BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine

Gardeners’ Question Time

- Teresa, Devon

A JAMES SAYS I’m very jealous – you have the perfect site to grow my favourite group of plants. Woodland species are adapted to low light conditions and will love your mild Devon climate and sheltered site. Add that to the extra rainfall you get in the South West, and you’ll be able to create a magical elfin forest of mosses and ferns that would be almost impossible to achieve elsewhere.

You can choose from two styles. You can mimic a native forest floor, with delicate primroses and dog’s-tooth violets dotted between hart’s tongue and hard ferns, under a canopy of silver birches.

Or you could go full-on cloud forest by creating a structure of tree ferns underplant­ed with mindyour-own-business and hardy orchids. You can even plant these on the tree fern trunks in your climate, for a really jungly look. Tree ferns can be pricey, so a cheaper alternativ­e is tetrapanax, which in very mild climates will grow quickly to create small trees with huge tropical leaves up to 1m across. A ANNE SAYS I too have a mainly north-facing plot and during winter, when the sun is low, half of my kitchen garden is permanentl­y shaded by the house. Veg beds there are slow to dry out and warm up in spring, so I only plant summer crops. In a hot, dry summer, runner beans, lettuces, celeriac, parsley and even potatoes thrive there, getting sun for only part of the day.

But above all, a sheltered, shady garden is ideal for woodland plants, so I suggest you focus on those. You could also make slightly raised beds (to improve winter drainage) and add lots of well-rotted organic matter. Then plant fragrant shrubs such as Viburnum × bodnantens­e ‘Dawn’, daphnes and witch hazels, which love partial shade. Camellias do too, but avoid an east-facing site, as their flower buds are more likely to be damaged by frost. Add plenty of smaller woodlander­s too – ferns, trilliums and dog’s-tooth violets.

 ??  ?? Use plants with large lush leaves to create a shady tropical jungle
Use plants with large lush leaves to create a shady tropical jungle
 ??  ?? The winter flowers of Daphne ‘Jacqueline Postill’ are richly fragrant
The winter flowers of Daphne ‘Jacqueline Postill’ are richly fragrant

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