Plans for Planting a Shade Garden

Soil Preparation

• Look at what is causing the shade. If it is a large evergreen, chances are that your soil pH is bordering on very acidic. If this is the case, add a little bit of granulated lime to the soil to raise the pH back up toward neutral. Look at your soil composition. If the soil is mainly clay, you will want to mix in some bark chips to help the soil drain. If it is mostly sand, then you will want to add some sphagnum peat moss to help the soil structure. Lastly, mix in some compost to help add nutrients to the soil.

Plant Selection

• The key to planting a successful shade garden is choosing the right plants. To do this, look at the area and determine what is causing the shade and how many hours of sunlight, if any, the area gets.

  Shady areas that receive four hours of sun are part-shade environments. Most azaleas and rhododendrons work well in a part-shade environment. Areas that are under large trees but get a fair amount of sun trickling through the branches over the course of the day are filtered-sun environments. If you have a filtered sun environment that is protected from a lot of wind, consider planting a Japanese maple. Alternatively, you can use an abundance of perennial grasses to give the area a more natural feel.

  If the area gets very little sun or none at all, it is a deep-shade environment. For deep shade, look at perennial hostas. There are also several shrubs-- chokecherry, for example--that can tolerate deep shade environments.

Airflow and Competition

• In order to have a successful shade garden you may need to do some work on the surrounding area. First, shade gardens will suffer if they do not have good air circulation. This can cause a host of problems including fungi and root problems. To avoid this problem, trim some of the lower tree branches that cover the area.

  If the garden is being shaded by something you cannot prune (your neighbor's house, for example) keep the garden open and free of debris. Secondly, if you are growing a garden in the shade of larger plants you will have competition problems. The larger trees will compete with your new garden plants for the nutrients in the soil and chances are they will win. To correct this problem, provide the garden with plenty of nutrients by fertilizing or adding compost to the soil.