Shade Gardening: Tour of my backyard, 1 by lupinelover

lupinelover wrote:
This next one is standing in the Secret Garden, looking out toward the house. The fence belongs to my wonderful neighbors. This photo shows my most challenging area. There is an underground stream that only has water in the late winter through the spring. Water stands above ground for weeks at a time here. Ivy has sapped all the humus out of the soil, leaving pure clay. Almost nothing grew for years, not even weeds. I put some natives in here, and they survived, and eventually thrived. There are hostas and ferns and astilbes and other shade-lovers now.

The stepping stones were made by my nieces a few years ago. At the head of the path is a mazus colony.

There is a clump of yucca that marks the boundary of my shade-garden and my newest passion, hardy tropicals. I have hardy hibiscus there now, along with toadlilies. They will be re-located after I have finished amending the soil in this area, creating much better drainage, and palms, bananas, and other hardy tropicals will go in here in a few weeks. The trees are mature oak and hickory in this area, along with a few haw trees.