North facing garden/wall

cotton

There is a large area down the end of the garden where nothing seems to grow apart from weeds. North facing, small wall with 6ft high fence panels. Only gets the sun for an hour or 2 in the evenings, it’s pretty grim looking I’ve dug it up several times & randomly put down seeds but to no avail. Last spring I got rid of all the ivy coming through from neighbours & planted 2 clematis montana & 1 clematis jackmanii in the hope it would cover the fencing. The jackmanii lasted a month, the montana seemed to take off but died over the winter (am hoping they will spring back to life but I’m not holding my breath.)
My project this year is bring life to that part of the garden & have been doing a bit of research on north facing walls. I want to cover the fence & create a colourful flower bed which naturally blends out onto the grass in the garden.
So far, I’ve bought 2 Paul’s Scarlet rose which will be going in this weekend & I’ve my foxglove & viola seeds germinating nicely in propagators in the kitchen. I also have some arum lilies growing in pots outside & hostas ready to plant.
Am hoping to get some ferrns, lupins, azaleas & japanese anemones in there too, with rozanne geranium spilling onto the grass.
I love Lily of the valley but not sure if it would fit in with the roses. Also not sure if I should use membrane or mulch/bark to control the weeds as I have knotweed down there every year. Anyone got any ideas or suggestions as to what else I could put in there? Thanks.:)

paddy147

cotton wrote: »

There is a large area down the end of the garden where nothing seems to grow apart from weeds. North facing, small wall with 6ft high fence panels. Only gets the sun for an hour or 2 in the evenings, it’s pretty grim looking I’ve dug it up several times & randomly put down seeds but to no avail. Last spring I got rid of all the ivy coming through from neighbours & planted 2 clematis montana & 1 clematis jackmanii in the hope it would cover the fencing. The jackmanii lasted a month, the montana seemed to take off but died over the winter (am hoping they will spring back to life but I’m not holding my breath.)
My project this year is bring life to that part of the garden & have been doing a bit of research on north facing walls. I want to cover the fence & create a colourful flower bed which naturally blends out onto the grass in the garden.
So far, I’ve bought 2 Paul’s Scarlet rose which will be going in this weekend & I’ve my foxglove & viola seeds germinating nicely in propagators in the kitchen. I also have some arum lilies growing in pots outside & hostas ready to plant.
Am hoping to get some ferrns, lupins, azaleas & japanese anemones in there too, with rozanne geranium spilling onto the grass.
I love Lily of the valley but not sure if it would fit in with the roses. Also not sure if I should use membrane or mulch/bark to control the weeds as I have knotweed down there every year. Anyone got any ideas or suggestions as to what else I could put in there? Thanks.:)

Hellebors are lovely....evergreen with beautifull flowers from December/January onwards.

Just planted quite a few of them in the garden (north facing).:)

Also you could plant some pachysandra terminalis...again evergreen with nice little white flowers.

Grows about 10 inches tall and spreads out to creat beautifull ground cover.:)


Cleamatis armandii also grows well on a north or east facing wall.


Have it growing in the garden and its doing well on both walls....will make for nice evergreen flowering wall coverage in the future

paddy147

Heres Pachysandra Terminalis.

Have a few pots of it planted around the garden.It makes for a nice low height evergreen plant,with nice ground coverage.:)

cotton

Thanks for your reply Paddy. Am a bit wary of putting another clemantis in after mine died, I knew the jackmanii was a gamble but I really thought the montana would have thrived there. I'm hoping the Climbing rose will cover the fencing but if not, I could try the armandii.
I love the idea of Hellebors & pachysandra, they are beautiful but tiny & I wonder if they'd get lost in the space. Am working during daylight hours but will take some photos at the weekend to show the area I'm talking about.:)

paddy147

cotton wrote: »

Thanks for your reply Paddy. Am a bit wary of putting another clemantis in after mine died, I knew the jackmanii was a gamble but I really thought the montana would have thrived there. I'm hoping the Climbing rose will cover the fencing but if not, I could try the armandii.
I love the idea of Hellebors & pachysandra, they are beautiful but tiny & I wonder if they'd get lost in the space. Am working during daylight hours but will take some photos at the weekend to show the area I'm talking about.:)

They will soon spread out and send up new shoots to create a lovely flowering and evergreen carpet of plants.:)

Deesalaam

This is an old thread so maybe you're sorted but I thought I'd add in my experience of similar spots in my current and previous gardens. Hydrangea petiolaris, which I have on an east facing wall, will grow on a north facing wall, as will ivy, obviously as you had to clear your neighbours. They have white flowers, so not very exciting, but you could get some colour with bedding plants. All of these plants have grown for me in shade as deep as you describe - hosta, pulmonaria, fuchsia, astilbe, canna lilies, antirrhinums, dicentra, aquilegia and impatiens. Acers are said to grow in shade but I don't know if they would thrive in shade that deep. There is also a difference between damp and dry shade, mine was all dampish but I read in a book by Geoff Hamilton how he converted dry to damp shade by digging out the solid, putting in a membrane, then refilling with more compost in the soil.
Hope this helps if you ever read it!