Dappled dells and glistening glades: creating a woodland garden

Dappled dells and glistening glades: creating a woodland garden

Few things are more therapeutic on a blazing summer’s day than retreating to a cool, green space, perhaps slinging a hammock under a tree, retiring from the world for a while and reading an entertaining novel. Or simply doing nothing, allowing your mind to drift and indulging in a little low key forest bathing. The Japanese practice of shinrin-yoku has been seeping into our collective consciousness for a while now and it’s easy to understand why. A simple stroll in a wood or forest, its purpose is relaxation and immersion in one’s surroundings, focusing on and absorbing sights, sounds and smells. While it’s difficult to replicate an entire forest at home, enough of the effect can be recreated in a woodland patch or garden to give a significant boost to our well-being.

Small can be beautiful

Although woodland areas in gardens open to the public are usually large and meandering with swathes of rhododendrons, azaleas and camellias, filling a tiny urban space with containers of ferns and other lush, shade-loving plants gives it a surprisingly shady, sheltered feel. Alternatively, a woodland edge at the bottom of the garden, or over to one side, can mimic natural habitats and provide much-needed support for wildlife. https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/actions/how-make-woodland-edge-garden-wildlife

Plant to scale

If space is limited, chose plants accordingly. Tall trees will dominate a small garden so use more compact specimens or largish shrubs to form the canopy (top layer). Plants for smaller spaces need to have more than one string to their bow so for canopy cover try flowering dogwoods Cornus kousa or glorious, tiered Cornus controversa, the ‘wedding cake tree’. Add scented, spidery-flowered, winter-flowering hamamelis and a small rowan for autumn berries. Or push the boat out and invest in a modestly-sized magnolia.

Plant in three layers….

….the canopy, understory (middle layer) and ground cover. Choose plants that enjoy shade or light shade for the understory and ground layer. You may opt simply for flora naturally found in woodlands or add in other shade-loving and shade-tolerant plants for more colour and variety. The soil beneath trees and large shrubs can be quite dry so add lots of organic matter, ideally leaf mould or, if this isn’t available, compost. A walk in a wooded area can be a source of inspiration and provides a good excuse for some time out.

If planting trees, focus on deciduous types. The light that filters through their bare branches is essential for late winter and early spring bulbs. Be wary of planting them too

closely together and perhaps include birch, which has an airy, delicate canopy. Late spring and summer plants will need some sunlight too.

Understory shrubs to consider include the native guelder rose, Viburnum opulus, with white, hydrangea-like lacecap flowers from late spring to early summer and glossy scarlet berries in autumn. It has darkish green, lobed leaves which take on autumn tints. It’s large at up to 7m tall but ‘Compactum’ is much smaller at 1.5m. Small Japanese acers make striking features too.

Shade-tolerant climbers like honeysuckle add an extra dimension. With their feet in the shade they reach for the sunlight and are perfect scrambling up a tree and winding their way through. Woodbine, bearbind and eglantine are all folk names for native honeysuckle Lonicera periclymenum, its fragrant cream and yellow flowers flushed with cherry pink or mauve. It’s quite vigorous at up to 7m tall but very much at home in a woodland setting. Some clematis are happy in part shade too and many are much smaller than woodbine, so more suitable where space is restricted. https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/clematis/shady-walls

A garden for all seasons

Plan planting for interest throughout the year. Spring, before the leaves of deciduous trees appear in their full glory, is prime flowering time for woodland plants. Snowdrops and celandines bring a sense of renewal in late winter and early spring, followed by wood anemones, violets and bluebells. Blue-flowered brunnera and pulmonaria and jewel-like Anemone blanda are worthy of a place in woodland gardens too.

Summer flowers include foamy tiarellas, homely foxgloves and delightful, pink-flowered red campion. Be brave and experiment with hostas (mind the snails!). Add astilbes, hydrangeas, shade-loving hardy geraniums and late summer blooming Japanese anemones for more oomph.

Autumn is the time for bright berries and scarlet foliage. Native Euonymus europaeus, the spindle bush, has fiery leaves in autumn but its main feature is its extraordinary, distinctive candy pink and orange berries which also provide autumn and winter food for birds. Euonymus alatus is worth having for its dramatic crimson autumn colour and corky, winged, rough-textured stems. Both grow to around 2.5 x 2.5m. Sweet little Cyclamen hederifolium will add ground cover colour too.

(Did you know? The spindle bush gained its common name because the hard, fine-grained wood was used to make spindles, skewers, pegs and knitting needles.)

In winter the stark, bare branches of trees silhouetted against the sky at dusk create an air of mystery, the lace-like, filigree twigs of birch and beech have a unique beauty and the texture of bark suddenly stands out as worthy of admiration. Honey-scented, winter-flowering sarcococcas come into their own and evergreen ferns and grasses provide pops of green that segue into spring.

Many woodland flowering plants are a hit with pollinators, so you’ll be doing them a favour too.

Focus on foliage

The spirit of a woodland planting is perhaps best embodied by its foliage rather than its flowers. As the foundation of their fresh, soothing appeal, it plays a crucial role. You may not have much choice when it comes to the leaves of surrounding or over-arching trees, but a degree of free will can be exercised when choosing shrubs and ground cover plants. Aim for contrasting leaf shapes, textures and colours which complement each other; the large, oval, ribbed leaves of hostas, the small, starry leaves of sweet woodruff (Gallium odoratum) and the rougher, lobed foliage of Japanese anemones highlight the finer, lacy fronds of ferns and strappy, shade-tolerant grasses. Evergreen grasses to consider include Deschampsia cespitosa with its tiny, dancing seed heads, Luzula nivea or deciduous golden Milium effusum. Evergreen ferns Blechnum spicant, Polystichum polyblepharum and Dryopteris erythrosora should all do well too.

We may not have all the plants listed in our stores but staff will be happy to suggest alternatives.

Bark is best

Winding, wood chipped paths are often found in larger woodland gardens and mulching around the plants in smaller ones enhances the overall effect, with or without paths. Wood chippings also break down to add nutrients and improve soil structure, help to prevent the evaporation of valuable moisture during very hot periods and keep weeds at bay.

Woodland gardens to visit

Beth Chatto’s Garden in Essex, the National Trust’s Coleton Fishacre in Devon and Cambridge Botanic Garden all have fabulous woodland areas with planting to stir the imagination.

We’ve always known that a walk among the trees makes us feel better but we now know too that trees release chemicals called phytoncides which boost the immune system. Forest bathing was introduced as a national health programme in Japan after studies showed that two hours of meditative exploration in a woodland environment can reduce

stress levels and blood pressure as well as boosting concentration and memory. These are not the only benefits of a woodland garden. Its essence is a sense of peace and tranquility. It’s somewhere we feel safe, enclosed and protected and this feeling can be created with just a few plants in a small space.

https://www.rhs.org.uk/garden-inspiration/design/inspiring-woodland-gardens https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/discover/nature/trees-plants/a-beginners-guide-to-