I’m feeling behind in the garden already…..not quite on top of my “To Do” list as the weather has been pretty rough this week. And there are so few hours of daylight that it constantly feels like I’m making very little progress.

Anyway last week I concentrated on the shady garden which is quite a small area thankfully. All plants were tidied, weeds cleared and a heavy mulch added, as the soil is bone dry in summer because of the trees and dreaded leylandi hedge. Leylandii take lots of moisture but don’t give much back as they don’t drop their leaves.

There are lots of lovely hellebores in this area, all beginning to flower so they had their tatty old leaves removed to allow the flowers to shine.

We added some geums last year….Tequila Sunrise and Alabama Slammer. We already have Totally Tangerine which I’m thinking of moving as it gets quite tall and needs staking.

The lamium Beacon Silver and geranium Rebecca Moss are both running like blazes but very useful plants for dry shade….Rebecca Moss flowers forever and the lamium foliage is a useful lightener to other plants.

The euphorbias also do well in here….martinii performs for twelve months of the year but is short lived so that I remember to take cuttings this year. Last year I treated myself to a new variegated characias Silver Swan and again, it’s doing really well. I think I will plant a dark leaved heuchera in front for contrast.

There is a definite problem in the central bed around the specimen birch, as when the spring flowers have gone over (hellebores, pulomonarias and aquilegias) it looks quite scruffy and tired. A couple of feverfew plants may just do the trick as they will grow anywhere!

Will post more pics throughout the season.