Shade Gardening: Suggestions for a planter on North facing wall?, 1 by martyp

martyp wrote:
Hi all,
I feel guilty to have deserted aspects of my front garden and have a metal trough just underneath the front window so planning to get a Coir liner and plant some things in there. It would be shaded from the evening sun by the porch and don\'t think the early morning sun would reach it. It would likely receive most water from rainfall and being the West Midlands that tends to be very frequent! Difficult to say if it would benefit from any warmth from the house at all but unlikely.
Would I be looking at ferns and ivy? We get frosts and snow at winter, normal weather for this area of England really.