....cinnabunbun, do you have those on containers or the ground? They look fab.

@PtarmiganBiscuit It's a long raised bed about 30cm deep on top of bare ground

Hostas? The ones with white variegation would be good.

I’ve thought about hostas but I understand that they attract slugs. I hardly have any slugs in the garden ever so I don’t really want to bring them in.

I have sweet violets and alpine strawberries happy in shade.