Woodland Wildflower Garden Patch

peroroncino

I have a roughly 15 square metre patch in a shady part of my garden that I would like to turn into a woodland wildflower patch. It gets around 3 hours of sunlight in the morning and is then shaded by a tree for the rest of the day. My current thoughts are planting Primrose, Bluebells, Red Campion and Sweet Woodruff. Now I've only chosen these since they're the most common/prettiest and are safe for cats, so I don't know if they work well together or if the arrangement would look nice. What would you guys suggest for a small woodland wildflower patch? Also I would need to make a 2m x 7.5m bed on top of the concrete so how deep would it need to be and what sort of soil would I require?

Buttercupdays

You could just use top soil and mpc, but add some leafmould and /or bark chips to make it more like a woodland floor. They don't need high fertility or great depth of soil, but they do need enough to give them a cool root run and retain some moisture.

As for plants, I would suggest some ferns which add some structure and will give you something to look at when the flowers finish in summer. If you add a couple of evergreen ones that will continue into winter, though I quite like the brown fronds of Dryopteris then. I would also suggest adding some bulbs for early spring, such as snowdrops, wood anemones and the little wild daffodil, Narcissus lobularis.

Be aware that red campion will seed itself around, and sweet woodruff will run and they will both thug it out with the bluebells, but it should still look pretty!

peroroncino

thank you for the ferns suggestion, the dryopteris looks really nice! would I just plant the ferns all over and let the plants compete themselves or do they need to be specially placed? the bulbs you mentioned are supposedly toxic to cats so I think I have to stay away from those unfortunately. what do you mean by "run"? I'm worried they'll outcompete the flowers and become overgrown :O

Bijdezee

Some nicotiana for moths would be good and they smell lovely at night. The taller creamy white ones not the shorter multicoloured. Also, pulmonaria and comfrey like shade and are loved by bees.

I wouldn't worry about bulbs with cats, just beware of lilies with regard to cats. I've had loads of cats and they don't eat bulbs.

And nepeta (cat mint) for the raised border. 

peroroncino

Bijdezee said:

Some nicotiana for moths would be good and they smell lovely at night. The taller creamy white ones not the shorter multicoloured. Also, pulmonaria and comfrey like shade and are loved by bees.

I wouldn't worry about bulbs with cats, just beware of lilies with regard to cats. I've had loads of cats and they don't eat bulbs.

And nepeta (cat mint) for the raised border. 

those plants look so nice! thanks for reassuring me about bulbs, that means I can make it look more nicer now. Would you say I could pull off a combination of everything suggested by @Buttercupdays and yourself? And for the raised border that would actually be the woodland patch since I need to build a bed for it as I have no soft ground in my garden. So do you mean the cat mint should be on the edge of the patch?

Bijdezee

I think i misunderstood and thought there were two sites, one on the concrete. The cat mint (there are various types, some daintier) would be best in the drier sunnier part. If you have enough space then I do 't see why you shouldn't go for it and try all the suggestions.

peroroncino

No worries I will try and put everything in since I think there's enough space Thank you for your help

JudyN

I have a large deadnettle (possibly lamium orvala) that does well in a dry shaded woodland area where I struggle to get much to grow.