Shade Is an Opportunity, Not a Compromise

Ask most people to picture a cottage garden and they will describe sunshine: hollyhocks against a warm wall, lavender buzzing with bees, a border bleached bright by midday. Lovely, but it is not the whole picture. In Britain, a great many of our most characterful gardens sit in shade for much of the day. The narrow strip behind a north-facing terrace, the courtyard between two mews houses, the border beneath a mature apple tree or a neighbour's leylandii — these are the spots that leave gardeners sighing.

They shouldn't. Shade suits the cottage look remarkably well, because the cottage look was never really about flowers. It was about abundance: soft, layered, slightly unruly planting that spills over paths and softens brick. Foliage does that better than any bedding plant, and foliage is exactly what shade delivers best. Ferns, hostas, foxgloves and their companions will give you texture, form and colour without ever asking for hours of direct sun.

Work Out What Kind of Shade You Have

The word "shade" covers several quite different situations, and the plants that thrive in one will sulk in another. Before you buy anything, spend a day watching the border.

• Dappled shade — light filtered through deciduous leaves. Often the richest conditions of all, with plenty of bounced light and reasonable moisture.
• North-facing border — bright but sunless, usually cool and moist. Ideal for most ferns and hostas.
• Deep, dry shade — under dense evergreens or beneath a house eaves, where rain barely reaches. Tough, but not impossible.
• Damp shade — heavy clay that never dries out, often near a downpipe. Wonderful for moisture-lovers such as astilbe and rodgersia.

Check the soil as well as the light. Dig a spadeful and squeeze it. If it holds together like putty, you have clay and will need to improve it with compost before planting. Dry shade usually means root competition, so plant small and water generously for the first two summers.

Ferns and Hostas: The Reliable Backbone

If you plant nothing else, plant ferns. They are the single most useful group for shaded British gardens, and they bring a lacy, woodland quality that reads as effortlessly established. Dryopteris erythrosora, the autumn fern, unfurls coppery new fronds in spring that age to deep green. Polystichum setiferum, the soft shield fern, is evergreen and quietly handsome all winter. Asplenium scolopendrium, hart's tongue, offers bold, strappy, glossy leaves — invaluable for contrast against anything feathery.

Hostas are the other half of the partnership. Choose by leaf, not by flower. 'Halcyon' is a superb blue-leaved variety that holds its colour better in shade than most. 'Patriot' gives you dramatic white-edged foliage, and 'Sum and Substance' makes a huge, golden-green clump that will fill a corner in two seasons.

The only real enemy is the slug. In a shaded, damp border they will find your hostas within days. Start early in spring with biological nematodes, patrol at dusk with a torch, and accept that a few nibbled leaves are part of the deal. A thick mulch of leaf mould helps, and planting hostas in pots with copper tape around the rim keeps the worst of the damage at bay.

Foxgloves and Friends: Height and Colour in Low Light

Shade planting can become a low, green sea if you let it. Foxgloves solve that problem beautifully. Digitalis purpurea will self-seed through a shady border once it is happy, throwing up spires of purple, white and pink in early summer. Digitalis x mertonensis is a shorter, more perennial option with soft strawberry-pink flowers. Sow seed thinly in late spring and let them find their own places; they will lean towards whatever light there is, which is precisely the charming, slightly wayward effect you want.

Around them, build a supporting cast:

• Astrantia major — pincushion flowers in cream, pink and deep red, flowering for months in moisture and partial shade.
• Aquilegia — columbines seed freely and bring airy, nodding colour in May and June.
• Geranium phaeum — the dusky crane's-bill, with near-black flowers and superb, finely cut foliage.
• Hellebores — Helleborus foetidus for architectural evergreen structure, hybridus types for winter flowers.
• Brunnera macrophylla — especially 'Jack Frost', whose silvered leaves light up a gloomy corner.

Small Spaces, Mews Courtyards and Containers

Mews gardens and courtyard plots are often the shadiest of all, hemmed in by brick on three sides. Treat the walls as part of the planting. Pale paint — a soft limewash or chalky off-white — bounces far more light into the space than dark masonry, and a well-placed mirror doubles whatever light you have.

In a small, enclosed plot, fewer plants used well will always beat a jumble. Try three generous pots of hostas, a tall fern in a glazed container, and a trough of saxifrage or tiarella at your feet. Hellebores and epimediums work hard in containers too, and both tolerate root restriction. Keep pots raised on feet so they drain freely, and remember that containers dry out far faster than open ground, even in shade.

Keeping It Looking Good Through the Year

Shade gardens reward a little quiet maintenance. Mulch in autumn with leaf mould or well-rotted compost to hold moisture and feed the soil, then leave the fern fronds standing through winter — they look wonderful rimed with frost and shelter overwintering wildlife.

In late winter, before new growth starts, cut back hellebore and epimedium foliage to reveal the flowers beneath. Divide crowded hostas and ferns every few years in early spring, and replant the outer, younger sections. Underplant with snowdrops, cyclamen and wood anemones for a succession of small, perfectly scaled surprises from January onwards.

Shade, in other words, is not second best. Plant it properly and it will give you the softest, most generous corner of the whole garden.