ideas for courtyard

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tetley

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ideas for courtyard
« on: February 13, 2007, 10:33 »
I hope you don't mind me picking your brains, but we have a courtyard area that is looking really neglected, and I have no idea what to do with it.  We won't be paving or shingling it this year, but I would like to start putting some plants in so that we can work round them.  
But it is really sheltered and north facing, only parts of it get any sun during different parts of the day.  Also, I can't dig to any depth, there only seems to be a few millimetres of soil,it is rock underneath  :cry:  so I am thinking of doing some raised areas in the corners perhaps.  I love colour and smell, and eventually we will build a sitting room which looks directly onto the courtyard, (the view will be that of the photo on left), but will probably mainly be used during the winter months, so ideally to sum it all up, I need ideas for plants that look good all year, smell nice, have a bit of colour, like the shade and north facing (although it is sheltered from wind), and can cope with stony soil????? not a tall order is it :?  I am stumped, so far I have planted a honeysuckle, which seems to be doing ok.

These pictures were taken at about 11.00 o'clock this morning, and as you can see it is not in sun at all.
I really would be grateful for your ideas, this used to be a farm, and I don't have alot of knowledge of plants, and I find it so hard to get my head round the area we have and what to do with it.  I don't want to drastically change it all, but just areas like the courtyard.  It is private there, but pretty shady.  We'd like to use it for shaded eating in summer, and a nice outside area not swimming with mud :twisted:  during winter.

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Ann

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ideas for courtyard
« Reply #1 on: February 13, 2007, 19:24 »
When we had a north facing wall shaded by neighbours copper beech tree I was lucky with a Camellia in a pot, one of the alpine clematis also evergreen and a climbing rose called Zephirine Drouhin thornless with a lovely scent.

Soil was very bad and full of stones and old conifer roots.

Hope this is of some help to you.

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legendaryone

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ideas for courtyard
« Reply #2 on: February 13, 2007, 20:46 »
If i were an arty farty garden designer i would bung a huge mirror onto one wall to bounce light into the courtyard  :D

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WG.

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ideas for courtyard
« Reply #3 on: February 13, 2007, 20:53 »
Forsythia gives nice winter colour on a north-facing wall.  See www.paghat.com/forsythia.html or any other Google match

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noshed

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ideas for courtyard
« Reply #4 on: February 13, 2007, 23:32 »
Vines like poor soils. Mine is in a shady place and it grows like a triffid.
Self-sufficient in rasberries and bindweed. Slug pellets can be handy.

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tetley

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ideas for courtyard
« Reply #5 on: February 14, 2007, 09:17 »
thanks all for your brilliant replies. noshed, we have got vines on the front of the house, not sure I could cope with more grapes, although I love the cover that they give.  
Thanks very much for the link whisky-golf, I am going to go for a forsythia, and ann thankyou so much, I love the idea of a rose...just hope I can source one, and I am going to go for a clematis too (I got my book out to look all these up and they all look good)
legendaryone! my neighbour really would be satisfied that her english neighbours were bonkers  :lol: ...secretly I'd love to do something a bit arty, but I don't have the vision  :cry:

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Ann

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ideas for courtyard
« Reply #6 on: February 14, 2007, 12:06 »
Just checked my book for clematis and for north facing it recommends Nelly Moser and the clematis alpina varieties.  The book also suggests viola, geranium, bergenia, foxgloves and hostas.

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WG.

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ideas for courtyard
« Reply #7 on: February 14, 2007, 12:20 »
Quote from: "tetley"
Thanks very much for the link whisky-golf, I am going to go for a forsythia
I feel honoured, thank you.

Incidentally, if you need any help turning your grapes into wine then just let us know.  I'd wash me feet and be at your place before you could say "Easyjet".  Daresay, you'd get plenty of volunteers to empty bottles to put it in too!

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tetley

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ideas for courtyard
« Reply #8 on: February 14, 2007, 12:59 »
I love hostas, I had a whole area of them back in my old garden in UK.  I asked some friends to bring me some over this year, I popped them in, but it was in August I hope they are ok and I will see them again this year (the hostas and my  friends :D )  if they do pop up again, I could always use them in the courtyard.
We inherited a very strange flower garden at the front of the house, I don't like to dig too deep as I worry what I might find  :shock: ,it reminds me of a cemetary.  It had chickenwire fencing around it and a gate, which we removed.  Every month something new pops up, but it is also full of weeds  :roll: , I have no idea what to do with it, I don't like it as it is though.  This is where I put the hostas, but it gets full sun, so I may have killed them off?
 This is my daughter after we had tidied it up sometime last year.  What do you think, does it look a bit gravelike?  I am assumingthat it was madame's flower garden, and it was protected from the chickens and goats (that's what I like to believe!)
I had some geraniums last year, had no idea they were ok in the shade.  I am trying to do a little a year, because it is so expensive when you are starting out from scratch.
tee hee whisky_golf !! welcome any time

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awen

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ideas for courtyard
« Reply #9 on: February 14, 2007, 20:38 »
I love hostas too, every year I buy another one because its a name I don't have.!
I have them all over the garden at our other place and not just in the shade because I have filled the shade areas already !! All it does to them is stop their true shades coming out , so if it was supposed to be a deep blue varieagated leaf then it might come out looking a wishy washy plain blue, but then you may be lucky. i get a slight problem with scorched edges in real hot spots , but they have come up year after year.
 :D
Every child is an artist, the problem is how to remain an artist when they grow up.

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muntjac

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ideas for courtyard
« Reply #10 on: February 14, 2007, 20:46 »
hostas are a slug dance hall .make sure you put down a few bricks for them to shade under ,,then squish em  :cry:  :twisted:
still alive /............

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tetley

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ideas for courtyard
« Reply #11 on: February 15, 2007, 08:29 »
:o  ok  :D

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frazzy

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ideas for courtyard
« Reply #12 on: February 15, 2007, 08:56 »
you could also try a variety of ferns there are some  shade tollerent ones but you have to ask an expert they look great with come hostas aso  fuchsias they give good colour  and have done quite well in our north facing garden
Nature teaches more than she preaches. There are no sermons in stones. It is easier to get a spark out of a stone than a moral.  byJohn Burroughs:

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tetley

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ideas for courtyard
« Reply #13 on: February 22, 2007, 16:01 »
I went shopping today...and lo and behold the local supermarket had a promo on plants...so I bought myself a forsythia, clematis, choisya, ..oh and er, a magnolia tree (couldn't resist honest :oops: ) and I have just planted them all (hubby will tell me off when he gets home for the tree).  I am so chuffed, thanks to your advice I recognised all the labels and went for it.  I am sure they will all be gone tomorrow.  But, I wanted to look up azalia japonaise (something like that), and hortensia, they looked nice, but I felt I had got enough to be going on with.  Thanks everyone.

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Ann

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ideas for courtyard
« Reply #14 on: February 22, 2007, 18:50 »
Good for you, isn't it great getting plants on promo, I hope they do really well for you. :D



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