Shady border

[bumbledeedum]

Very novice gardener here would love some ideas/advice.

We're in the process of moving our garden around and have just gained a shady bed. It's north west facing but will be shady most the day due to position near the house with a large fence behind it. It's only about a 2ft deep, 5 meters wide, clay soil. It's bordering the path to the front door so don't want anything too big or prickly.

I was thinking ferns and hostas with some alliums. I also have a passion flower that's gone a bit mad in its pot so was thinking about planting that and trying to train some of it onto the top of the fence for the sun.

Is this a terrible plan? Am I missing anything worthwhile? I'm a bit worried it's going to look a bit sad in the winter.

Two feet is very narrow, if you can widen it I would. Get some evergreens in first then fill in with non evergreens and bulbs. Hellebores, Eunonymous (will climb if you plant it against the fence won’t take up too much room if you have to stick to two feet deep and happy in shade. Pulmonaria (not fully evergreen) will do well in shady clay and give spring flowers. Roses love clay and there are varieties like New Dawn that will cope with a shady position and help make the fence more attractive. I am not a fan of hostas as as they get wrecked by slugs.

We can't widen it unfortunately as it's the space between the fence and the path which can't really go any further over.

Some great suggestions, thank you. I hadn't thought of roses, I actually have a few in pots that could do with planting out so will check the varieties for shade preference. Hellebore looks good too. I'm not a huge fan of eunonymous, just find it a bit boring.

I used to have a shady border and clay soil. Astilbe did well.

I had a sambucus nigra in shady clay, it was lovely. Also a lilac and lots of ferns.

Oh I actually have astilbe in another part of the garden (had no idea that's what it was called until I googled it now 😂).

Would sambucus get too big?

Heucheras are nice shade plants with interesting foliage, maybe get a Camelia in for evergreen and spring flowers? Hydrangeas for summer flowers. For climbing, lots of clematis are happy in shade too or star jasmin for its fragrance (mostly evergreen too).

Rosemary won't mind the shade

Some great ideas, thank you everyone, glad I asked!

Japanese anemone 😍

Japanese anemone

That's another that we've used at another house. Thinking of "acquiring" a cutting on a dog walk soon...

You can have as much of mine as you can carry 😁

There is a special place in hell reserved for people who plant spiky, thorny, clothes - ripping, ankle - slashing plants next to paths. My mother was particularly fond of this, and and my father and then I spent many unhappy hours lopping bits off them so we , and the postman, could access the front door relatively intact.

You can have as much of mine as you can carry

I can remember it from my last garden, it is a bit enthusiastic isn't it?

Go for evergreen ferns as well as than ones whose fronds die in winter. Then in winter you have a mixture of green fronds and the lovely warm bronze of dead fronds

winter jasmine (yellow flowers) will flower on a shady wall.

For summer colour, aquilegia does very well in the shade. I also have solomon’s seal, brunnera and foxgloves. I have a fatsia japonica but that might get too big - or pachysandra (small evergreen bush with small flowers). My hostas were destroyed by slugs and even my hellebores got munched.

I have a very shady border which has a lot of clay, although not fully waterlogged at any time of year, and I have improved the soil with manure and compost. In addition to many of the suggestions you’ve already had, I’ve had success with:

Omphalodes
Trachelospermum Jasminoides
Geum
Hostas
Polemonium

As well as some of the suggestions above.... I like flowering quince for training flat against a shady fence. I’ve read it won’t flower without sun, but mine hasn’t read that book and flowers really well on our north-facing, very shaded wall. They do t climb but will be happy to be pruned into a flat shape.
Christmas box (Sarcoccoca) is small, evergreen, likes shade, and scented winter flowers.
There are small slow growing skimmia that are evergreen and if you get a hermaphrodyte you’ll have berries (otherwise you need 2 plants -one male & one female).
Trollius (spelling?) are also good in shade.

You could also consider something you could clip to an interesting shape - personally I find very narrow borders often look a bit odd with a tall fence and a single row of small plants, so doing something a bit different - like growing something like box that you can shape to a wedge shape to cover the fence but very narrow at the top, wide at the base, and scoop in and out around plants.

Thank you everyone. A lot of the suggestions I couldn't find at 2 garden centres today so will have a look online. So far we've planted some fern, hellebore, astilbe and heucheras and an evergreen which name escapes me. Also found some hostas reduced from last year which obviously aren't doing anything at the moment but have put those in and will hope for the best.

I have found daylilies do surprising well in a shaded Northwest facing garden.
They're not evergreen but seem to keep their leaves for a long time into late autumn and soon sprout up again in spring.

Mahonia is a wimter flowering evergreen with beautiful yellow flowers that have a honeyed fragrance.

I wish my Japanese anemone would go mad, it struggles. I’m hoping it’s because it’s not established enough.

And my suggestion would be a row of skimmias, 2-3 ft high ones.

All great suggestions. I love foxgloves in mine

Iirc astrantias will grow on clay and I think they're okay in shade.