Ideas for planting a small sunken garden with limited light

[GreenfingeredGlenda]

I’m downsizing to a house that’s sort of built into the side of a hill. It has a tiny outside space, probably 8ft deep by the width of the house. This space is essentially below ground level, not sure if I’m making sense and I don’t want to post the photos but imagine the house half way down the hill and the outside space cut into the hill. Stone retaining wall and cast iron railings at the top of it.

The photos on the listing do show sun on the slabs so there must be sunlight at certain times of day.

I’d love ideas to make this space green and lovely. I’ve got some huge ferns in pots that I can take with me. I am presuming that ferns, hostas and that sort of thing will be about it but I’d love any ideas. I’d like to fill it with troughs and large pots that make it feel really green, adding height too. The railings finish above the ceiling height on the ground floor of the house. I’d also love something that I can train up the wall and wrap round the railings. House is somewhere hilly that gets snow most winters so nothing that isn’t a bit hardy.

Astilbe are good for shade you can get differant colours and they get to a decent height and spread.But like hostas they die down to nothing in winter.

You could make a huge gorgeous display of hellebores. I’ve got a bank of them under a massive tree where nothing else thrives. They come in various different colours and sizes, so mix them in with different sizes of ferns, and it could look spectacular. If funds allow, you could treat yourself to a big tree fern, to act as the “tree” and draw the eye upwards. I haven’t grown it myself, but I understand Clematis Vitalba will happily grow up shady walls.

Also why don’t you cut the bases out of the pots, dig up a few paving slabs, and let the roots get down into the ground. It might help the plants get bigger!

Thank you, Astilbe are pretty, not sure I have grown them before.

I've got a couple of Hellibores here - love them. I've always had gardens full of perennials and I'm not sure if I want to try to create a shady cottage garden in troughs or if I want to so something completely different.

I want it to look really put together, happy to spend whatever I need to to achieve it, but I am not sure what I need or what is best for the space.

I don't want to take up slabs, the property is listed and the listing applies to the curtilage. The retaining wall/slabs are Yorkshire stone, been there forever and I want to work with what's there/wouldn't want to disrupt the slabs anyway even if I could.

Climbing hydrangeas love the shade. I am a big fan of spring and summer bulbs as, once planted, I totally forget about them so they are always a lovely surprise. You may have to replace them every year if there’s not enough sun but lots of people do that anyway.

Climbing hydrangea is good for shade, hydrangea petiolaris, lovely white flowers.

Honeysuckle would also do well and smell wonderful.

There is a lovely variegated acer which likes shady spots, in fact I think most acers do okay in shade.

Thank you.

In my head I want a really well put together/designed space and I can't see what that will look like or even imagine it because it is so different to anything I have ever had. I've googled 'tiny sunken garden hillside retaining wall' and all manner of other similar things without seeing anything useful come back.

I could take everything I have got in big pots and see what grows/survives. It is a huge downsize both in terms of house and garden and I think I could fill the outside space with existing pots/troughs - but not in a put together way.

I think you should be searching for ‘small shady courtyard garden’ — there’s loads. I think it sounds like an incredibly gorgeous space. I’d fill it with ferns, fatsia japonica and climbing hydrangeas.

Have a Google of shade loving plants. I have a lovely white fushia in my shady bed. Tirellia (foam flower) Calla lilies.

But yes ferns and fatsia japonica also good choices. You may be more limited with flowers but there should be plenty of greenery.

I'm a garden designer if you would like me to take a look at the layout side of things. (Not an expert on plants unfortunately more layout/hardscaping)

You’ll want some evergreens so it’s green year round. Sarcococca is good for shade, and smells gorgeous. Camellia do ok too. Fatsia as pp said.

For non evergreen foliage, ferns definitely, there are many lovely varieties. Be careful with hostas - slugs love them and a low garden may well be damp so you will be overrun.

Flowers- try for interest at different times of year. It’s not easy to find things that flower well in shade but they do exist. Hellebores flower in winter/early spring. Snowdrops ditto. Bluebells spring and should be happy in shade. Tiarellas flower well and are really pretty. Foxgloves are good for later spring although can look messy later. Hydrangeas for summer.

Acers are good for autumn interest if you get one with good autumn colour. (Though more sun=more autumn colour). not flowers of course but colourful leaves.

Lots of repetition can look more stylish than “one of everything” so think about layout before you go plant shopping. I’d start with a couple of small acers and some sarcococca to dot around. Then lots of ferns. Then choose a few flowering plants and repeat them around the place.

Oh yes fuchsia of course! And bleeding heart.

If you are on Instagram have a look at Nigel Slater's page.
His garden isn't sunken like yours but it has a similar feel to the one you describe and might inspire you for what you can create even if with slightly different plants.

I've seen 'mind your own business' turn areas like your courtyard into magical green spaces - invasive, but in the right place it's just the thing, especially combined with moss, ferns and a little water feature.

Other ideas - fairy lights, candles in lanterns, mirrors, mossy/lichen-covered old troughs, pots, stones, bits of architectural salvage and stone ornaments.

From what you describe and the plant suggestions here I reckon you could end up with a really magical space.

Other plant ideas - spring bulbs.

An all white theme would look stunning in your green shady space and work well with a climbing Hydrangea petiolaris). Snowdrops, white daffs and tulips,

White foxgloves, Erigeron, London's Pride, White Dicentra/Lamporcapnos, Japanese anemone, Lamium, Lily of the Valley.

Adam Frost once said that white foxgloves in a shady green garden are like 'the standard lamp of the garden world' and that idea that white plants can light up a shady garden has really worked for me.

My mum hung an old chandelier in her shady courtyard - the glamour!

One last thing - you can buy lots of evergreen ferns.

