Damp, shady spot- what can I plant?

[WillDanceForChocolate]

Just that really. We have a north facing garden so it takes a while to warm up (when spring has already hit the front of the house). I’ve got a really damp and shady spot that would look so much better with some nice plants but unfortunately I’m a rubbish gardener. The spot does get some sun but only for a few hours each day in the summer. I’d be grateful if anyone had ideas for what I could plant.
TIA

dogwood shrub is good for damp and shady areas x

The Beth Chatto garden website has some good advice and plants for shady gardens

Hi both, thanks for your replies. I’ll look at both suggestions.

Ferns
Hostas
Lily of the valley
Hellebores
Liriope
Epimedium

Japanese anemone, Cornus midwinter fire and astilbe all do well in damp shade

Hi, I found ballyrobertgardens.com quite useful recently when I was looking for ideas and inspiration.

Agree with all the suggestions. Also some irises. We’ve done ok with crocosmia in our shady bit, although it does get a little bit of sunshine. I have no luck with Hostas at all. They always get eaten by slugs.

Vinca Major?

Dicentra? I’ve just ordered one of these, pink, they are lovely in my mum’s garden

Dicentra is beautiful!!

flowering now in my garden

Curly, I have a foolproof and non toxic way to keep slugs off hostas.
At the start of the season, peel a few cloves of garlic, bruise them well then simmer them for fifteen minutes in a litre of boiling water.
Cool the water, throw out the garlic, and store the smelly water in a screw cap bottle.
Put a splash of the garlic water into your watering can, top up from the tap to dilute, and then spray liberally over your hostas in the evening.
You only need to repeat when rainy weather has washed it off. I find one bottle lasts all summer. Slugs and snails detest garlic, and don’t eat Hostas that taste and smell of it!
Mine used to get stripped right down to the stem on every leaf, but since the garlic, not a bite.

Out hostas were a slug disaster but so far the hellebores and a fern we got to replace them are doing well.

@Babdoc fab suggestion thank you!!

Well, I’ve always disapproved of slug pellets because of the toxicity to wildlife and pets. I saw this garlic recipe years ago, in a letter to the Times from an old South African gardener - he’d used it out there and thought it might work in the UK as well. He was right, it’s brilliant!

Genius. I’m trying that.

Ooh yes, I’ll definitely try that, thanks!

Good luck with it! I live on the drier east side of Scotland, so I don’t have to re-garlic after rain too often. Those of you in the wetter west of the UK might be cursing and having to respray more often. But it’s well worth a try and will do no harm to your garden or the local environment.

I set the pan going and then had to run off to set up ds’s zoom, so I asked dd to watch the pan. Of course I then completely forgot, stayed upstairs and 45mins later Dh came looking for me and asked why poor dd was standing in the kitchen watching garlic boiling 🤦🏻‍♀️.

There was only an inch of water left. So I’ve diluted it with cold water back up to the level it started at, so hopefully that will be ok!

I’ve just dug a shady border and ordered ferns and some other stuff from a shady plant specialist nursery I found online. I’m excited!

I have some heucheras in a similar spot - they are thriving. Lovely colours too.

Does the boiled garlic work generally, or just with hostas?

I’ve only needed it on Hostas, my slugs seem very selective! But if you’re getting grief from them elsewhere, there’s no harm in trying it. After all, if they don’t like garlic flavour on one plant, there’s no reason they’d like it any better on another. I’d say give it a bash.

Should add, if you get a v wet summer, and are fed up having to respray garlic every evening, I used a cheap bottle of supermarket garlic oil and drizzled it under the Hostas. Bit messy, but it lingers longer and helps.

Don't plant Woodruff!
It was recommended for our shady spot and not only has thrived it has self seeded all over the garden. It's an absolute thug

We have hostas, I love them. We do however have a rather big ugly toad that lives in our damp side of the garden (no pond so we think he just hangs out there?) and believe he eats all the slugs as we get very few.

I sent the garlic recipe to my friend and she said she’s used garlic on roses before for aphids, and it had worked really well.