Planning Shade Gardens: Tips For Success

By admin | Jan 11, 2010

When making a shade garden, it’s important to match your plant choice to the type of shade. Budding shade gardeners should bear in mind that you get different kinds of shade, namely: dry shade, moist shade, and wet shade.

Remember, the amount of moisture present will have a significant impact on what type of plants and flowers you’ll be able to grow. Essentially, unless you want to be bitterly disappointed, you should make a point of matching your plants to the type of shade you’re dealing with.

For the most part, dry shade is particularly challenging as far as shade gardens are concerned. You’ll no doubt have been told that it’s near impossible to plant anything under trees such as pine, fir, cedar or spruce because of the fact that falling needles turn the soil acidic, but this couldn’t be any further from the truth. In fact, there are many different plants which thrive in such conditions. Rather than the falling needles being to blame, it’s usually a lack of water which makes growing plants so difficult.

If you have a garden in the shade of coniferous evergreen trees, then you need to compensate by adding organic matter to the soil, and by watering thoroughly at least once a week. You should also use a few inches of mulch on the soil in order to help retain moisture.

Those who are dealing with dry shade under large trees should seriously consider using a drought tolerant ground cover such as sweet woodruff, ajuga, lily of the valley, periwinkle or pachysandra. You could also use Bishop’s weed but I have found it to be quite invasive. Likewise, providing you have eight to ten inches of good soil, you can also grow hosta, hardy geranium, bergenia, and hellebore.

Those who are dealing with wet shade are advised to plant sedges and rushes, as these are known to like wet feet and plenty of shade. They are also available in several sizes and colors. Other species which tend to do well in wet shade gardens are: astilbe, primrose, perennial lobelia, witchhazel, spicebush, jack-in-the-pulpit, Indian pipe, rue, spiderwort, bleeding heart, and Japanese iris. Believe it or not, skunk cabbage also does well in wet shade, and while it may look similar to a big hosta, it can tolerate a great deal of dampness. Those who would like to plant some shrubs in wet shade should consider the likes of red twig dogwoods and forsythia.

If you’re really lucky then you’ll have a shade garden which is neither wet nor dry, and if so, you’ll be able to plant any plants mentioned in this article. However, you’ll also have the advantage of being able to plant ferns, forget-me-not, Scotch moss, campanula, epimedium, leopard’s bane, foxglove, and pulmonaria.

Want to find out more about Shade Growing, then visit my website for photos and recommendations on how to choose the best shade plants for your needs.