Worried, not enough sunshine?

Hi,

Firstly probably worth mentioning that I know absolutely nothing about gardening, I have recently started and I am enjoying turning my “back yard” into a present garden. Well that’s the plan anyway?



I have an area at the bottom of the garden that doesn’t get much sunlight as it is north facing and has conifers overhanging from next door. (Possibly only 3hrs direct sunlight late afternoon) I have chosen plants that all said they would be suitable for “Partial Shade” I have looked at various descriptions of what partial shade actually means but I am still unsure whether my plants will survive.


They have now been in the ground now for a couple of day, and all look fine to me at the moment.



I would be very grateful if someone could advise me please.


Will my plants be ok where they are?


If not is it possible to move them? (I have plenty of full sun locations to use)


What signs should I look for if they aren’t happy?


How would I know if they didn’t look happy whether it was because of sunlight or other factors i.e. too much/not enough water?

Here is a list of the plants
From Left to right;
Astilbe japonica Peach Blossom
Digitalis lanata
Centaurea Monama
Alchemilla Mollis
Campanula hybr. Kent Bellw
Hobe Autumn Glory
Aconitum Fischeri
Dicentra Spectabilis ‘Alba’
Primula denticulate rubra
Berberis Atropurpurea Nana
Lavatera hybr White Angel
Aster novi-bel Marie Ballard

Thank you
John

 

Hi John!

That's a tiny photo!

It will also be quite dry and probably nutrient depleted under those mature conifers.

Hopefully you dug in some compost/ well rotted manure into the bed first!
Mulch around them too, it will help conserve moisture.

Your bed will be lovely in a year or two.

 

Thanks Melinda, I have now hopfully uploaded a bigger pic.

Still unsure about the amount of sulight?

 

Hi John and welcome to the forum.

As Melinda said, the biggest problem is that the area will be dry. Those conifers are going to suck up all the water. The shorter period of sunshine really shouldn't be a problem for most plants.

You can usually move most herbaceous plants (ie plants that die back over the winter). When you move a plant, you often break a lot of the fine fibrous roots. So a general rule is to cut back up to half of the top growth to compensate. Thats why plant moving is best carried out in the spring before there is much top growth. Asters are funny. You can move them at any time - even when they are in full flower and they won't turn a hair.

Some perennials you can't move, unless they are very young. These are plants with so called tap roots. Rather than the large volume of fibrous roots that most plants have, some have a small number of very deep fleshy roots, and you invariably break these off. Dicentra has a tap root and is difficult to move once it has become established.

Woody shrubs, like Hebe and Berberis, are best moved when they are young. As they get older the roots go down deeper, and they act more like tap roots.

I am not sure how to advise, as I don't have any experience of growing under a conifer hedge. But it may be worth looking at plants that don't need much water. An old favorite of mine is Centranthus ruber, which is very tolerant of dry ground, and can be found growing out of walls etc. The problem with drought tolerant plants is that they come from hot places and like a lot of sun. But I think your main problem is lack of water not lack of sun.

 

Hi John,

This is how my grass looked, but i had this problem over all of my garden! I dug all my grass up, bought some topsoil and mulch from Hallstone in York (Value Topsoil | Bark Mulch | Decorative Aggregates | De-icing Salt from Hallstone) which has been brilliant, and then I re-turfed the top. I believe my issue was that my garden was just not holding the moisture! By the looks of things, your trees my be drawing a lot of the moisture from the grass! I have to agree with what Melinda has suggested! Best of luck sorting this

Matt

 

At my last house we had the dreaded Leylandii down one side of the garden. I couldn't get anything to grow in it for a few years, except oddly dandelions and bindweed, which didn't seem to mind the adverse conditions.

One day, I decided I'd had enough, and I decided to stop murdering perfectly good plants by placing them there, so I took drastic action.

First I waged war on the bindweed and dandelions. Roundup did the trick for me after numerous repeat applications, but that's another subject.

Satisfied that the bindweed was gone, the back breaking work began.

I dug a trench about 3ft wide and the same deep all the way along. Incidentally, this warranted a rather amusing remark from the elderly man that lived next door when he returned home that evening and saw just my muddy, sweaty head sticking up above the mound of excavated earth while I was stood in the trench still digging. He casually asked, 'oh, is the war back on then?'

The purpose of this trench was to cut off much of the roots that were in my side, figuring they can rob the moisture and nutrients from the neglected garden next door instead.

As I put the spoil back into the trench, I added several sacks of manure. Having filled it back in and leveled it off, I raked in a bucket load of chicken manure pellets.

I left it a few weeks before planting, just to see what perennial weeds might pop up, then satisfied it was all good, I started planting it up with flowers.

By the time we moved out a couple of years later, it was looking pretty good, which is a good considering at the time my knowledge of gardening was even less than it is now (in fact pretty much non-existent when it came to flower growing).

Of course in your case such drastic action may not be necessary, put the point is, by enriching the soil you'll have a much better chance of success.