Shade Gardening: shady problem area, 1 by MollyMc

MollyMc wrote:
Sundry,

How is your shade garden doing? I just caught this thread and many things come to my mind, your zone is not so far off from mine and the rain and humidity are much the same.

At my old house I had 2 large laurel oaks shading the front yard plus the house added to that shade. Maybe an hour of sun in the morning. Raised that bed only about 6 inches and held it in with stacked stones. I stayed about 5-6 feet away from the tree trunks and since the raised bed was centered between the trees, it did not circle the trunks. I didn't feel there was any danger of hurting the tree doing it this way. Without the raised bed, there was no digging to be done. The roots on these trees are immediately under the soil for a very long distance from the main trunks.

I had hostas in there too, but I think it wasn't the moisture that retarded their growth, I think it was the inability for them to dig their roots deep that kept them from flourishing. Now in my new yard, I can dig holes with the shovel (no roots) so now the hostas are doing much better.

Anyway, I had very good luck with EE's, Macho ferns(these will grow out of a tree trunk at times) caladiums for color, begonias, and coleus. You can get so many colors of coleus these days. In the winter while waiting on the caladiums to come back, I put in impatiens as annuals. They are putting out some lovely New Guinea impatiens that are prettier than the old standard. Dusty Miller did well and maybe for some late season blooms, japanese anemone.

Show us some pictures Sundry, we'd really like to see it.

Molly
:^)))