Mid-Atlantic Gardening: FIRST FLOWERS MEMORIAL DAY 2015, 3 by greenthumb99

greenthumb99 wrote:
Donner, it depends on the particular plants you want to relocate. Many shade loving plants can tolerate woodland conditions because, after all, where do you find shade in the natural world? Some plants require greater amounts of moisture and need a wet woodland setting. In fact, once I get caught up, I have a large pond liner I will finish installing to create a shady bog.

While we have gardens out in the open where most of our bloomers reside, we also have large swaths along woodland margins and completely beneath the trees devoted to shade loving plants. Due to subsoil from excavation of the basement being spread over much of the ground close to the house our soil is less plant friendly than it would otherwise be. Despite this, our only modification is amending planting holes with compost, used potting mix, etc. In good years, a mulch of leaf mold compost is spread on the beds, eventually enriching the soil.

These woodland "gardens" tend to look incomplete due to holes from early spring ephemerals, bulbs, and slowly emerging ferns, of which we have many.