Plants for shade? Damp and full of grass :(

[kt6382]

Hi, now that I've found a friendly forum I have lots of questions to ask, sorry!!
One half of my garden has a 6foot fence so it is almost alwways in shade. During summer it gets sun in the mornings but in winter it barely gets anything at all. The soil seems to stay quite damp as I've found mossy type stuff growing there and lots of creeping couch(?) grass. At the moment the only plants there are a straggly looking hebe, 2 hydrangeas, a few roses, geraniums which come up by themselves every year aswell as aquilegia and violets(which must be wild as they hardly flower!), an straggly escalonia and umm and a big old euphorbia which self seeds everywhere and I want to get rid of! Between the big shrubs the ground is just covered with stringy geranium and some lily of the valley but mostly horrid grass and brambles

I really want to make it look nice and also easy to maintain. I have pet rabbits and a lot of young kids around too so I don't want anything poisonous (hence the euphorbia going!). What plants could I grow in such a shady site? I really like blues and whites especially as most stuff I have seems to be pink! I think the lady who lived here before was actually a pretty good gardener though.

Any ideas?!

[Fleurisa]

Aquilegia is poisonous too, as are lots of lovely plants. I wouldn't bother ripping out poisonous plants, you wouldn't have much left. Rabbits tend to know what isn't good to eat, and how hard do most parents struggle to get their kids to eat anything slightly green!
I have astilbe and hellebore in damp shade. Japanese anemones grow anywhere, but can take over, try the shortish White Swan anemone. There are lots of attractive grasses that like shade, check out Knoll Gardens website. Also the crocus website has plant selectors

[kt6382]

Thank you, I'll take a look at Knoll gardens. I looked up online and another site mentioned astilbe, @I need to look those up as have no idea what they are. I like anemones. My neighbour also has some osteospermum (spelling?!) which I like so they obviously survive here but do they like shade?
I think I may have to give up on the rabbit-safe garden idea and just fence off sections when I let them out... they're pretty crafty at digging under fences anyway so maybe I shouldn't let them have the whole garden!!
Also want chickens or ducks though and they would get free range sometimes, are simialr plants poisonous to them too?!

[mothhawk]

Pulmonaria, hardy fuchsia, hellebores, primulas, bluebells, bellflower, snowdrops, honeysuckle, heuchera, hardy ferns - think woodland flowers.

[WPG]

We have a shady patch next to the pond - primulas, ferns and solomons seal seem to thrive there.