Shady garden, clay soil

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Hello, gardeners. My gardening knowledge is slight to non-existent, but we do have a small back garden, and I would like to do more with it, if possible. If anyone has any suggestions, I would be most grateful. Growing in it at the moment are:

• rowan tree
• crab apple tree
• lilac
• philadelphus
• fuchsia (in one of the few very sunny spots)
• ferns in a couple of very shady places
• mahonia

That's about it. Most of the garden is paved. We have a pond, in the other sunny spot. It's a narrow garden (terraced house) and much shaded by trees and shrubs in our neighbours' gardens. The soil is clay (I assume - South London). We do have room to do a bit of planting but

We do have room to do some planting around/between the trees and shrubs, but nowhere that gets full sun all day.

Any suggestions for shade-loving plants that won't need a lot of attention? (I've got to be realistic, I'm not going to turn into Monty Don overnight!)

Thanks in advance.

Foxgloves are indestructible, like damp shade and clay soil, and come in various attractive shades of purple and white. They are quite tall, so good at the back of borders or to hide fences.
Any ornamental ferns will thrive - you can get silvery or red ones, as well as many different shaped fronds and shades of green.
Bluebells are good, but will spread like mad and take over the whole garden if you give them the chance.
Hostas have attractive variegated leaves and like damp shade, but they are slug and snail magnets. You need to spray them regularly with garlic flavoured water to keep the little munching twerps off the leaves.
Brunneras will do fine, as will primroses and lilies of the valley.

There are some slug-resistant hostas actually, if you Google (no experience of growing them myself but I’ve been thinking of getting some)

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/aug/10/hostas-slug-snails

improve the soil if you can - add compost, soil from pots, manure. I've got damp shady clay soil and aquilegia, hostas, astilbe and --- rose (if they get a fair amount of sun) do well.

All are pretty easy.

Also jacob's ladder, bleeding heart and acers. A nice bright acer can really brighten a shady area.

Plant up some pots too - bit pots don't need watered much and if you put perennials in them - like ferns or jacob's ladder - need little doing to them.

Thes are all things that grow in my damp shady clay garden: Heuchera (grown mainly for coloured leaves), Astrantia (clusters of tiny white flowers with a ruff around them; Astilbe - frothy spires of small white, pink or red flowers and attractive leaves, Thalictrum - nice greyish foliage and clusters of small flowers, Rodgersia - big architectural leaves and spires of white flowers. Helleborus x hybridus - realatives of Chrsmas Rose - big leathery leaves and small flowers surrounded by huge petal-like bracts which last for moths. Epidemium - heart shaped leaves and clusters of small yellow or pink flowers

Alchemilla mollis - scallop shaped leaves and tiny yellow green flowers- self seeds too enthusiastically. Myosotis sylvatica - wood forget-me-not - will self seed and carpet the ground in blue flowers in April./May. Violets do the same in March/April. Wild/alpine strawberries - useful ground cover, and the fruits are lovely scattered on cereal, ice cream or yogurt. Vince (periwinkle) is another good ground cover, evergreen leaves and a scattering of blue/purple flowers.

For shrubs, look at Fothergilla - fluffy white flowers and outstanding autumn foliage. Doesn't like alkaline soil. Witch hazel Hamamelis - yellow or orange flowers on bare stems in February, good autumn colour.

bit pots don't need watered much "big pots" I think!

I second hellebores - very hardy and flower from January to April. Cut back the dead leaves over winter. f you want to think about fruit, redcurrant bushes do well in a shady part of my garden. Prune once a year after you have picked the fruit and that's it.

I'm on clay too but have gradually improved the soul over the years with home made compost.

Soul? Soil!

Thanks, all! Lots of food for thought here.

My grandpa was a gardener (as a job) and my parents are extremely keen gardeners so it's rather shameful that I've done so little myself, but retirement is beckoning and I think the time has finally come to get out there and plant. Digging, weeding and watering will be good ways to get me off my natural habitat, the sofa. Well, that's the theory, anyway.

Pots are a good idea. I'll have to pay attention to where and when the sun does shine, if we ever have any sun again.

I have clay soil and Japanese anemone does well in the shady spots for me.

Is it definitely clay? You said you assume it’s clay, so you didn’t seem very sure!

Clay soil goes very hard and clumpy when it’s dry, and sticky when it’s wet, you’ll be able roll it into a ball when it’s wet

Plants I have growing in clay in shade - hydrangeas, ferns, astilbe, thalictrum, Japanese anemone, honeysuckle.

www.rhs.org.uk/plants/articles/graham-rice/plants-for-places/ten-agms-for-clay

www.theenglishgarden.co.uk/plants/plants-for-clay-soil/

www.rhsplants.co.uk/search/_/search.shrubs-for-partial-shade-and-clay-soil/sort.0/

To be honest, @JemimaTiggywinkle, I'm such a novice I don't know for sure, although that sounds about right from your description. The ground goes rock hard when it's dry, very claggy after bouts of rain. I've always heard that SE London has clay soil, hence many subsidence issues after drought years. Also, I know there were brickworks a few streets away back in the 19th century, so I think it probably is clay.

Our NDN has a lovely hydrangea getting very little sun. I don't think we have room for any more shrubs but one of the advantages of a narrow garden is that we benefit from our neighbours' planting (or not, as when our previous NDN planted a huge non-native tree which is now about as tall as the house).