Finishing off pond edging on a tight budget

Carex will cope well with shade and all are evergreen. No obvious flowers but various versions of variegated foliage, yellow and green such as Evergold, white and green such as Everest. Cope equally well with dry, shade, sun, wet.

Liriope muscari is very happy in shade, most seen is blue but there is a white one Munroe White

 

I didn’t know there was a white Ajuga, I might have to try that one out somewhere

Just thought, if dry, how about some evergreen ferns.

 

Thanks @fairygirl, I’ll give a few things a go and see what does well. I should probably try and get some snow drops in under there too for the spring.

@Butterfly6 I was looking at some carex at a local nursery the other day. I’m not usually a big fan of variegated plants (they somehow feel fake ) but some of the carex are quite nice, and I know the variegated plants help to lift dark areas.

 

Variegated plants are always useful for shady spots, along with whites or anything pale.
I grow C. Evergold which is very good, and there are plenty of carexes which will work, as mentioned- just don't buy Carex pendula!
Lots of variegated plants will work but another one to avoid is Phalaris, commonly called Gardener's Garters. It's another very invasive plant.
I grow some small alpine type plants round/near the pond too, so that's useful in any site you have that's got enough sun and is free draining. I have one which has small white flowers [just starting to get flower stems now] but I can't remember the name. I think it's a Silene.

I remembered another useful white pond shallows or moist area plant yesterday when I went out. The white version of Caltha [marsh marigold] . Foliage is evergreen or semi evergreen. Mine has just finished flowering.

 

The far side of that pond is in deep shade, under trees and shrubs on the north side of a fence! Not a ray of light

This side is part shade, I’d say. Probably only gets sun through the middle part of the day.

Does Carex divide well? I’ve got a couple in a container that I could use to make more plants.

 

Yes - always best to split grasses in spring. Might be a wee bit late now, but you could always try taking a section off and potting it up for a while to see how it goes.

 

Pond update!

i found a few logs to finish off the far side. You can still see a fair bit of liner on that side but I can’t really move them much further forward without them rolling in!

I also picked up some pond plants today. A fibre optic plant as an oxygenator, a water hawthorn for the floating leaves (I’d have gone for a Lillie but the pond is quite shaded so don’t think they’ll flower much) and a mixed basket of stuff which seemed better value than getting a load of stuff individually and planting it up.

How big do these plants get? Will they naturally spread about? And how much of the pond would a small water hawthorn like that eventually cover? Will I need to put it into a bigger basket to get a bigger plant?

 

The water hawthorns will seed around, but a single plant will easily spread to about a foot or more if it's happy. They're lovely for shady areas.
Water lilies do tend to need a decent amount of light, so that may not suit.
Re your logs, if you have any rocks or similar, you could put those into the pond and sit the logs on top. I've got a few similar areas.
You can just see this one - beyond the cotton grass, taken a couple of weeks ago. This was originally the beached edge, but I altered it so that I coul dget more depth in the pond, generally. The saxifrages will gradullay cover the log too.

 

Thanks @fairygirl that’s a great idea about the logs on top of the rocks. It may have to wait until budget allows a bit more of a purchase. I wanted to pick up a pump yesterday but at £100 it was beyond this months spend.

 

Budget always comes into it @latimer . It's still a great pond with lots of interest and use for wildlife, so give it some time to settle and for the plants to get going. It'll look very different in another year.
I've never used a pump in any wildlife pond though, but there's no reason why you can't have one for that gentle trickle of water. You'll be able to hide the pipe coming in amongst the foliage of plants in the outer areas. That's where rocks and logs can be perfect too!