north facing garden

[nailpolish]

moving house next mth, and im going to have a north facing garden. its quite a long garden, the top half gets some sun, but the bottom half i predict will not get much, if any, at all, so im looking for ideas to brighten it up with plants that like the shade.

its a new build, so the garden is blank canvas

TIA!

white anemones really brighten up a dark corner.

Hi, how long is the garden? We have a NW facing garden which is about 80ft long, and each area gets some sun at some time of the day, it's justa matter of figuring out which bit gets it when & adjusting plants accordingly. If you have a n facing wall & want a climber, hydranga petiolaris(sp) is lovely, takes a couple of years to get established, but then it's great for fences/sheds etc. Hostas are nice & cope well with shade, but watch out for slugs (ours are in a sep bed by the side of the patio which is gravelled on top). Have you got any trees around? They can also have a big effect on which plants you can grow, lots of spring bulbs, bluebells, snowdrops, grape hyacinths etc. If you've got acid soil a lot of the rhodedendrons/camellias etc will grow in shade (although best of they can get some sun). Can come back with other ideas if you need them, just wanted to reassure you that a N facing garden isn't always a problem!

oh thanks berries, i was a bit worried about it at first

its about 20 ft long, is that ok? theres a gap up each side of the house, and its sort of on a corner so the top end away from the house is wider that at the house, so im interested to see where and how much sun

thanks again!

its at the beach so i guess its quite a sandy soil. next to the beach and a golf course, so im expecting lots of stray golf balls!

OK - we have very clay soil so don't know too much about the sandy soils. Do know you may have a problem as it doesn't hold nutrients very well, so you should make sure you put a load of compost on every year so feed the soil. As it's near the beach you will need plants that can tolerate salt and probably high winds. IIRC you should go for small leaved plants(rosemary is the only one I can think of at the mo), as they don't get affected by the conditions as much. Where in the country are you? If you are further south you may be able to grow plants that are classed as tender further North (we are in the NW). I will have a look in some of my books tonight & see if I can come up with more ideas. Don't think the rhodos/camellias are a good idea as I think(not sure) that sandy soil tends to be alkaline.

north east scotland so very windy too

thanks berries you are giving me lots of great ideas