A woodland edge, planted for the layer under the trees

A half-acre of neglected woodland edge with good mature trees and bare, compacted ground beneath them. The garden here is the bottom layer of the section — the groundcover and bulbs that live in the shade the canopy makes.

That layer is the one most gardens skip, and it is the one that turns a stand of trees into a wood you can walk through. Snowdrops and wood anemone for late winter, then epimedium and fern for the cover that holds the soil and keeps the brambles out.

We planned it for ten years, not two. The canopy will close, the light beneath it will halve, and the planting is chosen to be the winner when it does.