What Makes SHADE GARDEN PLANTS That Different

 

Make a Shady Oasis in Your Yard

Make a Shade Garden Plants oasis in the shady spots in your yard with plants that thrive in a shade garden. You can have a lovely display of greens and colors on the north side of a house, under tree canopies, or in a corner that gets little direct sunlight. These are the spots you have likely struggled with to landscape. Great shade gardens use plants of varying heights and types, different textures, and light-enhancing colors. Like a walk through a woodland, a planned and properly planted shade garden can be an oasis of cool, restful shade in the heat of summer.

Shade Garden Plants

Many people think that shade-loving plants don’t have much color except green. It’s true that hostas, ferns, and mosses thrive in the shade, but many other plants with colorful and interesting blooms prefer to grow with a cool and shaded root bed, but with their foliage in the light, or in a semi-shaded area.

 

Inviting hostas line this shady path

White flowers and light-colored or mottled foliage seem to add a glow in a shady spot, as do varied shades of green. If you’re looking for just one plant to add to your shady corners, then the hostas, with their many varieties of size, leaf shape, and color are one of the best choices. There are, however, many others.

Pulmonaria

Pulmonaria, commonly-known as lungwort, is one of the earliest flowers in the spring, bringing shades of brilliant blue and hot pink to the garden. But it’s the foliage that makes it stand out in a shady corner. Its green leaves are spotted with white, making it stand out in the shade.

 

Arching stems of the White Bleeding Heart add spots of light.

Bleeding Heart

Delicate looking Bleeding Hearts (Dicentra var.) is right at home in partial shade, with rich moist soil. There are white-flowered forms that can add that touch of brightness or the more familiar pink flowered ones. By choosing the fringed-leaf varieties, you also add textural interest.

Astilbe

Feathery flowered astilbes are one of the more common stand-by plants for shady spots. With fern-like and delicate foliage and plumes of flowers in pinks, lavender, red or white waving in the air, they add an airy, light quality to a shade garden. Astilbes can be from a few inches to a few feet in height, and over twenty species or hybrids are available. Although they grow well in shade, the astilbe appreciates a couple of hours of dappled sunlight every day.

Jack-in-the-pulpit

Jack-in-the-Pulpit is a native wildflower that is easily grown in shade gardens. Both leaves and flowers appear in early spring, and after the flower fades, the bright red berries last for much of the summer. Because it is native to woodlands, it grows best in rich and moist soil.

More Natives Gone Tame

Another shade-loving native plant that has been cultivated is Heuchera. These generally do best in light shade and do well in almost any type of soil. With its compact habit, an attractive mat of colorful leaves, and fine upright stems of tiny flowers, it is a great specimen plant.

Foamflower (Tiarella) is another native plant, with growth habits and appearance similar to the heuchera. It has evergreen leaves, often spotted or patterned, that take on bronze tints in fall. This plant has been hybridized, and many lovely varieties are available.

Crossed with heuchera, the resulting plant known as Heucherella. One of these hybrids, Quicksilver, has silvery metallic leaves which are a rich red-purple beneath. The spikes of starry white blossoms appear in May and June, and the evergreen leaves turn deep mahogany over winter.

 

Silverlight Heuchera

If you’re looking for a shade-tolerant perennial ground cover, then bugleweed (Ajuga spp)is for you. It can carpet a semi-dry area beneath trees in no time with its fast-growing runners. It will also grow well in an area with good garden soil and more light. You’ll find species with leaves in chocolate-burgundy, yellow, or green, all with spikes of electric blue flowers in the spring. If you pamper this plant the first year, it will take over and cover the area in no time.

Another great choice for a shade-loving ground cover is the lamium or dead nettle. The leaves of its many varieties almost seem to glow in the shade, and small white blossoms add even more light. This annual will grow to about three feet in diameter.

Shrubsfor Shade

Perhaps you’re looking for some shade-tolerant shrubs to fill up a larger shady area of your shade garden. There are several you can introduce that will add seasonal color with blossoms or year-round color with foliage or bark color.

