Garden Conundrum

[Herbwifemama]

I moved into this place last Nov, after the gardening season was pretty much over. When we moved, we discovered our garden area (we live in an apt, so our garden space is a patio with some dirt surrounded by a fence) was partially paved over with brick, which I have since torn up, but the worst part is that it's on the north side, so it gets VERY little sunlight, and it's low lying, so it is rather slow to dry out after a rain, and the ground is always soft and slightly muddy- there is NO grass, and I suspect a few weeds do grow, but it's mostly dirt and dried leaves. I want to post a picture later, so this will all make a bit more sense, but I'm really at a loss as to how to make this space beautiful. With the patio, I want to get some bistro furniture and a grill and some hanging baskets of fuschia, but for the actual growing in the ground part... :shrug

Do you have any ideas? A couple things I thought of was maybe to grow moss, or something else- I'd even be happy with some weeds at this point- I think comferey would cover the ground quickly, be healthful and useful, and actually grow in the shade, I don't know.

[BHope]

They have some really pretty moss and ferns over at Lowes right now. I was eyeballing them, wishing I had shadded areas to plant them. (I have the opposite problem. Full sun all the time.) You might also look into lettuces and greens like that.

Can you hang plants?

[canadiyank]

Does it pretty much stay damp all the time, or just after a rain? I read an article recently about a "rain garden" that you could probably adapt, it's made of plants who don't mind their feet being damp, and you could probably find some shade-tolerant plants to go in it. :)