Advice Please

well cow parsley and wood avens are naturally found in woodland so that is to be expected. Which plants do you want to rule? certainly understory plants such as some grasses will survive unless you remove them and replant with other more desirable plants. Have you thought of Paris quadrifolia? that is a wide leafed native, preferring alkaline soils that keeps its leaves for a long period.
You are probably expecting faster colonisation than is the norm. also if you walk through woodland in summer there really isn't that much going on as many woodlanders do their thing early spring before the canopy really shades things out.

Hello Seaburn, I’m pleased you’ve seen this :)
What you say is reassuring, I’m probably expecting too much too soon, after all it was a field 18 years ago. I have Paris incompleta but not quadrifolia, I’ll look into that. I’ve planted loads of shade lovers that I hope will run/bulk up, the Comfrey ;-) is doing it’s thing.
It’s water avens (sorry) not wood avens, I hate it and it spreads like crazy. I probably need to accept it as a natural wood rather than ornamental, I feel a bit out of my depth and it’s a once in a lifetime thing, I say to my daughter it will look great when I’m gone.

Gosh Dawn...the way you describe it sounds absolutely wonderful. So....what is your dream? And where have you seen it?

It’s all in my head Karen, I envisage bare paths winding through the trees (which I have) with swathes of spring bulbs then huge clumps of epimedium, ferns, etc and ground cover plants like lamium spreading like crazy but most of all no weeds/grass taking over. Do you think it’s just time? Every spring I think I will beat the weeds by hoeing, I know they need digging out but such a big area. We had such a dry summer and now weeks of soddened ground.

do you want some yellow archangel? Lamium galeobdolon. that is happy in quite deep shade and believe me it does run. Do you have pulmonaria rubra? if not then you are welcome to some of that too. I also have some brown leaved Ajuga and some variegated ones if you'd like it. I have a green leaf, pink flowered Ajuga too and lots of omphaloides venra [white flowers in spring and retains its leaves all year.

let me know if you are interested.

Have you thought of some of the clump forming bamboos?

I guess your plants are being choked out by grass and other weeds Dawn. 18 years is quite a long time! How about sectioning off the area into a 4m square sort of area and tackling that in a day and keep moving it around until you have the worst of it out. It does sound like you have realistic plans...but too many strong growing weeds. If only I lived nearer....but I actually need to tackle my own weedy patches. The Golden Border needs attention and the area behind the greenhouse too. Its just so wet and grim here at the moment. We’ve had fog and rain all day and no real daylight...same yesterday.

Seaburn, now I do have yellow archangel and you're right that has run well and does cover the ground. Any idea of the variety of bamboo you refer to? I will message you :-)

Hi Karen
Yes that's a good idea. The trees have been in 18 years but most of the plants only 3 or 4. Some areas are fine but others not. We had a digger for some other jobs a few weeks ago and in some areas I did get John to scrape the weeds off with the digger bucket to give me a head start in digging the roots out but the ground has been so wet since. I thought about barking a section to see how that goes in suppressing the grass. You suggested ferns a couple of years ago and I've quite a few now, they're beginning to get bigger.
I wished you lived near, you could be my personal advisor :-)
Oh Karen, not fog and rain, we've had a poor autumn, it seems like winter already.

Yup...its depressing Dawn. However, its not all bad. The electrics to our utility room, garage, gate and greenhouse have burned out (inspite of us having new wiring installed two years ago!) So the fact that its not too cold means my plants are safe....for now. Getting any tradesmen is getting increasingly difficult up here. You have to wait at least a week, even for urgent jobs like this. We are currently running an extension lead from the kitchen to do the laundry!

I'd always thought it was meant to be a natural wood rather than an ornamental one and envied you as well as admiring you for all your hard work and determination. - I'd never thought of natural woodland as being full of weeds.
As the canopy matures and the summer shade increases you'll probably get fewer of the ones you don't care for. Hope springs eternal!I would bash on with fern planting and spend my pocket money on snowdrops and bluebells.
I can send you some epimedium if you like and as many dog violets as you can deal with...Have you tried Plumonaria? Foxgloves would be OK on the margins too and self seed nicely. Do you think Hellebores would establish? They have good foliage for a long time after the flowers have gone.

Hi Karen, that's bad luck. John is a qualified electrician amongst other things, he's intrigued about your wiring especially as it's quite newly done. He says is the laundry room, greenhouse etc all on the same circuit? And there should be a circuit breaker to trip out before it all burns. If we lived round the corner John could do your jobs :-)

Hello Stera. We started with a field and planting the trees as tiny whips, in the first few years in summer, the grass grew taller than the trees. I couldn't grow anything under the trees for years due to the grass. As the years have passed Ive fancied adding shade loving plants. I have bluebells and snowdrops :-) and the others you mention but you can never have enough Epimedium :-)
I don't want it ridiculously ornamental but nice if you get me.

I know Dawn. Shocking (ho ho) isnt it? When we had the kitchen done, we asked the sparky to rectify the issue we had in that area as it kept tripping. He said it needed its own separate circuit and board, which he put in. He spent a couple of days on the job. But whatever he did...its made things worse! Think all it needed was a bigger fuse maybe, but having said that, the new electrician is saying a lot of work required. Yeah..laundry room with freezer, washer, dryer, heater, lights and greenhouse with heater and electric gates. Its a lot of appliances. Plus there are other sockets which are used occasionally in the utility room. Will have to wait and see what he says next week. (karen Rolls eyes)

Awww Karen, how inconvenient. John says each circuit should have a circuit protector so that only the fuse is taken out on the board rather than taking it all out. I'm glad he's coming next week to get it sorted, a right pain.

Hi again Dawn. Yes I remember the early woodland - its wonderful how its maturing. Daft of me to suggest bluebells and snowdrops wasn't it - the first thing anybody would think of! Anyway if you do want some Epimedium just PM me. I have a yellow one that has fantastic red new leaves in Spring,(I need to remember to cut the old ones off in good time,lol) and a white one with "neige" in its name but sorry I have lost the labels as usual.

Haha Stera, I try and split the snowdrops after flowering each year, I have this vision of a white carpet one day. The Bluebells are unfortunately Spanish ones that I already had but they’re still nice. I would like swathes of white wood anemone but they’re very reluctant to run.
I will message you, thanks

You've been given some good advice Dawn I don't think I can add very much more ,I'm thinking of my favourite wood where we looked forward to walking each spring before our move , each area had different plants growing mostly Bluebells but also swathes of Lily-of-the Valley ,Wood Anemones , Wild Garlic made a huge impact covering large areas with its white flowers ,other plants have already been mentioned here , Honey Suckle does very well in wooded areas .. Tufted Vetch seems to last through the summer , I'm afraid woods do get taken over by native plants once the spring flowers are over .. Good luck x

Hi Amy, thanks for your comments.
I remember your wood :-) I think woodlands in spring are amazing, I do have your sweet rocket on the outskirts :-)