Shady garden

[HorsesDoovers]

I have given myself the challenge of creating a shady garden with seating area in a very neglected part of my garden. Currently home to a neglected trampoline which we will be getting rid of. I will post some pics tomorrow but in the meantime does anyone have any suggestions for shade loving plants? I'm wondering about creating raised beds as the soil is very poor and dry.

Ferns

(though you’ll need decent moist soil)

If you want to work with what you’ve got, here are 20 plants for dry shade

www.gardenersworld.com/plants/20-plants-for-dry-shade/

most of my garden is dry shade

I have lots of ferns of lots of different types. plus Hellebores and Solomon's seal and brunnera

i've tried hostas but the slugs just eat them all so I gave up.

Acquilagia
London Pride
Lily of the valley
Various geraniums
Ivy
Alpine strawberry
Moss/ferns

Oh lovely thank you. Excited now, going to look at these suggestions

Astrantia, Astilbe, Thalictrum, alpine strawberries, cyclamen, Epimedium

If the shade is from trees, then spring flowering stuff -wood anemones, bluebells, snowdrops, primroses.

If it's from walls, then winter jasmine.

For spring bleeding heart too, pink heart shaped flowers are lovely. Heurcha love shade and give lovely flowers, there are some hardy geraniums too that are quite shade resistant. Primroses and pulmonaria too x

I have a fuchsia doing very well in dry shade in my garden. Also a sweet box (although it is very slow growing).

Bleeding hearts, native geranium, foxgloves,

Just seen the other replies, thanks everyone, loads of ideas. Can't wait to get started now.

Shade! Most of my garden is part shade. What I've learnt is that a lot of the good stuff is 'woodland' and likes rich soil and plenty of watering. I've also learnt that a lot of plants flower in spring but there's not much that goes past that. My epimedium is out currently and looks lovely but won't last. Neither will my foxgloves. So if you can do a raised bed and find a way to get water to it (water butt plus irrigation?) your options are much greater.
Hellebores are lovely but winter flowering, ditto cyclamens, lily of the valley etc.
I've got a toad lily that is good in summer but needs water. Gets quite tall.
Geranium Roxanne apparently. Tiarella and Astilibe both need water. Trollis ditto. Bugbane (just planted).
Huge but a fantastic summer statement next year is acanthus mollis. Massive flower spikes all summer (though the ducking snails got to the flower buds on one do I think it's not going to flower). But the one that will flower is just out and magnificent. They are right at the back.
Begonias. Wonderful and totally underrated.
It completely depends on how much sun it gets eg 2 hours or none?

Oh and I got a heuchera that was lovely one year a wash out the next and I suspect it was lack of watering.

@vodkacranberryplease
These all sound amazing, I bet your garden is beautiful

www.rhs.org.uk/plants/97624/hydrangea-anomala-subsp-petiolaris/details

Climbing hydrangea.

I’d build a raised bed and full with leaf mulch and compost. As pp mentioned many shade plants are woodland and need rich soil.

Climbing hydrangea! So slow though!

@HorsesDoovers my garden is... busy. A work in progress and a big experiment. It's a narrow sw facing London garden so nothing gets more than a few hours apart from the middle which is the path.

And with sun the devils in the detail. Aquilegia don't like no sun. Mine have only been good since getting several hours in the afternoon. Morning sun wasn't their thing. Anemones haven't done well. I think everything just needs a lot more water than you realise.

Re climbers - I tried so called shade clematis in an east facing spot that gets bugger all sun. Nada. So they need definitely a couple of hours. I've got one in dappled morning sun (Under a tree but get a bit directly first thing) and it's doing well. Jasmine are surprisingly ok without that much sun - in fact my sunny one doesn't flower.

Persicaria bistorta is supposed to have a decent flowering season but mine in mostly shade haven't been great. Think they needed more water and a teeny bit more sun.

A star low spreader is lamium maculatum. Very tolerant but a bit of sun and it has nice purple flowers.

Following as have exactly the same issue

I'm now thinking raised beds may be the way to go, although I have no idea how to go about creating them!

Cranesbill is tough as old boots, up there with cockroaches for surviving inhospitable conditions.
Solomon's Sral
Butcher's Broom
Lily of the Valley
Winter Aconite
Wood Anemone
Wild Garlic
Some roses are happy with partial shade
Native getaniums
Blackcurrants do quite well with some shade, as does Rhubarb
Alpine strawberries
Campanula

Solomon's Seal

Primula - beesiana is unusual and very pretty.

Just a random side l. We had a dry bit. Dug it out. Lined it with pond liner with a few holes in. Filled it back in. Put a pond liner in another part of it, turned that into a wildlife pond. When the pond overflows it goes into the other pond lined but. That bit of garden is now the best for growing stuff and hedgehogs coms to drink there :)

Place marking, great thread thank you.

Very easy. I got long planks of treated timber online. From screwfix I think. And some thin ones to use as corner posts/battens. Then you bang the corner ones into the ground (you'll probably have to cut the right lengths first plus make points on some) and when they are solidly in you cut the planks to the right length then drill them and screw them on.

They take a shit load of soil though. I think you can get massive bags of soil (too big to carry!) delivered or you can do a Homebase run and get a ton of topsoil, plus horse manure.

These ones only add about 6 inches of height but you can also dig the manure into the crappy soil below. Mind you I'm on London clay and apparently a lot of plants quite like it! Maybe dig about another 9 inches down and break it up/mix it all up?

I think that some kind of mulch (bark etc) keeps moisture in the soil too - google it.

Also every year get every leaf you can into old compost bags, put holes in thd bags, then close thrm and put them somewhere for 2 years. Then open them and you have an amazing soil improver - leaf mould. I got my first usable batch last year, it's a huge buzz. Not as fiddly and smelly as compost and basically turns into (very good) soil.

Forgot goat's beard, false goat's beard and sweet cicely