Alys Fowler Gardening

   Alys Fowler ferns is a  wonderful living. Ferns love shade and don't mind where it falls from, be it buildings, trees or north-facing alleys. Most hardy ferns are tough too, the spend time and establishing them. If you are on poor soil, incorporate some organic matter to improve water retention and drainage. It is worth also mulching with organic matter every spring. Ferns speak to me of a time the world was densely wooded and wild things roamed. It's good to have a corner of the that allows in a little of this wildness. Ferns seem to thrive best if planted in groups shouldered together, they improve each other's growing conditions proving shade and increasing humidity. As the old fronds die back, they enrich the soil with organic matter, making it more water-retentive.
      In the world, ferns demand little. Most of the glory is in spring, when the young leaves unfurl. Leave any dead fronds alone over winter, they help to protect the crown of the plant.  I found of our native ferns, they are showy ferns from North America and Japan, but it is easier to please ours they are tough, reliable, and look wonderful mixed with other woodlanders. The coom polypody i.e.Polypodium Vulgare, grows to about 40 cm high and has leathery fronds with deeply cut leaflets. It can be persuaded to grow in trees as an epiphyte or in cracks in walls. It will tolerate dry or damp soils as long as there is shade. This fern likes to spread, it can be used as ground cover and works well on banks. It likes well-drained, gritty soil and unlike many other ferns, won't need mulching.
              The hard shield fern, Polystichum aculeatum, is another evergreen with narrow fronds in a shuttlecock formation. It doesn't mind deep shade and loves sitting in decaying leaf matter, so it's well suited to life under a tree, where its glossy fronds will throw a little light around. The hart's-tongue fern, Asplenium scolopendrium, will tolerate the dry shade. There are many different cultivars, the crispum group have very ruffled margins and the cristatum group have crested ones, while the edges of the undulatum group snake and wave.Because it doesn't start unfurling until April, so allowing the bulbs to do their thing, then hiding their foliage as it dies back.