What You Need to Know about Shade Gardening
You don’t need a sunny spot to develop a beautiful garden—indeed, some of the loveliest and most restful gardens are well-shaded. However, if your shade comes mainly from large trees, the plants you plant under the trees will require more feeding as they must compete with the trees above them for nutrients. Also, the soil underneath pine trees and other conifers is usually pretty acidic, so you may need to test for soil pH and adjust if necessary. Most woodland type plants do well in soil with a pH of 6 to 6.5, though azaleas and rhododendrons do better in soil with a 5.5 pH.
To prepare the soil for shade gardening, add a good compost and water-retaining mulch to the soil mix, just as you would do for a garden that gets more sun. If your shade garden will lie below deciduous trees, remember that while natural leaf mulch will protect plants during the winter, too many leaves can crush or damage them.
In most climates, spring is the best time to shade gardening because temperatures remain cool and it rains frequently, which gives plants a chance to become established before hot weather arrives. However, if you are planting a naturalized woodland garden, you will want to plant flowering bulbs such as narcissus, irises and daffodils in the fall. Plants that require complete dense shade to make it through the summer in hot southern states will do just fine with partial shade in cooler northern locations.
Plants for the shade garden
The plants you choose for your shade garden will depend on the degree shade you have. Most woodland plants love nutrient-rich soil, good air circulation and ample water.
Plants suitable for lightly shaded areas include Japanese anemones, snapdragons, columbine, sweet woodruff, begonias, periwinkles, foxglove, violets and cyclamens. Impatiens, irises and flowering tobacco are other good choices for partially shaded areas.
Ground covers for that love partial shade include bellflowers, morning glories, ground ivy, wooly yarrow, winter creeper, wild strawberry, Irish moss and wooly thyme.
For more heavily shaded areas choose plants such as plantain lilies (also called hostas) ferns, lilies of the valley, trilliums, bluebells, Solomon’s seal, Christmas rose, rue anemone, bleeding heart and monkshood.
Ground covers that thrive in full shade include creeping buttercup, most periwinkles, wild ginger, bunchberry, Kenilworth ivy, lungwort, sweet woodruff and chameleon plant.
If your yard is shaded and you want to have a beautiful garden, it starts with doing your homework to ensure you purchase or grow shade loving plants, and then planting them in attractive clusters to create unique eye appeal in your garden.
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July 23 2008 11:06 pm | Articles
