Climber suggestions for a dark(ish), postage-stamp yard. And some progress updates on the redesign

I'm not 'new', having done bits of work in gardens for many years, but I think my lack of knowledge probably make this the best place for now, at least until the 'project' gets underway.
MY 'garden' is just a small, flagged yard. I've seen others referring to their gardens as 'postage-stamp' size, but mine's more of a standard sized stamp, not one of the oversized specials that come out occasionally.
It's east facing, and being in Lancashire, has to endure a lot more overcast days than many places. Due to its small size, sunlight in some parts is very limited, sometimes non existent. That includes the wall that I'd like to plant against now.


This is the view from the other side. Strike that. I can't add images yet. I'll add it later if it's likely to help.

The yard is fully flagged, so I was working on the assumption that everything would be in pots, but then someone asked if I could raise one of the flags & plant the climbers in the ground. I think this would be easy enough to do, although I've no idea of the soil (or rubble) quality below.
My main concern is that the light conditions on the other side of the wall may not be good for encouraging my chosen climbers to grow. The solid wall is about four and a half feet (everyone okay with feet & inches?) tall, with a four feet tall trellis type fence on top. Even planted in pots, the plants would have to climb a lot before they saw any sunshine. If I do decide to plant in the ground, they'll have even further to grow.

Is that enough of a description to ask for suggestions? My initial searching has come up with Jasmine, Clematis, Honeysuckle or Ivy. I've grown one or two before, but with limited success. Possibly a combination of being pot-bound, and lack of nutrients killed them off.
Can anyone suggest what they think would grow well, in those conditions? I could add some trellis to the lower wall if it helped, especially if it was a plant that would grow to cover the lower section too.

 

Hey @Chris20 , welcome!

This is my favourite topic after living in various rather challenging properties from gardening perspective and still trying to grow things.

Great if you can lift a flagstone, it will reduce the need of watering and allow the plant's roots to find their way around.

Ivy is the obvious choice. Near us there is a sort of sunken front yard that is covered with mature Ivy, trained not just against the walls but over statues and conifers. It's a magical sight, the Ivy forming all kinds of fairytale shapes and looking great all year around. Butterflies love the tiny green flowers of a mature Ivy.

Another option is an evergreen honeysuckle, Henryi is a very modest plant for requirements and flowers (sporadically) all summer. It tends to get top heavy though so the lower part of the wall may become bare over the time.

If you can lift a row of the flagstones and build a raised bed over the area your yard could have a great space to grow something you like.

 

+1 for Ivy....Hedera 'Gloire de Marengo' is a very pretty, white variegated, large-leaved variety with pink tinges in winter. H. Sulphur Heart syn. Paddy's Pride is similar with yellow variegation. If you want flowers, then Lonicera (Honeysuckle) tolerates shade but needs good watering and feeding to flower well. Ditto Hydrangea petiolaris.

 

Thanks for the welcome. I'm getting comfortable here already. If you like challenges, then you may like to stop by my project topic, if I get around to it. I'm currently in limbo on the job front, but if all goes as I'm expecting, the garden/yard project could get underway sometime in October.

Although I don't see why lifting flags should be an issue, it's not something I've given much thought to. Mostly just because I tend to think of back yards as small enclosures covered in concrete, but I suppose there's no particular reason why I couldn't grass over most of it if I chose. For my situation, I don't think it would be practical though.

Since living here (about 12 years) I've not devoted much time to the 'garden'. My attitude has been to find easy to grow & look after plants. This has resulted in my having several larger bushes & small trees. All I wanted was to see greenery when I looked out of the window, not just concrete.

Now I'm expecting to have a lot more free time, I feel I can make it into a more relaxing and homely patch. I was inspired by a lady on a local Facebook group who posted a series of pictures showing what she'd done with her similarly sized enclosure. Now I've seen what can be achieved, I'm eager to have a go myself. Most of her plants are in small pots though, so she has a lot more variety. If I choose to keep most of my larger specimens, it will seriously reduce the space I have left for other plants. That's where I hope the knowledge and experience of other members may really help.

