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shady front garden
kev van
Posts: 114
I have a shady front garden to the left of my front door its currently sectioned in to 2 triangles by some stepping stone slabs. I have a few well established things like holy,myrtle rosemary and buddleia with added ivy grrrr and all this tends to kill the grass within about 2-3 feet of them and add the loads of shade caused by the house its annoying so what could i plant instead of grass to make it look good but as cheap as possible? to the right of my door i have grass fuchsias,roses and 6 12 inch high hydrangeas. but that's coming on nicely. i wanna see what you guys say and i have an idea but im copying from my back garden
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Remove the grass and put down gravel
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no! too much gravel around .cut back the buddlia shrubs (or re-move)this will make a sense of space or plant just shrubs that are low lying but not gravel .
PaulaH i hate gravel! but cheers
flowering rose they are only 6-8 foot but will give it all a trim. no one saying ferns
Ferns would be good! But how do the Buddleia and the Rosemary feel about being in the shade? I thought they preferred sun.
The Buddleia and rosemary do get the sun when its facing east. the house it's self is L shape so the left side front garden sun time is blocked by the house. the holy,myrtle rosemary and buddleia are on the edge of the garden and gets it for a few hours a day. if these were not there then the garden would still be shady.
Ferns lol. Was wondering about them but if you have rosemary and Buddleia growing quite well then the ground must be pretty dry which ferns would'nt like. What about Hellebores, Astrantias, Epimediums, Geraniums, Aquilegias, Forget-me-nots, Foxgloves? They will all grow in dry shade.
Underplanting with Astilbies and Huecheras woukd help keep weeds etc at bay, also pitelarias (think I spelt that wron) a climbing hydrangea is best in a shady space
have decided that the front will be a slow process as i will be buying everything either in buy 2 and 1 free ect or just reduced. I like the idea of clumps of forget me nots and i can nick some from my neighbour! foxgloves are nice it would gove it temporary height again and so far all cheap!
Helleborus orientals i like like like. Verdun woodlandy feel is what im trying to achieve.
Margaret7 Heuchera i love the coulours
another i will get cheap.