Shade gardening tips

There's no doubt that shade gardening can be a challenge. Growing flowers in full sun is easier, and you have more colorful plants to choose from.

Even so, those of us with gardens that sizzle in the sun often find ourselves longing for cooling shade.

A lush bed out of the heat and glare of the sun can be an attractive, inviting and calming oasis in the garden.

Meeting the shade garden challenge

The idea that a garden without much sun is a problem probably stems from the first experience of a treed backyard with brick-hard soil and thin lawn struggling in the shadows.

If grass won't even grow there, how can anything else?

Rest assured that there are many attractive perennials that grow well in shade. Getting them to thrive is a matter of enriching the soil.

Do keep in mind that a flower garden directly under deciduous trees will be mostly spring blooming. In general, most plants that grow well in the shadows, including spring bulbs that naturalize, tend to bloom early in the season before the leaves come out on the trees.

This doesn't mean there won't be other flowers in bloom during the rest of the season, but you'll have a more limited palette of flowering plants to choose from. Impatiens is one of flowers that will give you color in the shade all season long - one of the big reasons it's such a popular annual.

When it comes to shade perennials, attractive leaf textures and colors are important because foliage will be your shade garden mainstay through the season. You might also consider ground cover plants for low-light conditions.

My shade success story under evergreens

My shade garden (shown in the pictures on this page) happens to be under a grove of pine and spruce trees. It isn't ideal - it can be pretty dry - but it's the only shady area I had to work with.

When we started this garden in 1998, the entire area under the trees was covered in weeds, so it's come a long way!

Adding humus - I used composted bark and leaf mold - and mulching has worked wonders. The garden looks fabulous through the season and as long as we water during dry periods, the shade plants - which include hostas, ferns, foam flowers, sweet woodruff and other woodlanders - thrive.

For more information:

Shade gardening: planting and care tips

Tips for gardening in dry shade

Hosta - queen of the shade perennials

Shade perennial lenten rose (Helleborus × hybridus)

Japanese painted fern

Climbing vines for shade

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