Shade Gardening

Shade Gardening often takes on a major role in landscaping due to the fact that the sun does not shine equally on all properties. A properly planned shade garden has a charm all it's own, providing a cool refuge from the hot summer sun. With it's quiet blending of colors a shaded garden is quite different in nature from its sunny counterpart. A shade garden will include colorful flowers that bloom at various times of the year as well as foliage, in the form of plants and herbs, that provide different leafy textures and colors.

Deciding what to plant under shade trees is not as much a problem of finding something that will grow in reduced light, but of finding plants that will grow in the poor, dry soil typically present under trees. Flowers and plants will be competing with the tree for nutrients and moisture, and the tree will usually win. If the soil under the tree is too dry or root-clogged you will have to improve the soil before you can plant. You must be very careful in removing only roots that will not injure the trees. A layer of organic material or mulch several inches deep is the best solution to conserve moisture and act as a protective covering during winter. Trees will provide you with an abundance of organic material in the form of leaves and earthworms will move in and help loosen the subsoil.

When selecting flowers and plants for shade gardening, choose those with white or pastel flowers and light or variegated foliage. Light colors will stand out in the shade, whereas dark colors such as reds and purples will recede into the background. Here are some suggested plants:

Perennials	Annuals	Ground Covers
Astilbe Bleeding Heart Celandine Poppy Daylilies Dead Nettle Foxglove Goats Beard Hellebores Hostas Jack-in-the-Pulpit Jacob’s Ladder Larkspur Lenten Rose Lungworts Monkshood 'Paprika' Yarrow Primroses Shasta Daisy Spiderwort Queen-of-the Meadow Variegated Periwinkle Virginia Bluebells White Wood Aster Woodland Phlox	Baby Blue Eyes Bachelor Button Bells of Ireland Browallia Caladium Coleus Elephant Ears Flowering Tobacco Forget-Me-Not Fuschia Impatiens Lobelia Nasturtium Pansy Perilla Pinks Polka Dot Plant Rose Balsam Tuberous Begonia Wax Begonia Wishbone Flower	Ajuga Allegheny Pachysandra Alum Root Cappuccino Cranesbill Creeping Phlox Crested Iris English Ivy Epimendiums Foamflower Grapeleaf Anemone Japanese Pachysandra Korean Houttuynia Lilyturf Partrigdeberry Periwinkle Spotted Lamium Sweet Woodruff Vinca Wild Gingers Wintercreeper

Complete the shade garden planting with a mixture of ferns, shrubs and trees. Azaleas, rhododendrons and hydrangeas have colorful flowers while others, such as hollies and yews, are grown mainly for their attractive evergreen foliage. Here are some examples of good shrub and tree choices for shade gardening:

Ferns	Shrubs	Trees
American Hair Fern Cinnamon Fern Christmas Fern Dryopteris filixmas Ebony Spleenwort Fancy Fern, Toothed Woodfern Goldie Fern Hayscented Fern Interrupted Fern Lady Fern, Red Stem Fern Leather Woodfern Log Fern Maiden Hair Fern Male Fern New York Fern Ostrich Fern Rattlesnake Fern Royal Fern, Locust Leaf Fern Sensitive Fern	Alpine Currant Arrowood Viburnum Azalea Bayberry Carolina Allspice Common Purple Lilac Drooping Leucothoe Elderberry Flowering Raspberry Grey Dogwood Hazels Honeysuckle Hydrangea Japanese Quince Japanese Yew Juneberry Mock Orange Mountain Laurel Redbud Rhododendron St. Johnswort Virginia Sweetspire Winged Euonymus Winterberry Yellowroot	Cedar, Arborvitae Common Privet Cornehan Cherry Flowering Dogwood Great Silverbell Hemlock Red Buckeye Serviceberry Sourwood Tree Sugar Maple Tartarian Dogwood Witch Hazel

In the past, you may have assumed that, since your yard was mostly shady, nothing would grow, not even grass under trees. Quite the contrary. With a little research and planning you can easily remedy that problem with shade gardening. There is a huge selection of suitable plants, flowers, herbs, ferns, shrubs, ground covers, and trees that will grow beautifully even in fairly dense lighting. Nothing can take the place of a quiet corner of the yard with sweet fragrances, a beautiful array of colors, and best of all, cool shade.

At Garden Supply Center, our goal is to provide useful information on what type of garden to create and how to make it successful, choosing plants for your garden, which gardening tools and equipment to use and how to care for your garden. Visit our Products page and browse the gardening tool, vegetable seeds, flower bulbs, herb seeds, garden tiller, compost bin, garden tractor, compost tumbler and other garden supply products that are available.