auntie betty

colour in a shady garden??

Consider getting some colour from foliage as well as flower - euonymous fortunei are tough, easily available and give a patch of yellow or white in shady spots. Other than whats already been mentioned, I've found hellebores, hemerocallis (day lilies) and astilbe flower well in shade. Pleioblastus is one of the few tall elegant grasses that doesn't mind it - carex are good too if you want something smaller and more tussocky. Heucheras are essential for me - particularly the lime green or silvery ones for shade. Hardy geraniums are excellent - if you've got several clumps you can cut back every other one before they flower and they'll happily grow back, but will flower after the ones you left alone have finished, giving you colour for longer. There are gazillions, in white, pinks, deep burgundy and purples. Allium bulbs also do fine in shade in my experience so long as the soil isn't boggy. Overall, my advice is not to forget to vary your foliage colour and texture to stop it all being flat green and you'll get away with the fact that you'll have less flower colour than in a sunnier spot.

fast growing climbers

I'd use pyracantha - in fact, I have! Its a dense, very hardy evergreen shrub with small leaves mainly used against walls or fences. You tie it in initially until it gets the jist and it supports itself after that. It has white flowers in early summer and bunches of berries in autumn. Good for security too, as old growth deeper in is thorny. I trim mine as a hedge annually to keep it tight to the fence/trellis and keep it to 8ft tall. Easy, as the new growth you're chopping is soft and not thorny. I grow eunonymous fortunei through it for its silvery or gold evergreen foliage, plus various small clematis (alpinas, macropetalas, early or late late large-flowered are ideal) for extra flower power. It will clothe right to ground level, or you can trim the trunks bare lower down and underplant. Red column is a good variety. I plant mine 4ft apart and they should grow pretty quickly - just bear in mind that anything super super fast won't stop when you want it to and you could well end up swamped and spending your life pruning. Also, if the sun is coming from the path side and you put up trellis and climbers, most of the flowers will appear on the sunny side! Yeah,  I'd do fence, pyracantha, and clems (which will flower in some shade). Food for thought with all these different ideas anyway... Bx

In need of ideas for a shurb

You could have a look at choisya - it likes clay, doesn't need tonnes of sun, is evergreen, dense, easily prunable to whatever size you want to keep it and is also known as mexican orange blossom for its scented flowers. You might want to put in two next to each other to get the spread. 'Sundance' is particularly nice in shade - its a golden variety but stays true lime green in shade.

coverup climber wanted

When you first mentioned drainpipes I was going to say "anything BUT wisteria". I've just had to remove a beautiful wisteria floribunda from under MY kitchen window because it kept legging it up the drainpipe right to roof level and awa,y and was forever coming in the windows! 30ft + didn't sound that much on the label all those years ago, but it really is. Wisteria sinensis is even bigger, maxing out at 100ft. To get flowers you need to prune wisteria quite carefully twice a year, so it isn't low maintenance. If you don't prune it well and keep tying it in for a few years until the woody framework forms you end up with a huge green hummock without much to recommend it. That said, if you're up for the effort, they're spectacular.

What about trachelospermum jasminoides? Looks a lot like jasmine, smells lush, is evergreen, frost hardy, and is a fair bit bigger ultimately than jasmine or sollya at about 25 feet max. Pretty seed pods after the summer flowers extend the season of interest. Wonder if you could pair it up with an early clematis for the best of both worlds...

coverup climber wanted

Yeah, should've said, officially its half hardy - didn't assume that meant it was not wanted, being in a pot. Depending on where you live, you could leave it out and just insulate the pot a bit, or may not even need that if pot large enough. You'd probably lose some foliage, but its fast to come back in my experience - certainly not the equivalent of using an annual climber. I'm in North Yorkshire (though not in the wilds) and only brought in during that really horrendous cold fornight where it barely got above -20... Lost loads of stuff, mind you - not much in an unprotected pot would've survived that, to be fair. There's always the jasmine...!

Ground cover plants through a fabric mulch

Yep, if you want ground cover, you need to remove the membrane where you want anything to grow - it's job, after all, is stopping things from growing. Whip the relevant bits off, wait a couple of weeks to see if weeds spring up, spray them off or dig them up when they do, and then you can plant. I'd suggest you tackle an area at a time and go steady - you'll get an idea of how things are doing then before you commit yourself. If you can see whether its sunny/shady, wet/dry soil, and preferably acid/alkaline I could give you a list of plants to consider. I'm big on ground cover myself, particularly under trees.

coverup climber wanted

Sollya heterophylla likes sun and only goes about 10ft. Well mannered twiner, so likes a drainpipe. Evergreen too, which may be a bonus. Jasmine's much the same sort of size if grown in a pot and shouldn't mind baking. Might get a waft in your window too!

Crazy paving

Cheapest easiest option would be some sort of aggregate - stone chips are less skiddy than gravel cos they're not smooth so don't slide - hence good on driveways. Also less likely to fall off the edge. Then some nice rough real stone slabs here and there. I wouldn't think you'd need membrane unless the paving is already very badly damaged and weedy. Have to say, I'm not a crazy paving fan, but my mum has loads in her garden. Its been done really well, though, so she couldn't justify ripping it out.  A builder friend suggested edging it with properly mortared in driveway setts in a slightly darker grey-brown - which she did - and its amazing what a difference that little border made. Its actually nice now! Never thought I'd EVER say that. Didn't cost her much either.

Bamboo

Oh, I did work out how many bricks would need to be split in half and got the builder's merchant guy to do it for me before I chucked em in the boot! I ended up with 2 planters about 4ft wide, and 2ft front to back and high. You could grow bamboo in that, especially as theres soil underneath too. Put plenty of manure in with soil based compost (like John Innes) and you're good.

Bamboo

Nope, sorry, the safe clump-forming ones (like phyllostachys) would need much more depth, and the not-safe running ones would go straight under your patio and come up through. Don't go near them. You could get more depth by building a raised bed along there, or you could plant them in ENORMOUS pots. I'm talking several FEET diameter. Raised brick/block bed is cheapest and best - more room to grow in a footprint you can keep tighter to the boundary. And you really don't need to be a master bricklayer as you can't go too wobbly with 3 or 4 courses of bricks or 2 breezeblocks. Did it myself at my last house along the side of the garage. And I'm a GIRL!

shrubs for cut flowers

Shady spots

Soft yellow or hot pink climbing roses

new guinea impatiens

Pots of summer colour in partial shade

best annuals for shade / partial shade

Hops

Flowers for July?

Shadyish paving creepers

Associations

top 5

Plant suggestions please