Something I forgot to mention in the first post is that I'm considering having two different climbers, one on each side of the gate, so I could possibly have honeysuckle on the left, and some ivy on the other side. Which one gets to cover the trellis above the gate would probably depend which grew quickest.
For now I'm just happy to know that my idea, so far, seems realistic. I can devote more serious thought to it, knowing it can be done. And while I'm grateful for Selleri's suggestions, please don't let that stop others from joining in. Hopefully when I take a trip to the garden centre, I'll have a few options in case they don't stock my first choice.

 

Watering is unlikely to be an issue. If, as I'm now thinking, the plants do go directly into the ground, I expect they'll find all the moisture they need. Even some of my potted plants often go unwatered for most of the year. Rain never seems to be far away. I've got a water-butt in the corner anyway, so can soon fix it if we do have an unusually dry spell.
Feeding on the other hand has been my Achilles' heel in the past. It is something I'm getting better at though, at least with my indoor plants. I'll be adopting a similar policy to outdoor feeding once I get going, so it should be okay.

 

Not grass...totally impractical in a small, shady space! Astroturf, now, that's practical :-)

 

Flagstones are popular for a reason, they are easy to look after and give a solid, neutral flooring for whatever you want on it.

Some super large containers with evergreen ferns, something upright plus humble perennials or summer bedding for seasonal colour can work very well. A water feature in a container with a solar powered pump (the panel can go on the top of the fence to catch the rays), a nice seating area and you can invite us over for drinks please @Chris20

When you can, please do post photos and note the light over the day.

Edit- whatever happened to my spelling???!

 

I've taken a few photos, although it was too late for some of the flowers as the rain has completely washed them out. Now I'm just waiting for some better weather to get a few more. There's still time this year, if I'm lucky.

I'm hoping to do some before & after photos. It'll be to motivate myself as much as anything, but will also give those with a better imagination a chance to make the odd suggestion.
I warn you now, there will be a long wait for the 'after' photos.

Talking of photos, I've just realised you can upload photos here, rather than on an external host. Is there a general preference on which is used? I can't post external links yet, so I'll try this way.
This is the view of the outside of the wall I want to plant against.

 

Well after last year's warm welcome, I had a surprise call back to work, and that more or less put a stop to my plans.
8 months later and I've finally made some plans and started. The recent warm spell spurred me on, but the return to cold, cloudy and damp is having a similar effect on my enthusiasm. I'm taking a week's holiday next week though, so hope to make good use of it working on the plan.

I was going to start a 'project' topic, based on a comment I made before, but considering my habit of disappearing for months on end, maybe I'm best just adding to this one. (unless etiquette here says otherwise)

Noting Selleri's suggestion about photos, I did take a few last year, but reviewing them now, I'm unsure of the time they were taken. Looking closer, I think I may have set the correct time on the camera, and some of the shadows concur, so here's a few, before I disappear again, though hopefully not for another 8 months.


First up, this a plan of the space I have to work with (I told you it was small)


In the north-east corner, I have a raised bed (6' x 3') on a 'table', which I'm currently emptying.


The bike shed (complete with one of the cats, because they like to be the centre of attention). I've added this mainly to note the reach of the sunlight. The shed was against the southern (8'4") wall, and at about 1pm in late August there's plenty of sunshine to be had. By mid afternoon it's almost gone though.


If this works, 4 photos in one of the trees/bushes I hope to keep.
Top left is some sort of ornamental cherry. I think it suffers a little from neglect, and I sometimes think I'll get rid of it to make space for something else, but it still looks wonderful when it blossoms, so I'll probably keep it for a while longer.
The 'plant pot' is 24 inches high & 30 inches in diameter. I went back to the garden centre recently to look for more large containers, but there was nothing like the one I've got. Searching for ideas, I considered getting some whiskey barrels, but a quick search suggested they only have a useable life of 2 to 10 years (if looked after), and for me it would likely be on the shorter side. Then I thought of using a water butt. About the same size as a barrel, but much easier to look after.

