SHINE A LIGHT ON SHADE
Brighten dreary areas with plants that will thrive in the gloom
EVERYTHING works in a paradise garden. Sun and shade are in perfect balance, the climate is kind and the soil so rich that if you stuck a pencil in the ground, it would sprout.
Dream on. Real gardens always have problems — though most can be solved. One of the most daunting is dense shade. Small town gardens can be awfully gloomy, especially if overshadowed by buildings or high walls.
Narrow spaces or gardens with L-shaped plots invariably have dark corners. And where extensions have been built, the resulting ‘side returns’ or narrow outdoor passages can be horribly uninspiring.
Dark places such as these are often paved, too. There might be drains or pipeworks — not pretty and probably damp. And, despite being fully enclosed, such sites often suffer from damaging wind eddies.
You might consider a space such as that too hostile for gardening. But plants are remarkably adaptable and, with a few design tricks, you can bring even the gloomiest zone to life.
SHADY CHARACTERS
IN LIMITED light, painting walls and other surfaces white or a pale colour helps to reduce the gloom. You could also fix mirrors to some of the walls, to reflect light and give the impression of a larger space.
If the ground is paved and there’s room, raised beds are better than pots. They can be more natural-looking than grouped containers and are easier to look after.
But if containers are your only option, make sure some are big enough to accommodate mature plants and use a range of sizes.
Always use the best quality growing medium and ensure that your beds or containers drain freely. With natural soil, you have to cope with what is already there.
As with all planting schemes, foliage is the most important constituent. In shade, the choice is less limited than you might expect, thanks largely to ferns.
Among shade plants, ferns are some of the prettiest. They don’t flower, but their shapes, sizes, leaf patterns and subtle colouring are wonderfully variable.
Many prefer moist conditions, but there are drought-tolerant ferns, too.
In my darkest zone, the large Japanese fern Polystichum
polyblepharum grows behind a native hart’s-tongue, Asplenium
scolopendrium. Both are evergreen, but rub shoulders with deciduous Dryopteris
wallichiana, whose rusty-scaled fiddleheads unfurl in April.
Silver-grey Athyrium Ghost gives a colour contrast, but dies away in winter. In dry shade, common polypody
Polypodium vulgare has lobed leaves. It will even grow in a dampish wall, as will wild maidenhair, Asplenium trichomanes.
SPLASH OF COLOUR
GARDEN centres are getting better at selling ferns, but such specialist suppliers as Suffolkbased Fernatix (fernatix.co.uk) have the best choices.
Among flowering plants, try lily of the valley for its fragrant spring blooms and leafy summer carpet. Pink-flowered London Pride Saxifraga x urbium also has evergreen foliage and, for a yellow summer splash, allow Welsh poppies, Meconopsis
cambrica, to self-seed. Snowdrops flower if the shade isn’t too dense. You could also try wood anemones, sweet violets and even snake’s-head fritillaries. If they succeed, plant more. If not, keep trying new things. After all, gardening is always trial and error.