Tree line

Hi all,

Last year we moved into to a "tumble down" cottage so the auctioneer called it (after we bought it) !! Which has a 1/2 acre of garden/orchard with tree lines for borders and fields to all sides.

The trees have ivy growing all over them which is damaging and breaking alot of the branches and at the bottom theres a lot of space and places to walk through.

What I'd like to find out is what you all think the best way to either start growing a new border or fill in the spaces, what grows well under/between trees?

Your advice would be most appreciated.

My Dad keeps saying that we should make it a lay down hedge, but the trees are far too established and tall for this option.

Many thanks

Woodland plants like foxgloves, ferns, epimediums, bulbs like anemones, snowdrops,and smaller shrubs like spireas, cotoneasters, pyracantha and hazel which I coppice for pea sticks, fill in between my trees and very beautiful they look too.  There is a lovely philadelphus beneath my huge eucalyptus and a collection of ferns and foxgloves.  The tulip tree has cyclamen coum underneath.  The Mediterranean oak has brachyglottis beneath it.  If you need the ground to be food productive under your trees, fruit bushes do well.  You should see the blackcurrents, gooseberries, raspberries that grow under the trees in the Canadian Rockies.

Thanks Happymarion I'll get myself to the garden centre at the weekend!