Starting a Shade Garden...
The shade garden can be exploding with color and texture. No matter how much shade is in
your landscape, the right flowers, plants, bushes and bulbs will grow in this area when given
a chance. As there are various types of shade, you will need to choose the plants that are
'right' for the type of shade you have: partial, dense, full, or filtered shade. In starting a
shade garden, one of the easiest shade gardens will be the filtered shade garden. What you
need to do first is look at the trees or bushes that are making this area a filtered shade
garden. Pruning off the lower branches on taller bushes and on the tree will allow additional
light into your garden. Because you are planning a filtered shade garden, you do want some
amount of sunlight in that garden below the tree.
Thinning out the bottom saplings that
are trying to grow from the tree is needed at this time to ensure they do not grow up in your
garden. Underbrush and thorny bushes should be cut down and dug up at this time before
starting your shade garden.Now you can work on the soil that is in the area that you
want to create that new garden. Adding organic materials, more soil, compost, manure or other
types of nutrients to the soil will prepare the fine garden bed that will hold your shade
plants.When possible, do not disturb the roots of the tree that will be in or around
the garden area. Cutting or disturbing the roots of a tree can cause damage or death to the
tree over time. Working with the soil and adding the needed materials to make your garden
about six inches deep is going to be the ultimate situation for your new plants.After
planting your first shade plants in the garden continue to water them every few days until the
roots begin to 'take hold' and support the plants. When placing your plants in the soil of
your new garden, mulching around the plants will hold the water in the soil for your plants to
thrive best.
Shade Garden Plants
Do you have a landscape that involves trees,
shrubs, and bushes? When your landscape is filled with shade during certain times of the day,
you can still have wonderful plants, flowers and color using the shade garden plants. You
might find it most interesting that within the shade garden plants, there are additional types
of shade needs. Shade gardening does give you various opportunities to change your landscape
and to enhance the tree line of your yard. Shade gardens give many gardeners a more relaxing
feel, as a place where you can stroll and be calming in the shade. The sun areas of your
garden and landscape are lively and energetic.To discover more about the different
shade areas of a garden, take a walk through this area, or walk through the woods. Taking a
walk through the woods you will find that sunlight does still hit some areas and some soil is
in the shade all the time.
Filtered shade is an area where the sun will lightly hit.
This indirect sunlight filters to the ground between leaves, branches, and other bushes. An
example of where filtered shade is - this the soil at the bottom of a very tall tree that has
branches that have been thinned out. The thinning of the tree allows sun to still fall on the
ground below but in an indirect manner.Partially shaded areas of your garden are
different from the filtered shade areas. The portions of your landscape or gardens that does
get sun four or five hours a day, but then remains in the shade of a tree or house the
remaining portion of the day is a partially shaded area. The plants that are sensitive to the
high temperatures of the full sun in the afternoon are plants that you will grow in this area.
Full shade areas of your garden are the areas of your garden that remain in the dark
for most of the day. Sunlight may shine in this area of the landscape when trees loose their
leaves or for less than an hour each day. Choice plants that mature in the spring or produce
flowers in the fall are the plants that grow in this portion of your landscape.Dense
shade is yet another area of your landscape where the sun never shines and the area never do
receive partial shade. Dense shade areas of your landscape include those that are beside
fences, houses, in the thick of the wooded area or similar type areas.