So water butts it is. Top right, a twisted willow. Prior to 're-potting', this was planted in an old compost bin. When I originally planted it, I failed to consider the roots, and that it was planted in an open bottomed container. Needless to say, when I tried to 're-pot' it, I discovered a root had found it's way through a gap in the paving. Hopefully the root in the ground will now die off, without causing any damage, and the replanted willow will survive and thrive.

Bottom left, a small holly bush. Like other plants, I've no idea of the variety.

Lastly, bottom right, is an evergreen of some sort. I don't even know if it's a 'bush' of some sort, or a tree.For some time I just grew it in a small tub, a little bigger than the one on that image, and the evergreen just grew until it's roots had filled the tub. I think it was a little over a foot tall. Since transplanting to the raised bed, it's grown to about six feet tall.
Unless I decide to try and rescue some of the bulbs from the raised be, the 'conifer' is the last to dig up. The small tub toward the bottom right just contains a small tea rose & some lavender that I dug up earlier.



More to follow, along with 'The Plan', when time allows.

 

Your twisted/corkscrew Willow is probably a Corkscrew Hazel ( corylus contorta ) it doesn't look vigorous enough for a Willow but I could be incorrect , I close up of the leaves will solve the problem. Another picture of the last shrub will help ID it also .

 

Hi @Chris20 , welcome back! It's perfectly all right to occasionally disappear, and to resurrect your old topics. You are expected to buy the first round on your return though

Your space looks great, enclosed courtyard type gardens can have a lovely, Mediterranean atmosphere and pleasant microclimate.

If you are looking for larger containers, The Gardeners Superstore has some very big ones at quite reasonable prices. I have bought some decorative planters for big houseplants and they have been of very good quality.

 

I'm sure you are correct. Most on here will have far better knowledge than me. (I'm here asking questions after all) I probably just heard or read 'twisted willow' somewhere, and put 2+2 together, making 5.
Edit: I usually keep the tags when I buy plants, but sometimes I have a purge and throw away those belonging to plants I no longer have. I also like to store them in a safe place. Sadly, I don't remember where the last 'safe place' was. I have however found one for 'Corylus avellana Contorta', so top marks to you @Perki. It claims 'slow-growing up to 3m', which seems ideal for my small yard, if it remains happy in a container.

For other shrubs, I've found no tags (yet), so some images for those who'd like to impress with their knowledge.
One downside of spending more time outside is that some of my guests don't appreciate being disturbed.

On the other hand, all the recent excavations must have provided an abundance of goodies for the blackbirds. One flew off as I went outside, with another queueing up before I'd even gone inside again.

Not sure how close up is useful, so I'll try these. First the evergreen. Hopefully the measure helps in gauging size. I'm assuming no one viewing has bandwidth issues, so I'll stick with full sized images unless anyone shouts.


Another shrub I'm reviving, the main photo from today, with an inset on the left from last summer.

Another bushy shrub, I don't have a good photo of the whole plant, but here's a small section close up. I think it has small white flowers in the summer, but can't be more specific.


I keep finding more!
A small rhododendron, which has so far been quite happy in the container. Again, I've tried to zoom in to a small section or 2. If I remember correctly, the leaves changing colour in late summer was one of the selling points of this variety. (This photo was from late August)


If this keeps up, I'll need a bigger yard!


@Selleri , I'd be happy to light up the barbecue (if I had one), and invite you all round when it's done, but by the time I'm finished I don't think I'd have room for more than one guest at a time inside the gate, whatever restrictions allow. And the guest would probably have to tend to the barbecue while I stood outside the gate too.
Thanks for the link. I've bookmarked it for future reference. For now I'm already growing quite attached to the water butts. They have a smaller footprint than a pot of the same capacity, which also means they're taller, so whatever I plant in them will get more light, even in this dark corner.

