If you're interested in a very handsome variegated shrub that loves shade, look at Eleutherococcus sieboldianus variegata. Slightly thorny, deer resistant, though with no flowers to speak of. The foliage is the thing.

Good general plan is evergreen shrubs on the ends with deciduous between these and the herbaceous plants (perennials etc.), which make up the bulk of the display. Climbers can be trained onto the fence behind the flowers. A taller, solid wood fence would make a much better backdrop but this is what you have now.

what kind of trees are they?? will they be competitors for what is planted under them????

how about hosta? down low ....

red twig dogwoods .. i left mine at the old house.. going on 10 feet high and 6 feet wide .... might be a bit big for your space ...

ken

Oldest, least red branches can be cut out of redtwig dogwoods on something like a three year rotation. They won't get too big with this treatment.

The closest trees are a lovely Japanese maple and a large oak. I haven't had trouble so far growing shrubs in areas closer to the trees than this will be.

I admit to a bias against hostas because most of the rest of the yard is quite shady and I have more hostas than I know what to do with! But some will probably make their way into the border as I divide.

I'm thinking about bugbane and maybe moving some astilbe and bleeding hearts over here once I get the shrubs figured out....

Started digging today! My first foray into "double-digging", and I think my back will be paying for it tomorrow.

Double digging is not beneficial as it consists basically of polluting the topsoil with subsoil. Topsoil is subsoil that was turned into something better by natural processes over a sometimes very long period of time. Your plants do not want you to bring a bunch of mineral soil up from below.

Oh dear, so double-digging's NOT the thing to do? Curse all the garden books that told me so!

How would you go about preparing the soil instead? It's pretty much heavy Virginia red clay, with maybe 1-2" of decent soil at the top. I mixed compost, peat moss, and sand in the portion I've already dug (happily only about 1/5 of the total so far).

Thanks for your help!

Since some plants are growing there already I'd be inclined to plant and mulch, just loosening the soil beforehand. If the soil in the new part is different and you really think it's terrible then you can either dig it out and replace with good topsoil or put better soil on top of the existing soil and plant in that. This latter approach could be less comfortable in this location due to the proximity of the fence and sidewalk. Low walls might have to be built to contain the raised level of the bed.

I have heavy clay myself and my early failures were where I did not amend the soil. I simply use bagged composted manure, though. I mix it in as I prepare the planting hole. I don't use any more than 1/3 compost to 2/3 old dirt usually, though, so I don't create a sink hole (i.e. water flows right through the light dirt to the clay below). In some larger beds we have rented a tiller and added compost that way.

If you are not in a big hurry, you might want to research lasagne gardening. No digging required! One adds many layers on top of the existing ground. I have also read recent articles that advised against double digging and tilling.

Teresa