Red twig Dogwood (Cornus stolonifera) will add year-round interest with tons of white blooms in spring, coppery purple fall leaves, and bright red bark giving winter color. The new twigs have the brightest color, so prune out the old wood periodically.

Oakleaf Hydrangea blooms in late spring, with panicles of white flowers that can be left on the shrub over the winter to add seasonal interest. It has cinnamon exfoliating bark, so even though the greenery more color is visible. Other hydrangeas also do well in partial shade.

The Japanese Aralia is a fast-growing evergreen that is native to Japan and South Korea. This shrub produces large, dark green, deeply lobed leaves. From fall through winter balls of small whitish flowers are followed by clusters of small round black fruit. Although not hardy in cold areas, it can add a tropical look to a protected shady nook.

 

Rhodos in the season show a mass of color

If you’re looking for color in a semi-shaded spot, as well as wintergreen, then evergreen rhododendrons or azaleas may be what you’re looking for. The species and varieties available are almost infinite, with ones that bloom almost any time of the season, with sizes from a few inches to several feet tall. These are acid-loving plants, with fairly shallow root systems, so take care planting and watering. Do your research if you’re choosing shrubs from this group.

So, there you have it – 15 colorful plants that will thrive in your shade garden! Now head here for a great article and find out 33 tips that will make your shady spots look great!

Weed control techniques are high on any gardener’s list here on the West Coast (wet coast this winter!). No matter how particular you are in the fall, these pesky plants seem to crop up and green up long before anything else in the yard.

Instead of spending hours ridding your beds of weeds, there are several methods that gardeners have found to inhibit their growth and make the goal of a weed-free yard much closer to success.

7 Weed Control Techniques

Use Mulch Whenever Possible.

Mulch is a covering that inhibits growth by blocking the daylight. Use it between rows in the vegetable garden, keeping the mulch a few inches from the base of your plants. Some insects and pesky critters love using mulch as a home and you need to keep them from your valued plants.

You can use quite a variety of materials for mulch – straw, shredded leaves, chipped bark or wood, compost, or even shredded newspaper. If the weeds are really persistent, lay down a layer of damp newsprint and then cover it with 2 inches of mulch.

Plant a Cover Crop

Once you’ve harvested your vegetables in the fall, and moved all the plant debris to your compost bin, plant a cover crop in the garden beds. These plants cover the soil over the dormant season, protecting it from erosion and reducing the growth of weeds. Some of the more commonly used crops are red clover, fava beans, buckwheat, barley, field peas, and rye.

Cover crops are sometimes called ‘green manure’, since once they have grown, but before they set seeds, they are cut and tilled back into the soil. If you decide to use a cover crop to protect your soil, wait for a month after you till them in, as they will tie up the available nitrogen in the soil temporarily as they decompose.

Minimize Soil Disruption

Have you ever notice that once you rake or turn your soil the weeds seem to pop up overnight? Many weed seeds are stimulated to grow by exposure to light, which is what you do when you till the soil. An interesting German study came to the conclusion that by turning the soil at night, weed germination could be reduced up to 78%!

Try working your soil in the evening, at dusk.

Dig and Chop

Sometimes it comes right down to manual labor. If you’ve got some persistent weeds or roots, you need to dig them out. Remove as much of the roots as you can. Weeds like dandelions, couch grass, and nettles just need a small piece of root to regrow.

 

Stinging nettles – pesky weeds or nutritious plants?

If you can’t dig them out, then chop off their heads with a hoe once a week. They may come back, but they likely won’t set seeds. Weed control techniques can be work!

Encourage weeds to grow early on, by warming up the garden soil by laying clear plastic over the beds. Once the weeds are a few inches high, pull or dig them out. Then you’ll have clean weed-free soil to plant your crops.

Close Planting

Set your plants close together, and you’ll find fewer weeds can get a toe-hold. Try inter-planting different types of vegetables. For example, plant some smaller plants like radishes, lettuce, or spinach between larger ones like tomatoes and cabbage or broccoli. This way, the coil won’t be bare for too long.

Then at the end of the growing season, plant a cover crop to keep weeds from finding a home over the fall and winter.