 

Hi Chris
Start from the top the Evergreen looks to be one of the Junipers which one I ma not sure but I suspect the Communis group. The conifer group arne't the easiest to ID seen as they are so many of them.

2nd plant is a shrubby Potentilla easy enough plant to grow .

3rd plant has tripped me up a bit have you got a picture a bit further away so I can see the shape ? I do think its a Spirea nipponica , A picture when its flowering will give a certain identification .

4th is a Hydrangea Paniculata , this must be a old picture ? it shouldn't be flowering yet , it should just be coming into leaf.

 

Thanks for the names @Perki. They look familiar now I see them. I'll have to stop my attempts at 'identifying' plants from memory. At least it gives you an idea of who you're dealing with though.

Here's a photo of number 3. For what it's worth, the flowers on a few internet images I've looked at, do look 'familiar', although I don't think I've seen mine with any big clusters of flowers in recent memory. No doubt down to my poor maintenance habit. Lifting this one up to photograph it, I see it's in dire need of re-potting. the roots were quite firmly attached to the ground through a crack in the paving. I hope the image is okay. A solid background would have been better, but space is a bit limited just now.


And yes, the hydrangea picture is from last year. It's one of the few plants I tend to prune back every winter. I don't know if that's helped it, but I think it usually flowers well every year.


As to the plan, my editing skills aren't great, but a combination of Floorplanner & MS Paint hopefully work to give a basic idea. Each of the circles represents a plant pot, the lower rectangle, the bike shed, and the top one is for the raised bed.


The bike shed is going in the bottom right corner. Hopefully there will be room between the shed and the gate to plant some Ivy. I’m hoping to either re-arrange the existing flags, or just knock off a bit from the one where I want to plant the ivy.
The bottom left (south west corner is going to be home to the conifer, if I can make it fit. I'm going to have to prune it back quite a lot. Top left corner of the shed will be home to the Hazel. It should allow me enough room to open the shed's double doors & manoeuvre round to the gate.

On the North side of the gate. I think I'll place the holly adjacent to the gate, and the cherry in the top corner. The gap between the pots will be big enough to make a hole for whatever climber I decide to plant there. I've not yet decided whether to just plant in the ground, or to make a small raised section. That can wait until later. Likewise with the ivy. (Opinions welcomed)

I hope to cut down the raised bed (photo in earlier post) to between 18 to 24 inches deep, from its current size of 3 feet, and place it against the northern wall. The position is partly due to using it to hide a manhole cover (the small, darker coloured patch in the middle, roughly level with the end of the steps). What I'll put in the raised bed is yet to be decided. I'm thinking of making a small 'herb garden' at the left/west end, and maybe just seasonal bedding in the rest.

Everything else, including some of the plants mentioned in previous posts, has yet to be considered. The containers are small enough to move whenever I want.

I've already got troughs on most of the boundary walls, and will fill up the remaining spaces later. The other main space to be utilised is the north wall. It currently just has 3 hanging basket hooks, with only one currently occupied. There's also the possibility of fitting a few containers directly to the wall, for more seasonal flowers or plants. If that idea does go ahead I will no doubt be asking for more suggestions.

 

For the entertainment, amusement or bewilderment of anyone who is passing this way, along with a bit of self motivation for myself, a quick update.

I'd broken down the main parts of the work into smaller tasks, thinking it would aid motivation, and deter procrastination. Foolishly, I only put down 2 hours for moving the conifer. One hour to dig it up, another hour to re-plant it. It soon became clear that I needed to loosen the soil in the whole of the raised bed in order to free it enough. I eventually loosened it enough, but by then, common sense was telling me the tree was too big for the butt.



The root ball was almost wider than the container, and certainly too big to fit through the opening.




But I continued regardless! I decided to cut off a couple of small branches to make handling easier, and so it will stand in the corner. Now I can hopefully empty the bed & take it apart.




Another quick note. I was looking through some old photos earlier, and I'd taken one of the flowering cherry's label. Seems my bad memory isn't a recent thing. Just for identification purposes, it's a Prunus 'Okame'.