Hit the Dirt; Shade Gardens

Good morning. This is Saddam present to be asking again for hit the dirt. Last week I talked about vegetables and shade. And this week I'm going to look at the shade garden in general. When I worked in a nursery a question that I was often asked was What can I grow on the north side of my house. Let's have a look at shade. There's heavy shade. The north side of your house will have heavy shade. An area of your garden may be shaded by Denslow foliage of trees or tall heads. These areas have very little reflected light and the choice of plants is limited. But there are some medium shade is very often an area shaded by high canopy. No direct sunlight but the shade is not as dense as have initiated areas light shade occurs in an area that has only a little sunlight but a good deal of bright light such as the north side of a house in the summer when the sun shines in the early morning and comes around again late in the day dappled shade lets in the filtered sunlight woods might be thinned to create this situation for a woodland garden where there would be a greater choice of plants. Now if some plants for these various places in the deep shade some hostas can brighten even the darkest shadows. There is a

huge variety. White Christmas as an example with its almost white leaf edged thinly with green and golden tiara has heart shaped leaves edged in gold. Or try some of the blues which hold their color better in deep shade. Serious if you go with Toll spikes and white flower blooms are spectacular against dark shade late in the summer into the fall. By contrast low growing found flower Tierra has delicate spires of white flowers in the spring and the foliage turns bronze red in the for many ferns thrive in deep shade. Japanese painted Fern is one with its interesting still silvery very again. It is delicate. Leave some ground covers do well and have a shade Eppie medium or bare and what can be used as either a ground cover or a specimen plant and dead nettle Lammy a macular Adam has so very white foliage with pink or white flowers in the spring. The climbing hydrangea hydrangea normal arpeggio Lehrer's is one of the few flowering shrubs for dense shade and can be grown on a north wall or clambering over

rocks. You oughta misfortunate the variegated evergreen. Also will brighten a shady border and were obtained its leaves with a pinkish tinge throughout the winter in medium shade you might try rhododendron an eastern exposure will give them the least harsh sunlight and strategically planning some dense evergreens like Austrian pine nearby would protect them from winter wind and sun Columbines Aquilegia. Do well in the shade I've seen them self-seeded growing right up against the north side of a barn. I'll apprentice to try again you. With early flowers but valued more for the texture of its large shiny deeply vain green leaves evergreen but looking pretty ratty after they have survived the winter and foxgloves terrace at the edge of your woodland garden in light shade a woodland planting of wild blue flocks flocks of Erika is beautiful and the ground cover a bunch Berry Cornus canadensis more bloom around the same time. Late May through June the corners having the added beauty of

the red berries in late summer and for good for wildlife and jelly. A midsummer favorite is Meadow Rue and select from Roche burning on a lavender mist at 5 foot to six feet tall as a stunning background plant for