Hello I am wanting advice on some colourful plants to plant in two problem areas in my garden
United Kingdom 
The garden is in the north east
It is an old field( one of my problems)
It is fairly sheltered
One of the beds is east/north facing and is pretty heavy and prone to moss and mostly in the shade
The other bed is east facing and dry and light rubbly coal bits in the soil
Advice ( not to extravagent please) very gratefully accepted
Kind Regards
Fiona
29 Mar, 2009
For shady areas you could try hostas, if the earth is reasonably moist. Some of them have great foliage, although it can be a battle to keep the slugs away from them.
You could plant bulbs like bluebells and snowdrops and anemones for spring colour, I'm not sure how well they would cope with dry soil though. If you can improve the soil it will help a lot - some local councils sell off the domestic recycled garden compost very cheaply. I think dry shade is the hardest area to plant in.
Another plants that copes with shade is the hellebore family. Mine is evergreen and it flowers quite often in late winter. I'm not sure exactly what soil conditions they like, I think I have slightly acid soil. I'm also not sure that all are evergreen, as I have seen other people's ones come up out of the ground without leaves having appeared.
Mahonias flower in winter, have an interesting shape and the one I have, being evergreen, provides interest all year round and grows in a shady place.
29 Mar, 2009