Need shade help

[Raybon]

Any ideas please?
Have a heavily tree-shaded area between lawn and raised patio which was formerly covered in ivy. There will be lots of leaf-fall in the autumn, which I will collect for leaf mould. it's just bare compacted earth at the moment.
Any ideas what I can do to make this part of the garden? Thanks.

[Nicos]

Are you thinking of flowers/ shrubs or fruit and veg?

[Nicos]

Any chance of a piccie?

[Raybon]

My ipad playing up and won't send piccies at the mo'!
Any chance of a kind of grass which will grow in shade? A big ask!

[Nicos]

Found this...though tls American, it gives interesting advice...

Growing Grass in Shady Areas | Horticulture and Home Pest News

bit of a faff dealing with it?

....it's not just the lack of light causing leggy plants- it's also the extra watering you'll be needing to do.

[veggiechicken]

Do you mean lawn-type grass or ornamental grass?
Not that I know anything about either

[Bren In Pots]

This older thread might help :-

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...mix_61103.html

we bought a box of grass for shade from the local garden centre it did seem expensive compared to normal seed though.

[Raybon]

I did mean 'normal' grass, an extension of the weeny lawn, so hopeful there is such a thing (thanks, Bren). It is a small area (18' by 5') so the extra expense would not be such a great consideration.
Open to other non-grass ideas though.......

[roitelet]

Shade loving plants, hostas, hellebores, ferns and if damp enough astilbe. Bulbs and primroses will be OK as well as they flower before there is any heavy shade.

[Raybon]

Love the ferns/ hostas idea, thanks. Will have to try finding seeds.........

[Raybon]

Can't wait for seeds, so bought hostas from the garden centre, managed to split two plants into five separate shoots with roots attached - will have to see how they 'take' as it's most probably the wrong time of year to do this! Works out about £2 per plant, all looking pretty perky at the moment in new pots of compost until it's time to bed them out.

[AllInContainers]

My shade area has brunnera and heucherellas in wall troughs, and other ornamentals are winter flowering heathers and leucothoe zeblid. There's also ramsons (which that area sounds ideal for), pineapple mint, lemon balm, checkerberry, barberry, szechuan pepper, mini daffodils and muscari .... and some shelving salvaged from a blowaway greenhouse which did a runner, which is home to my salad, radish, beetroot, and the pots where my strawberry runners from this year will be transferred to.

[Raybon]

You've all got me going! Was really thinking of low-maintenance grass/ bark/ gravel stuff but your ideas sound too exciting to resist....better take out a second mortgage, then!
Thank you.