Shady Front Garden
 

Hello to All,

Firstly I apologise, first post and I'm asking for advice already.....

I have a very small plot of earth at the front of the house about 3m x 2m which faces North East and due to walls etc gets very little direct sunlight.

Any advice what would grow well in low light?? We wanted to plant miniature conifers with a mix of heathers but I have just read that heather likes lots of sunlight. Would heather stand any chance in low light, we just loved the almost luminous colours and texture etc of the heather.

Thanks for any help you can offer.

Regards

Hostas, ferns, Begonia would be a good start

latebloomer wrote:
:: Hello to All,
::
:: Firstly I apologise, first post and I'm asking for advice already.....
::
:: I have a very small plot of earth at the front of the house about 3m x
:: 2m which faces North East and due to walls etc gets very little direct
:: sunlight.
::
:: Any advice what would grow well in low light?? We wanted to plant
:: miniature conifers with a mix of heathers but I have just read that
:: heather likes lots of sunlight. Would heather stand any chance in low
:: light, we just loved the almost luminous colours and texture etc of the
:: heather.
::
:: Thanks for any help you can offer.

All the heathers we had planted in a sunny position shrivelled up and died,
I managed to salvage a few small pieces and planted them in total shade
along with a few ferns and they are thriving, one or two fuschias along the
same border grow OK too (but not fantastic), they do get flowers on them
though and they are all below a North facing fence, meaning they get
sunlight for about 20 minutes per day in high summer when the sun is
setting.

--
If God had intended us to drink beer, He would have given us stomachs.

"latebloomer" wrote in message
...

Hello to All,

Firstly I apologise, first post and I'm asking for advice already.....

I have a very small plot of earth at the front of the house about 3m x
2m which faces North East and due to walls etc gets very little direct
sunlight.

Any advice what would grow well in low light?? We wanted to plant
miniature conifers with a mix of heathers but I have just read that
heather likes lots of sunlight. Would heather stand any chance in low
light, we just loved the almost luminous colours and texture etc of the
heather.

Thanks for any help you can offer.
Regards
latebloomer

have look at the shade FAQ : http://www.tmac.clara.co.uk/urgring/faqshade.htm
Lots of ideas there, Jenny

Any advice what would grow well in low light?? We wanted to plant
miniature conifers with a mix of heathers but I have just read that
heather likes lots of sunlight. Would heather stand any chance in low
light, we just loved the almost luminous colours and texture etc of the

heather.
-----------------------------------------------
Conifers also need good light; In my experience, a conifer planted in
shade will at best not thrive and at worst start to die off.

I can't think of any shade-lovers that would give you the colours and
texture of heathers and conifers, but here are a few suggestions of
plants that I know will do well in shade, including some plants with
silver variegation, which can really light up a dark spot (although too
many different ones in a small area would be a bit much).

Sarcococca hookeriana var. digyna. I thought this would be a boring
shrub, useful only for its winter fragrance, but in the colder months
all the leaf margins turn a rosy pink and it looks very attractive. It
has tiny but powerfully scented flowers.

Fatsia japonica: huge, shiny evergreen leaves. Attractive cream
flowerheads. In a small space, a large-leaved plant can work very
well.

For ground-cover, try Lamium cultivars. Lamium galeobdolon
(silver-patterned leaves, yellow flowers) has turned out to be a thug,
but there are other, slower growing and more attractive ones, such as
'Herman's Pride', 'White Nancy', 'Beacon Silver'. Pachysandra
terminalis 'Variegata' is another pretty ground-cover plant.

Many yellow-variegated plants, such as Euonymus fortunei cultivars,
just go green in shade, but the white-variegated ones, such as
'Harlequin' and 'Silver Queen' do very well in dense shade under shrubs
in my patio. They will also work well as climbers if planted against a
wall.

For walls: Parthenocissus henryana - a deciduous, self-clinging
climber. It has purple-backed leaves (new growth also purple) with
silver veining, and turns red in autumn. Variegated ivies (again, not
the yellow ones) can look stunning.