What would you put in this garden corner?

[Fernycurly]

This is a Lawson’s Cypress tree which I trimmed from the bottom as it was casting a huge amount of shade. The back corner of the garden is root bound, very dry and the actual corner is in permanent shade. It faces west.

What would you put in that corner? I have tried a laurel on the advice of the garden centre and while it hasn’t actually died, it hasn’t grown. I put in a fatsia but I’m going to have to move it as it doesn’t like the position there.

The plants you can see are a hydrangea which bizarrely likes that position, geraniums and dragon lillies. It’s clay soil and they get quite a bit of light.

But it’s that back corner which is giving me grief. I might have to put in a sculpture or massive urn or something.

Had anyone got any ideas or advice? I can move the existing plants if that would help.

And I have a dog, to add to the challenge.

dry shade is really difficult. https://www.gardenersworld.com/plants/20-plants-for-dry-shade/?srsltid=AfmBOooM6q-e4N5O10_TyTMP8Y7uMEGPzLLjq5D7kVcwDIY0TOGql4Df

I've got the Euphorbia recommended on this link underneath a very large old privet hedge with some anenomes and hellebores and it's worked out quite well. I do water it every now and then - a really long drink of water and mulch as well.

Light coloured flowers plants will show up more. The fatsia should have been OK - I've got a fatsia spiderweb - working in a similar position - but I did water it in well and for the first couple of years.

Some ferns seem to quite like dry shade, judging by one or two in my garden.

I'd put a little seat down there, sometimes it's nice to have shade on a hot day. Maybe with some ferns around

I think I would be tempted to do this or add a large planter. There are lots of plants that will be fine with the shade if the soil was good but that tree will be sucking all the moisture and nutrients out of that bit of ground which makes it much harder.

I would build (or get someone to build) a really big lined raised bed (2 or 3 feet high) with a bottom on it so that you can keep the soil moist without the tree roots sapping all the water. Then you'll just be dealing with shade, rather than dry shade. It would need to sit on some slabs so the bottom didn't rot. It could fill the whole of that corner.

Some great ideas and thank you. The dog likes to go there so I could get some sort of seating for her and a large planter for some structure. The cypress stops the water coming down, though, so I’d definitely have to water it in summer.

Can you remove the cypress fully?

No, it conveniently blocks an old telegraph pole.