What would you do with this garden?

[NorthFacingGarden]

Hopefully you can see the picture of my front garden, and the view of it from my living room.

Since moving in I’ve removed 4 conifers, 3 birch trees and lots of bamboo.

I don’t have the time or money to change it dramatically but I would like some ideas for it. There are lots of primroses and bluebells, which can stay. I’d like to plant native species that are good for wildlife - possibly woodland type plants.

The garden is north facing with clay soil. Any ideas would be much appreciated.

Some geraniums would be great, what colours do you like?

Hostas and lungwort both do well in my clay soil.
I’d personally keep the rockery effect and just replant. Although it looks like you have two small trees which are off centre - you might need a third one to balance it up.

If you're going for a woodland style then bulbs would be lovely - aconites, snowdrops, bluebells. You could also make a lush forest floor type effect with ferns, hostas, perhaps some hellebores for winter and foxgloves for summer. This link has some nice ideas www.gardenersworld.com/plants/woodland-plants-to-grow/

Oh yes lungwort (pulmonaria) is beautiful too. And bees love it!

Thank you for the suggestions and the link. I love snowdrops, would be nice to have some early flowering things.

There are already some ferns and foxgloves there so it would be nice to add some more.

The previous owner planted a very random assortment of many different plants but I prefer to concentrate on a small number of species so I’ve been trying to remove things that don’t belong (bamboo!) and only keep what I really like.

Has anyone planted wood anemones? Are they easy to get started?

Wood anemones are slow to spread. My patch is still less than a metre across after 30 years.

Not native, but Cyclamen coum is about the earliest thing you can get, in flower for Christmas and goes on for at least a month. Cyclamen hederifolium flowers in autumn, which is a bit of a dead spot in a woodland garden.

Consider Iris foetidissima - subtle pale purple/brown flowers which have to be seen up close to appreciate, followed by vivid orange seeds which can be seen from miles away.

Cyclamen are wonderful we have load s that have spread mixed in with winter aconite, and I'm another to recommend Pulmonaria - loves shade, happy in clay and bees just love them, they also flower early. Helebores might suit you if you want winter flowering, they're pretty tolerant of conditions too I think.