Hello! I need ideas on what to do with this awkward spot in my backyard. It’s between my fence and a detached garage and receives basically zero sunlight. Help!
by Downtown_Fact_2323
Hello! I need ideas on what to do with this awkward spot in my backyard. It’s between my fence and a detached garage and receives basically zero sunlight. Help!
by Downtown_Fact_2323
2 Comments
First thing you need to do is rip out that ivy climbing your fence before it rots the wood and eats your garage. Since this alley gets zero sun you need to stop fighting nature and treat it like a woodland pass through. That solar light is completely useless in heavy shade anyway so pull it out. You need real structure here instead of random weeds and bare dirt.
Lay down a simple flagstone stepping path to give the space purpose and keep your boots clean. Flank the edges with sweeping masses of native ferns and fill the path gaps with a tough shade groundcover like creeping plum yew to tie it all together into one connected texture. You also need to check that downspout on the garage to make sure water is draining far away from the foundation so you do not accidentally build a swamp.
Before you start hauling heavy stone back there you should run a photo of this spot through the GardenDream web app. It acts like a visual safety net so you can overlay different path materials and shade plants to see what actually fits the narrow scale of the space. It will save you from buying the wrong materials and doing the heavy labor twice.
Your cat already figured it out – this is prime decomposed granite and some shade-loving groundcover territory right here