Forum home› Problem solving
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

Shady sloping patch

dunaskindunaskin Posts: 4
in Problem solving
💡⭐️Advice and ideas welcome. I’m a beginner and have the patch in my garden that I don’t know what to do with. The area is at the side of my house and is what I see when I step out my kitchen door. The area is shady and I believe the someone might have laid plastic with pebbles on it at some point. My neighbour also has a big holly tree close by, so it’s quite rooty too. I’m open to any ideas. I’d like something that gave us a big more privacy (the door and window you see in the pic are my neighbours). I also thought of herbs as it’s close to kitchen but maybe too shady. I hope the right plants will really improve this area. 🙏

Posts

  • LiriodendronLiriodendron Posts: 8,328
    Hello @dunaskin and welcome to the forum.  :)

    How big is the area?  Is it shady all day, even in summer?  Is the shade from buildings or from trees?  It's quite hard to make out much detail from your photo, I'm afraid...  
    Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
  • dunaskindunaskin Posts: 4
    Hi Liriodendron, thanks for welcoming me and the reply ☺️ Hope these pics are better? It is shady pretty much all year, all day 😬 The sun is blocked by neighbouring trees in the morning and by my house in the afternoon. The rhododendron used to be huge (prob 10ft). We’ve cut it back and I think that will help the hedge between me and my neighbour  fill out a bit, but I think it’ll be a slow process. Thanks again, and please don’t hold back. Any suggestions are welcome!
  • dunaskindunaskin Posts: 4
    Oh yeah and size wise, I’m hoping to concentrate efforts on the patch just outside the kitchen which is prob 2mx2m. Thanks!
  • BorderlineBorderline Posts: 4,700
    A couple of Viburnum Davidii shrubs will help to keep interest in the area. Stick to small or slow growing shrubs for the area. It is also evergreen and not really tall growing so can offer some privacy on the top part of the slope. Camellias may also do well in that area if Rhododendrons are growing well. Other shrubs to consider, Sarcococca if you can dig in further compost to open up the soil structure.

    For the gaps and lower down, Bergenia Cordifolia and Lily turf, Liriope Muscari can offer year-round ground cover. 
  • delskidelski Posts: 274
    What kind of hedge is it? Privet? What does it look like in summer? It looks terrible now so I'd be tempted to get rid, just based on that pic.
    If this was my spot, I'd start at the back and move my way down. I'd get a couple of wooden posts and stick a trellis panel between them, then plant evergreen climbers. Then once you've screened the windows/doors/wheelie bins you can concentrate on putting other nice planting in front of it to distract you whilst the climbers make their way up the posts and trellis. You've got plenty of open ground which is easy access for digging holes and planting.
    As already mentioned, bergenia is fine in shade as are hosta (slug magnets) astrantia, hardy geraniums, euphorbia, ajuga reptans, heuchera, aquilegia, euonymus, skimmia etc. I'm sure there are multiple lists of "plants for shade" online somewhere.

  • SueAtooSueAtoo Posts: 380
    I would certainly agree with @delski about skimmia, evergreen, delicious scent, come in different sizes. Need more than one to get beautiful red berries.
    East Dorset, new (to me) rather neglected garden.
  • dunaskindunaskin Posts: 4
    Borderline and Delski thank you both for taking the time out to offer words of wisdom. 

    Borderline thanks for the pointers towards evergreen and lots of ground cover. I particularly like the idea of Camellias and Bergenia.

    Delski, I hadn’t even considered getting rid of the privet hedge but it does look awful all year round 😳 (need to remind myself it is my garden and I’m allowed to change stuff!) I think a trellis would work really well and I’ve a much clearer idea about how to approach it now. 

    I was just wondering if having seen the pics you’ve any advice for opening up the soil structure? It’s full of stones and roots (of the holly tree and rhododendron). Is it okay to cut through these? It is pretty tightly compacted now so how deep would I aim to
    open it up to? (Hope these aren’t totally stupid questions)

    Thanks! 
  • Cambridgerose12Cambridgerose12 Posts: 1,134
    Yup. New gardens are full of promise, but nothing compares with the hard labour involved when you take over a neglected plot... sorry!

    Ideally you'd want to incorporate organic matter and perhaps also coarse grit to about two spades' depth. When planting any shrubs, the advice keeps changing and nowadays they tend not to recommend fertiliser or too much of a soft life but in your shoes I'd still feel inclined to dig the base of your planting hole over well and incorporate organic matter and grit to reduce compaction. Using mycorrhizal fungi can also help plants establish in such conditions. 

    By and large though if you choose the shrubs being suggested above, they are natural understorey plants and should be fine--so too are box and holly. And there are plenty of perennials to tuck in around them.

    It's a bit hard to tell but it also looks to me as if your hydrangea could use a careful programme of renewal pruning--the process called 'staged renovation' here: https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=194
  • delskidelski Posts: 274
    Two spades' depth might be ambitious...certainly was in my garden! I just dug a hole for my plant, mixed what I'd dug out with organic matter and then backfilled. One 40L bag of compost barely covers 1m2 1cm thick. I also got myself a garden sieve/riddle for getting out chunky stones - filled a couple of buckets worth but it took hours of hard work. Not too much of a problem if you like being outside and working in the garden.
    Re: those roots - yes you can chop them out without killing the plant. I also removed roots from numerous well established trees and shrubs when trying to fit perennials into my border.
Sign In or Register to comment.