Shade Gardening: Shade Garden Under Mature Spruces, 1 by Jazzpunkin

Jazzpunkin wrote:
I am (have been) working on the north side of my house which is bounded by several mature Norway Spruces. We moved here 4 years ago and I decided not to be overwhelmed by the amount of work needed to get the existing garden beds into shape and to take my time. However this side of the house is also home to our "sitting porch" and it would be nice to have something worth gazing at while we are out there. There is a narrow strip of flower bed right along the porch that is occupied by ferns and potentilla. very scraggly. and a few tiny hosta. the problem here I think is that the porch overhangs this area and so cuts off much of the rain. I notice the ferns (and other items) are growing outside the border into the grass and the area closest to the house is becoming barren (or weedy at best)
Next there is a patch of grass about ten feet wide. It isn't really lush and there are several spruce roots poking up along the ground. I would really like to make a patio there but I am afraid those surface roots would be a problem. (Think they would push up more through whatever material I used) Of course I would really like pavers but am willing to consider alternatives that would be workable and attractive.
Then we have the bed that is actually under the spruces. (It's all really under the spruces but here is where the trunks are) there are some scraggly pale sedum (the ones with the pale pink blooms) and I have considered moving them. There were peonies under there for some reason and they were truely pathetic. I don't even like peonies but I felt so sorry for them that I dug them up and found them a nice sunny spot. They are very happy now. There are one or two flox. the larger end has several daylilies and a few daffodils and one or two crocus. but mainly it's weeds.. or to be polite.. woodland growth..
THe other end has a couple small hosta but it seems the original gardeners plan was greenery. I guess I am hoping for a little more color.. last year I tried a little coleous which was pretty but I really would like some perenials (cuz I am lazy) Also the bed is about 30-40 foot long and well.. I get pooped trying to fill that up with annuals. I had an entire flat of coleous and thought.. yay .. much color.. well.. it hardly made a dent by the time I had spread it out along the bed..sigh.. Also it was pretty overgrown when we got there and the weeds are tenacious. Maybe I should dig it all out and up and start over?
I will try to find some pictures and post them.. ok this first one is from the front but you can see the beginnings of the area to the right



This message was edited Apr 7, 2005 9:30 AM