Shaded weed patch!

[RinklyRomaine]

Now that our back garden is properly planned / laid out I'm turning my attention to the front. We have a small patch which eventually I'd just pave and pot, but no funds spare at the moments. It's shaded by a huge Sycamore. Original owners were keen gardeners and all sorts pop up front and back but the property was flipped and bark chips piled on. There are a million weeds, a large hardy fuschia and weigela as well as some daffs in one corner.

I've considered gravel, with a brick border to the drive, but the leaves in autumn are dreadful. What would people do with this on a budget?

I forgot the pic.

I would turn it into a midi woodland-themed area. It's hard to see the full area from your pic but maybe partner the sycamore with another smaller tree and then underplant with lots of spring bulbs (crocus, iris, snowdrops, bluebells, tulips daffodils) and primroses all in drifts and interlinked with ferns and hellebores.

All those things will love the fallen leaves as they fall and rot down, and the leaves will then look more 'in the right place' than they would if allowed to fall onto a gravel bed. With that you will be having to rake them up when they fall, otherwise they will create another top layer of organic material that covers the gravel and encourages weeds.

The sycamore is in the path in front of the fence, and makes the lounge very dark and cool in summer. It's a tiny area too so I'm not sure about more shade but I like the idea of the bulbs. I have zillions of crocus / snowdrops in the rear garden, and actually a huge patch of cyclamen which has to be moved shortly as it's in a play area.

That all feels very winter though. So if I weed a lot, add ferns and hellebores and more bulbs, what would be good for summer colour? More fuchsia?

Personally, I'd stick to the woodland theme and add foxgloves and woodland phlox to try and extend the period of interest. Wild garlic would flower into June time.

Some ferns can be colourful too - but woodlands do tend to have a limited palatte so I'd try and stay true to that. But it's really just personal taste

What direction does it face, and how much sun does it get? If fully shaded you'll struggle with gravel, it will go green and the leaves will form a layer on top, they won't mulch down like in a soil bed. If you want something other than soil you could use bark chip?

I agree that a woodland area sounds best. You could have foxgloves in early summer. Maybe begonias in a pot, hydrangeas if you don't mind watering? Fatsia?

It's completely shaded. It did have bark done but has had a long period of neglect due to building work and concentrating on the back garden but I'm ready to start tidying and planting. I was thinking bark. So a really good weed, bulbs and more bark?

We have a fair amount of 3 cornered bastard leek all over the place, especially at the back, which does come up pretty but makes the lawn stink 😂

I feel much more positive now! I went bonkers with the begonias last years and have loads of tubers for this year - would pots be okay fully shaded?

They might not like full shade (e.g. against the wall of a north-facing house), but would be ok with part-shade. If you get early morning or late afternoon sun in one part you could position them there.

There's very little that will grow in very deep shade, but areas further away from the house will be ok. Have a Google! A woodland garden with bark sounds lovely.

Is the garden on a slope OP? It looks like it might be from the photo?

My first thought was a shaded rockery. The decorative rocks would provide some interest and anchor points in the garden. You could keep the bark chips and add the rocks in stages as the budget permits.

Plants such as hostas, cyclamen, bleeding heart, heucheras, euphorbia, epimedium, deadnettle, hardy geranium, beesia calthifolia, Milium effusum aureum. Some of the dogwoods will tolerate shade also.
Interplanted with spring and autumn bulbs.

Honorine Jobert for a bit of height, in amongst the ferns?

It's flat as a pancake, and very small.

Ohhh! Great idea. Not even that much of a budget issue as there was a dead rockery at the back which was moved and is waiting to be disposed of. We have a finished garden fenced from a secret garden which is a mess and will be cleared when the weather improves. This is so helpful! I was thinking I'd never be able to make it halfway interesting.

Is that Japanese Anenome? I have a pink one at the back.

You’ve already got bluebells and daffs in there

I was out looking this morning, @MereDintofPandiculation and you're right. The funny thing is we have been here 4 years and none of them have ever come up before! The back has been dug over and returfed so I expect a lot was covered and has been unearthed. The front has been completely neglected so I've no idea why. I put in about 60 bulbs in a flower bed last year and couldn't believe it when hundreds came up in the lawn and my raspberry bed! 😂

Some more ordered for the front (in the green) and will be looking at weeding the weekend and starting to shift some rocks. I'm quite excited now because I think this must be how the old fella before had it.

Do NOT have wild garlic or that bastard allium that is a close relative. Someone planted some as a gift in my front garden in which I had my herb garden. they said it was a Welsh chive. I am still digging it out, must be at least 10 years. I religiously put it in the Council garden waste but it’s a loosing battle, it’s attempting to take over the lawn.
i am seriously considering week killer and cardboard , despite my carefully cultivated cyclamen, penstemons and aquallegia.

I have 3 cornered leek. Building work saw to a lot of it at the rear but it's the very devil. Before the work was done it took over the lawn. The first time we mowed it when we moved in the smell was something else! Sympathies!

Large Ferns will grow under trees.
We live near a large forest and ferns cover the ground .
Bluebells will also grow under trees.

I planted lots of bluebells, some ferns and crocus. The bulbs are now coming up but the sycamore has killed everything else. 🤷🏻‍♀️