I'm an RHS trained horticulturalist and a gardener by trade. In my opinion gardening for shade is the most interesting and rewarding work (if you can call it work) especially now the excessive heat is so punishing on south facing gardens and plants.

Thank you everyone, I'm grateful for everyone's ideas. I have always been a have a go sort of gardener and don't seem to be able to have any sort of vision.

@FoulBlister thank you 🙏, I am generally in awe of people who work in this area, I love my local RHS garden and often go on their day courses but still feel a bit clueless, and this new space feels completely alien.

I've found this tour of NS's garden and I would love a lot of those plants even if this space is literally 8ft x 20ft if that. I have herbs amongst my perennials at the minute and would love to be able to continue to do that, rosemary, purple sage, mint and a couple of thymes, not sure if they would grow at all?

I have been wondering about having troughs built in York stone in a U shape around the edge but am not sure I want that uniformity in the space. I am not sure whether something like this photo would work - also depends on hardiness as while I don't have a particular budget in mind, I would like to spend once 😅on things that survive the potentially cold winters.

Maybe watch the RHS coverage of the Chelsea flower show balcony and container gardens from this year for inspiration?

If you want it to look put together then you need to avoid impulse shopping and one of everything; make sure everything you buy “matches” in some way. Not matchy matchy or bland but that you have some kind of a theme. Eg all your planters are colourful, or they are all terracotta or whatever. You may need to be brutal with your current pots or you could go for a strict “nothing matches deliberately” theme.

Can you put some decent sized planters on the walls where they will catch more light?

If you have an outside tap and can irrigate then the world is your oyster.

Things that are doing well in shade in the ground for me - epimidium (pretty yellow in spring and lovely foliage), melittis (very pretty pink and white flowers) and geranium phaeum.

On herbs - “rosemary, purple sage, mint and a couple of thymes” ummm these are all definitely sun lovers. Mint might do ok in shade but will be straggly. Do you have a sunny windowsill elsewhere that they could go on?

Terracotta pots look lovely but 1) they need to be very large so as not to dry out - the shade loving plants tend to need moist soil. 2) terracotta proper is porous so you may find it turns green at least round the bottom, depends if you mind that. Big troughs will be a lot lower maintenance. You could get them different heights/depths?

I would definitely put in some wires for climbers, once established they will reach the light and flower well. Or climbing hydrangea is self clinging and flowers in shade but it is a thug and will go mad so be careful especially near the house.

Thank you so much @GreenfingeredGlenda .

The herbs you mention (with the exception perhaps of mint) would much prefer a sunnier aspect. Just a thought, but could you grow herbs at the front of your new house? Perhaps in pots on the doorstep or in window boxes if there is no outdoor space there? I grow herbs in pots besides my front door and the scent is a wonderful welcome home - and of course you can just pop your head out to pick them for the kitchen.

Regarding the troughs I'd advise against, at least to start. In a smaller space pots mean you can pull the ones in season/flower/looking their best to the front - if it's all in fixed troughs you can find yourself looking at withering daffodil leaves for two months - with pots, you just push them to the back.

Also - if you're going to spend once on infrastructure or plants then don't do it all up front. Live with your lovely new space for a year, see the sun and shade move around it at different times. Work out where you'll want breakfast in June and where you'll put your 'standard lamp' plants to bring light in.

If you spend straight away you might be committed to something that was good on paper but not ideal in reality.

Two good tips that might help -
Wander around your new local area. See what thrives there and what doesn't. That way you can learn from your new neighbour's mistakes and not make expensive purchases until you're sure.

Go to your local garden centre every month/few weeks during the first year and see what is in bloom there in their shady area that month. Ask advice from the staff and then buy the thing you love that month. That way, the following year you'll have something suitable, that you love, in bloom every month.

I'm excited about your project on your behalf.

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Thank you, I’d just typed this long response and then saw @FoulBlister ‘s lovely post. I think I was thinking on similar lines. I only ever buy plants from a local family nursery that specialises in alpines, perennials and herbs, local NT shop and local RHS garden because I tend to find that they survive. My new house is about 15 miles from my current home, higher up in the hills but not too different climate really I guess, gets snow first on the tops.

I’m definitely not an impulsive shopper - currently have a ‘theme’ of 7 large zinc troughs in a sunny nook. These are full of yellow and blue perennials - agapanthus, nepeta, verbena, campanula, mollis, achillea, etc and I love them, they can go at the front and I can put my herbs in there as that’s sunny. I think I’ll just move things that need sun into those.

I’ve just had a look at my shady patio here
which has some nice pots, not all the same but it has pulmonaria, hellebore, hydrangeas, ferns, honeysuckle, huechera. I also have a pond in a pot which apparently only needs a bit of sun (just googled it), the pond matches half a dozen pots that surround it.

I’ve probably got more that I might be able to use than I thought but not enough to create a really cohesive space as I’ve got a big space here with a few themes. I think I can just group steel, glazed and zinc separately until I work it all out.

Feeling very positive thank you all very much. I wasn’t feeling positive when I posted, I was focusing on the loss of my garden rather than what I could do with my new tiny space. I’m going to go to my local RHS garden tomorrow for inspiration and only buy shade loving plants for the time being. They have a lovely selection of pulmonaria varieties - one of my favourite plants ever.

I’ll also need to sell my three different sets of garden furniture and buy something that is comfortable and fits in my new space (for two!).

🙏

It sounds as though you have a great scheme shaping up there already OP.

I've spent the morning working on my own garden thinking about yours. In the shadiest area of my garden I have a Pyracantha which would be ideal for your garden. A wall shrub rather than a climber, it's smothered in flowers now and berries all winter. A real do-er in a small, shady spot.

Happy times to you in your new home and garden.