A shade garden can be serene and beautiful. Here are some tips to keep your shade garden looking its best.
- Most shade plants compete with trees and shrubs for food and water. To compensate, routinely work aged compost into the soil around shade plants and water deeply as needed.
- Remove leaf litter from low-growing shade plants with a light-weight rake in the fall. Compost the leaves to replenish the soil later.
- Early spring-flowering bulbs are right at home beneath deciduous trees. Drifts of anemone blanda, crocus, daffodils, dogtooth violets, grape hyacinths, iris reticulata or snow drops can provide a sunlit show before the shade curtain falls.
- Shade varies from light to partial to dense. Observe the movement and density of shade over your planting site and choose plants that will adapt to the specific conditions.
- Sunlight intensity varies with latitude. Plants that need "full sun" up North may prefer "partial shade" in our hotter climate.
- Choose shade trees carefully. The roots of a few trees, like black walnuts, exude a compound that stunts the growth of neighboring plants. Elms, silver maples, cottonwoods and some other trees produce voracious surface roots.
- You don't need a forest for a shade garden. Arbors, fast-growing plants, fences, garden walls, hedges, lattice screens, and trellises can create shade, too.
Kathy Uncapher, Smith County Master Gardener
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