[inishindie]

Here are some areas that need planting up after a driveway has been put in.

We don't know if to attempt to plant grass, it might be too shaded, or something else. The customer doesn't have much time for gardening so it needs to look after itself mainly.

I was thinking there could be woodland plants that could give tidy ground cover and require little maintenance. Has anyone else planted areas like this up please and did you find a solution.

[kindredspirit]

Fuchsia would look lovely there but probably a little too shaded.

So I'd suggest Pachysandra. Plant six inches apart. Takes three years to start filling in properly. Has glossy dark green colour in full shade and golden foliage in full sun.

Another suggestion would be Laurel.

Another would be Ivy.

BTW, did you nuke the Cotoneaster roots yet?

[Sive]

Perfect place for spring-flowering plants and bulbs ? They'll get plenty of light before the leaves grow back on the trees.

[tippben]

I hope you didn't take any machinery inside the stand, or do any mechanical soil disturbance there. I'd stick to things like bluebells, pulmonaria, thornless blackberry etc. What's growing well locally? If the trees roots (in the top two feet of soil) were compacted or damaged, it might be worth managing them as a coppice, as shoots and roots need to match. The customer gets firewood, rather than trees dying back and becoming hazardous, and the extra sunlight would mean that you could plant plugs of foxglove, eupatorium, wood anenomes etc. Good luck!

[inishindie]

Thanks for the tips there, some good ideas. I'm not sure how the work was done as the pics came through e-mail and I wasn't doing the work..does look like that might be the case with a dumper truck sitting in the background.

I was looking at the trees there and trying to identify them..are they hazel? If so your idea about coppicing. Hazel grows back so quickly and the trees actually live longer if they are tended to. There would still be the larger trees on the perimeter to give the woodland effect. I suppose the only issue would be if the hazel was coppiced the light would stream in and the area could be planted with grass....which the owner doesn't really have time to tend to. There could be some slow growing seed types available....

[tippben]

They look like Ash to me, and they have been coppiced/cut down at some point previously, as they are multistemmed. There are woodland wildflower and grass mixes available, that would only have to be strimmed once a year in late summer. If you also planted snowdrops, native bluebells, and primroses amongst them, there should be a show of colour all spring and summer with no inputs necessary. Try Suffolk Herbs website.