Help me choose plants for my raised beds in backyard please !

[Shazafied]

Hi all,

After years of saving we finally scrape together enough cash to have our horrible backyard paved and made toddler safe. We have also had some seating put around one side of the yard which is made of sleepers, and is broken up by three large raised beds/ planters .

Each raised bed is 1.5 m x 1 m. I have a humble selection of plants I could use but they will hardly touch the sides-I have four potted ferns and four hostas, each the size of a large dinner plate .

I need to fill the planters with shade tolerant low maintenance plants that have structure - an thinking ferns grasses etc with different coloured foliage. I will try and post a picture of things I like but would be very grateful for any suggestions . Budget is about £300 so not massive!

I forgot to say that I’m in Newcastle upon Tyne and the planters will only receive around two hours of sunlight per day , they are up against a wall.

I love big striking ferns like tree ferns-that’s perhaps a bit ambitious though? I’m really looking for strong shapes and foliage that don’t need much maintenance as I have a four week old baby and a 16 month old toddler! Not too fussed about flowers although something like lavender might be good, and I can also add small Flowering plants later if I Feel like it.

Sorry for audio typos I am using audio transcription on my phone as I feed the baby. Here is a picture for inspiration and thanks in advance.

Fatsia japonica, shuttle cock fern, white feather hosta, toad lilies

Thank you !

Some more ideas here

Warning about expensive tree ferns, they are not frost hardy and need winter protection. It’s usually ok to just wrap them up in fleece and straw, but in the NE I don’t think that would be enough. Unless you have a very sheltered garden
Donts suggestions are the way to go, with perhaps the addition of a Cranesbill Geranium for some colour.

Thanks That is actually a relief about the tree ferns as I love them so much but can’t really afford them so at least now I have a reason to write them off. Does anybody have any clue about grasses, big ones not piddly little wispy things?

I think the bigger grasses tend to like sun. Liriope (Lily turf) is good in shade. Have a look at the plantsforshade.co.uk website - it's a nursery that specialises in shade tolerant plants. And there's another thread about evergreen shade plants that might give you some ideas www.mumsnet.com/Talk/gardening/3597075-evergreen-shrub-perennial

Another idea for structure is ivy topiary. A friend of mine has a small courtyard garden and has couple of obelisk frames about 6ft tall with ivy growing through them that she clips close to the frame. They look great and give the garden neight and structure.

How about Phormiums, canna, cordylines, palms? All structural and will all grow quite big eventually. Or maybe a small tree? Or for now you could just seed with wildflowers and address the planing more in autumn

London pride is small, bit like a large rock plant but covers the ground, suppressing the weeds, is almost evergreen, and mine grows with no direct sunlight at all.
Probably a bit out of fashion right now, but doesn't root very deeply so you can pull it out easily when you have something bigger and better to plant. It would also grow over the edges a bit.

Rodgersia is quite tall with nice leaves. The pics on line all show the flowers but I would buy the biggest you can find and ignore the flower aspect as it is the leaves and purply colour you want.

Try heucheras - huge variety of foliage colours and sizes, but buy them from a specialist for choice. www.heucheraholics.co.uk/

Also look at euphorbias and hellebores.

Thanks all some fabulous ideas and I’m going to look at that Shady plants website now it sounds ideal. XX

I would stay away from euphorias if you have young children as the sap is toxic and will cause a reaction if it comes into contact with skin. It can also be very painful if it gets into your eyes and can cause temporary blindness.
I have quite a bit of wood spurge as it is great for a woodland area but am always very careful when handling it and I don’t have young children.

Oh, good point about euphorbias, thanks for catching that I didn't think.

Fatsia's and heuchera's.

Hakonechloa macra (grass) will be good for part shade