Adding Light to a Shade Garden

Adding Light to a Shade Garden

Are you faced with a lot of shade in your garden? We have three big old maple trees shading a large portion of our yard. When we moved here, there was nothing but poorly growing grass under the trees. It looked messy and unfinished. So we set about creating a shade garden.

This is what we started with in the spring of 2012. You can see it really was barren with just a few scillas growing under the maple.

Shade Garden BEFORE

And here we are today. A garden filled with hosts, ferns and astilbe. It still has a long way to go before it’s “full”, but we’re on the way to getting it into something I think is wonderful.

Shade Garden AFTER

The weeping cypress and white sumac in the background were there when we moved in, but everything else is new to the garden. We started by extending the bed under the sumac to include hostas, lungwort, spiderwort and astilbe. This area actually gets a bit more sun than under the maples, so there was more flexibility to add the lungwort and spiderwort which do better with more light.

Tranquility Fountain

The centrepiece of the garden is the tranquility fountain. You can read about how we made and installed it here. You actually can’t see it in the “after” shot because it hasn’t been taken out of winter storage yet. So with that in place, we had something to build on. But I knew that plant choices were limited due to the light, so it had to be hosta and ferns. The biggest challenge was adding some light to this very dark area.

The best way to add some light to a shade garden is to use plants with a lot of variation in the leaves. Above are some of my favourites which have been used in our shade garden. In most cases, its the leaves of these plants that add interest and light. So I’ve added things like the golden heart bleeding heart for it’s chartreuse foliage. The ghost fern for its frothy foliage and deep red stems. And variegated hosta of all types add so much impact into the garden.

Ready for planting – Orange Marmalade & Linda Sue

Another way to add some light into a dark corner is to use items that reflect the light, such as this glass totem.

Or how about adding mirrors like this one from HGTV? Not only will this add light to a shady spot, but a breeze will add movement.

Mirror Garland – HGTV

So if you have a deep shady spot in your garden which is uninspiring, look for variegated foliage, white or light coloured flowers and light reflecting objects to add some light to your shade garden.

Original article and pictures take www.newhousenewhomenewlife.com site