Choosing Plants Around a Garden Den

Why the Planting Plan Matters as Much as the Den

A garden den only feels like a retreat when it sits comfortably in its surroundings. A bare shed plonked on a lawn looks like a shed. Add a few well-chosen plants and it becomes a destination — somewhere half-hidden, screened from the kitchen window, and pleasantly cool on a hot afternoon.

The trick is to plant with three jobs in mind at once: soften the hard edges of timber or metal, screen the neighbours without turning your den into a dark box, and keep air moving. Stagnant air and trapped moisture are the enemies of a timber structure, and they also make a small space feel stuffy. Everything below is chosen for British gardens, and everything earns its keep.

Match Plants to the Light You Actually Have

Before you buy anything, spend a day watching the spot. A den tucked under a mature oak or against a north-facing fence will be in deep, dry shade — a very different proposition from a south-facing corner in full sun. Most dens sit in that tricky middle ground: shade for part of the day, with a bright patch or two.

• Deep or dry shade: Dryopteris erythrosora, Polystichum setiferum, Asplenium scolopendrium, Sarcococca confusa, Fatsia japonica.
• Dappled shade: Matteuccia struthiopteris, Luzula sylvatica, Hakonechloa macra, Skimmia japonica.
• Sun for most of the day: Stipa tenuissima, Anemanthele lessoniana, Carex oshimensis 'Evergold', lavender, rosemary.

Get this wrong and you will spend two summers watering and replanting. Get it right and the planting largely looks after itself.

Screen Without Stealing Light

Privacy is usually the first thing people want, and the first mistake is reaching for a six-foot hedge. Solid, tall screening casts the den into gloom and blocks the breeze that keeps a small building fresh.

Better options are narrow, upright and semi-transparent. A pleached hedge — hornbeam or yew trained on a frame — gives you a screen at head height with clear space below, so light and air still reach the den and you keep the view out. Clumping bamboo such as Fargesia rufa or Fargesia murielae makes a dense, rustling screen without the running habit that turns so many gardens into a nightmare; steer clear of spreading bamboos unless you are prepared to sink a root barrier.

Columnar evergreens — Taxus baccata in a tight row, or Ilex crenata clipped into narrow pillars — do the same job while taking up very little ground. Plant them 60–90cm out from the den wall, never right against it, so you can get behind them to prune and so damp air does not sit against the timber.

Soften the Edges with Ferns and Grasses

Straight lines are what make a den look bolted on. A skirt of soft, arching foliage breaks that line and ties the structure into the border.

Ferns are the workhorses here. Dryopteris erythrosora unfurls coppery new fronds in spring before settling to glossy green, and it tolerates dry shade far better than most. Polystichum setiferum is evergreen, so it holds the structure of the bed through winter. For a damp corner, Matteuccia struthiopteris sends up spectacular shuttlecock fronds that will happily hide a low step or a stack of log store.

Grasses bring movement — the thing a static building lacks. Hakonechloa macra spills over path edges in a golden-green cascade and looks superb against dark timber. Luzula sylvatica is evergreen, tolerant of dry shade and quietly tidy all year. In a sunnier spot, Stipa tenuissima and Anemanthele lessoniana catch the light and sway with the slightest breeze, which makes even a small den feel exposed to the weather in the best way.

Planting, Spacing and Aftercare

Prepare the ground properly and the rest is easy. Fork over the soil to a spade's depth, work in two or three buckets of well-rotted compost or leaf mould per square metre, and add a handful of balanced fertiliser. If you are planting in the rain shadow of an overhanging roof, remember that soil there is often bone dry — a soaker hose run along the bed is money well spent.

• Keep a 45–60cm maintenance gap between foliage and the den walls.
• Space grasses and ferns at their mature spread, not their pot size — most double within two seasons.
• Mulch 5–7cm deep in spring to lock in moisture and suppress weeds.
• Water thoroughly for the first two summers, then only in real drought.
• Cut deciduous grasses back in late February, before new growth starts.

If your den sits on a patio or deck, plant in containers instead. Use a loam-based compost rather than a peat-free multipurpose alone, as it holds water and weight far better, and choose larger pots than you think you need — a 45cm pot dries out half as fast as a 30cm one.

Getting Interest Through the Year

A retreat is used in February as much as July, so plan for winter. Sarcococca confusa is the single best plant for a shaded den corner: glossy evergreen leaves and, from January, tiny white flowers whose scent fills the whole structure. Pair it with Skimmia japonica for red buds and berries, and a clump of Helleborus foetidus for early green flowers in dry shade.

Layer in one or two things that draw the eye in summer — a Hydrangea paniculata with its cones of white fading to pink, or a Fatsia japonica with its architectural leaves — and let the ferns and grasses do the quiet work underneath. Planted this way, the den stops being an object in the garden and becomes part of it: screened, softened, airy, and far more inviting to sit in.