Use Drip Irrigation

Why waste precious water encouraging unwelcome weeds to grow? By irrigating only the plants that you want with drip irrigation, rather than using a sprinkler to water a big area, you will avoid having weeds grow in pathways and other unplanted areas. Not only that, but you’ll be conserving water as well.

Eat Them

The last, of the weed control techniques I want to share, is one you may not have tried before. Weeds can be healthy!

Some of the early spring, weeds are not only edible but are also nutritious and delicious! Lamb’s quarters, plantain, dandelions, amaranth, purslane, and nettles are all edible when young and tender. Because they have had to develop and grow in a very competitive environment, they often contain higher nutrient levels than cultivated food plants, especially trace minerals.

 

Plantain – nutritious when young and tender!

Become familiar with your weeds before you start using them in salads and stir-fries. And never forage for edible wild plants in areas that have been exposed to pesticides. Avoid any areas where pets and animals may have left their droppings.

Treat yourself by planting a fragrance garden

What could be more wonderful than strolling through a flower garden full of enticing scents and fragrance and in riotous color from spring through fall? Everyone loves a fragrant flower, whether it’s spicy, musky, or sweetly scented. By selecting carefully, you can design and plant a fragrance garden to exude special scents and aromas to appreciate and enjoy all year long.

Plant these aromatic plants in a concentrated area as an aromatic theme garden, in containers near the door, or interspersed  throughout your garden for special fragrant interludes as you pass by, and you’ll enjoy your fragrant garden even more.

 

Hyacinths for Spring Fragrance

In early spring, we all welcome the sight of early-blooming bulbs. Many of these early flowers are also deliciously fragrant. Among the first bloomers, cheery daffodils and narcissus waving their golden-hued heads in spring breezes. Along our main street every March, the planters are filled with these cheery blossoms.

Grape and traditional hyacinths planted with narcissus by your front door, or in pots on the front porch will welcome everyone with color and fragrance.

Down the path to the Marina here in Comox, a patch of these gorgeous hyacinths add a burst of color. As you walk by, their rich heady scent is almost overwhelming.

Another favorite of mine is the Siberian squill, with its bluebell blooms. It can quickly fill in your beds with early spring color and has always been among the first to bloom in my gardens, along with a few fragrant daffodils.

In a woodland setting or shaded area, plant snowdrops for some of the earliest blooms. Several varieties of these miniature bulbs with dangling bells of white blossoms are scented. You may miss the scent unless you have a sunny and warm day to disperse the scent. Another white choice is the lily of the valley. Like snowdrops, these will soon form a bright and scented ground cover.

As spring progresses, lilacs, roses, and peonies add their individual perfumes to the air. Plant taller shrubs such as lilacs at the back of a bed, or prune into a small specimen tree near a walkway. One of my most fragrant and nostalgic memories is passing by a hedge of lilacs on the way to school.

Lush peonies look great even before they bloom, with their bushy dark green foliage. Peonies die back in winter, but come spring, new shoots will appear as the snow melts. As they bloom, they are a feast for the nose as well as the eyes. 

Natives of Japan and China, these lovely plants have long been valued for their many medicinal uses. Nowadays, they are common in flower gardens throughout the world. Plant enough for some cut blooms to fill the air inside your home with their rich heady fragrance.

 

This single peony blossom can be up to 5 inches in diameter!

There are several different types of peony blossoms. Single peonies have a circle of single petals surrounding a large central mass of pollen-bearing stamens and seed-bearing carpels. In Japanese varieties, some of the stamen filaments have broadened, and the anthers have expanded, making a fuller center.

A double peony takes this broadening a step farther, making petals of different widths and size. Double or bomb peonies have much broader petals derived from both carpels and stamens, no crown, but clearly differentiated from the guard petals.

Line your walkway with border dianthus (pinks or sweet williams) and enjoy their spicy scent as you walk by. Their deliciously clove-scented flowers grow on compact plants that are also good for containers. Their silvery-green foliage is another bonus. Most dianthus sport bunches of flowers that have notched petals around an inconspicuous center. The blossoms range from white to pink, red, and purple in color.

Choose from either perennial or annual varieties of dianthus. Sweet Williams is biennial or short-lived perennials covered with bicolor flowers in late spring. Pinks are low-growing dianthus, very suitable for rock gardens. Carnations are taller and good for bouquets but tend to be less hardy than other dianthus.

The all-time favorite among floral scents, prolific in every cottage-style garden, is that of sweet peas. Check the label on the seed package to ensure you get the really fragrant ones, and plant them early, directly in the garden. If you’re short of trellises for them to grow on, plant sweet peas beneath bushes and shrubs, and they’ll grow up through, with the colorful blossoms peeking out.

“Here are sweet peas, on tip-toe for a flight With wings of gentle flusho’er delicate white, And taper fingers catching at all things To bind them all about with tiny rings.” –John Keats (1795–1821)

Once your sweet pea plants are in full flower you should regularly dead-head them to prevent seeds setting and encourage more flowers. Simply snip off any faded blooms or forming seed pods. If you love having fresh-cut flowers in your home, fragrant sweet peas are the plants for you! They are ideal for cutting as the more blooms you cut, the more they grow.

Did you know that there are some flowers that are more fragrant at night? Imagine relaxing on your patio on a summer evening, just as a full moon is rising. With night-scented stock, nicotiana, four-o-clocks or moonflower vines blooming nearby, one or more of your senses will be tantalized. These will blossom well into fall, giving you months of fragrant enjoyment.

Fragrant Foliage

In your fragrance garden, grow some plants that have aromatic foliage, along with your fragrant blossoming plants. Lemon verbena, scented geraniums, thyme, tansy, Santolina, rosemary and lavender all have the bonus of colorful flowers as well as richly scented leaves.

Creeping thyme grown between paving or stepping stones will release a refreshing scent as it is crushed underfoot. Monarda or bee-balm has the double advantage of fragrant foliage and flowers that attract bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds.

Fragrant Shrubs

Lets not leave out the shrubs and trees that can add fragrance to the garden. Honeysuckle (Lonicera fragrantissima) sports clusters of creamy flowers whose perfume, somewhere between lilac and jasmine, will wind around the garden. They will climb fences, wind up trees, and drape over pergolas.

 

Fragrant flowers of the Daphne bloom in winter and early spring.

The shrub, Mahonia japonica has sprays of small fragrant yellow flowers above leathery spiny leaves. A third shrub to add to any fragrance garden is the winter daphne. It has yellow-margined leaves and rosy-pink flower buds that open to white. The fragrant flowers bloom in winter and early spring.

If you’re ready to enjoy a scent themed garden, whether in flowerbeds, borders or containers, check with your local nursery for the plants that will best thrive in your area.

The plants listed above are just a few of the richly scented ones available to add that extra dimension of fragrance to your garden.

Pest Control in the Garden

I’ve been looking at some of the natural methods of pest control in the garden. I got to wondering if there’s some connection between spit bugs (you know, those little white foamy bits that look like someone’s been spitting in your plants) and aphid infestations. Seem to be lots of both in certain areas of the gardens this spring.

 

Spittle Bug or Spit Bug

As for the spit bugs (aka spittlebugs and froghoppers), they never do a whole lot of damage. It’s the nymph stage of the pest, and they exude the foam as a protective covering, keeping them moist and hidden at the same time. They may slow plant growth but rarely will do a lot of damage to a plant.

A jet of water will dislodge them and destroy the foamy covering. Alternatively, squish them between your fingers (kinda yucky, but it works).

Aphid control:

Almost every one of my feverfew plants has been infested with oodles of sap-sucking aphids, ringing the new growing tips below the flower buds. Lots of little tiny ants run up and down the stems, just herding and farming them (see below). I’ve been pinching off the sprigs below the aphids and it’s worked to keep them in control. (Helps in getting the plants to branch out, too).

 

For more serious aphid infestations, one of the best ways of pest control in the garden is a strong jet of water to dislodge them. Once off, they can’t return to the plant. