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Shade loving, fast growing annuals

LatimerLatimer Posts: 1,068
edited June 2020 in Plants
Hello all (again 🙈)

The bottom end of our garden was a sloped area so we terraced it and created a decking area for seating. Eventually I'd like this to be a lush, shaded very green area, bamboo, grasses and ferns, maybe an arbor overhead with climbers. The decking runs kind of N-S with the sun behind me (in the photo) getting lots of sun from around 11am (shaded by the hedging to the right before then) until 2ish (shaded by the cedar screen after that). 

For now though it would be nice to throw some seeds into the terraced beds just to get a bit of colour in here. Is it too late for me to really get things going? At worst I can get some bedding plants but I'd rather not spend that kind of money (the screen is costing too much already!)

Thanks!



Edit: the beds are about 50cm wide. I can fill them with a mix of topsoil and MPC
I’ve no idea what I’m doing. 

Posts

  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    Not an annual, but you could put some geranium Rozanne, astilbes, fuchsia, begonia. these are all happy in part shade.
  • LatimerLatimer Posts: 1,068
    edited June 2020
    Fire said:
    Not an annual, but you could put some geranium Rozanne, astilbes, fuchsia, begonia. these are all happy in part shade.
    Thanks @Fire. Will I be able to grow them from seed or am I going to need to get bedding plants?
    I’ve no idea what I’m doing. 
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    These are not annuals or bedding. Have a look on any uk online garden centre site.
  • LatimerLatimer Posts: 1,068
    @Fire will do 👍🏼
    I’ve no idea what I’m doing. 
  • Blue OnionBlue Onion Posts: 2,995
    I would buy a few packets of bachelor button seeds Centaurea cyanus, and just rake that in along with a few bags of potting compost spread thinly across the top (your soil doesn't look amazing -yet).  They do pretty well in shade, in less than amazing soil, and should still have time to flower this year.  Mine are currently flowering, so it doesn’t take long from seed to flower.  
    Utah, USA.
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