How best to tidy up this area of garden

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Hello - I have a 2ft ish wide strip of garden at the back of the house that is ugly and usually full of weeds (cleared out today).

I thought I could lay down some weed membrane and top with stones. Would this be sufficient? Do I need to flatten the ground or lay hardcore or sand or something down first? I will also have to get some sort of lawn edging that I can mow up to as well.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. It gets the morning sun, but is in shade most of the rest of the day. How the weeds thrive, I don't know!

Sounds like a plan. But you do need a thick layer so composted bark would be a lot cheaper to buy (and carry!) than stones. Bits of bark make a lot less of a mess of your lawnmower blades than stones too.

That is true and it would have to be delivered to the front of the house, then decanted and trekked to the back. I'm not really a fan of bark, but given that I can't see that bit from the house, maybe bark would be better.

I think you have convinced me. Thank you! 🌺

As the moss is thriving, I'd look at Japanese moss garden and grow more moss.

I would just put in an edging between the strip and the lawn. Kurb, steel, sleeper, whatever you want. That will stop the lawn spreading and the gravel ending up in the lawn if you did that.

Personally I would just convert the strip to a bed. It will soften the line of the house. You can fill it with hardy, shade tolerant perennials.
Foam flower, some shade tolerant geraniums, fushia (I have a fab white one in my shade bed), calla lillies.

Alternatively a small laurel hedge? It would compete with the weeds and would be evergreen.

Gravel would look fine but even with a membrane you will still get weeds eventually. I've double membrane driveways and the bastards still breach it at some point.

I've never met a weed membrane that actually got the weeds to take notice of it. Personally I would fill the space with ferns, but if you go yhe gravel route, just understand that it's not a maintenance free option.

Mowing right up to gravel is a pain as you flick stones around and grass clippings onto your stones - very quickly the grass grows into the gravel. The grass clippings mulch down into the gravel, weeds set seed in it and then grow on top of the membrane. In that kind of deep shade the gravel will get green and mossy.

Mine is another vote for ferns. They will love it there, look better than gravel and be better for wildlife.

Other plants that would do well there - hydrangeas, hellebores, bergenia and London's Pride. A mix of them and a few ferns would be very pretty.

Oh boy, those are options I hadn't thought about, but rather like. The only issue would be leaving space to get in about to clean the windows. Thinking cap back on! Thank you all.

I agree with planting that is happy in yhe shade and damp. Grit and gravel seems to look untidy unless you are really disciplined with the upkeep

How about a couple of paving slabs amongst the planting. The ferns will flop over them and disguise them a bit and you'll be able to push those aside and stand on or put a ladder on the slabs when you clean the windows.

Ferns will love the damp around the drain.

Some shade loving shrubs would be low maintainence. Maybe one of the smaller sorbus/elders not sure how high black lace gets? Or a camellia?

Fill it with hostas and ferns and brunnera. And put an edgi g in to stop the lawn creeping in.

Excellent idea

I would make it a bed for shady plants. I've found in the past that hostas do well with bark chippings and didn't get destroyed by slugs (maybe I was just lucky).
i wouldn't bother with a lawn edging as such, but I would make a nice straight edge all the way along that you can clip when you need to to keep it tidy. I'd agree with the previous suggestion of a paving slab under the windows to stand on when they need cleaning. All of that will absolutely transform this area.

Thank you all for your excellent ideas!

yy, play to it's strengths.
Ferns, moss etc.

At the risk of being cheeky, I would really love to see any photos if you go ahead with this please

I did similar with a shady spot that seemed to always be overgrown at the side of the house.

I put weed membrane down and covered in wood chip. I’ve added pots since and it has become a nice little haven in hot weather.

i tried posting a photo but says it is too big 🙄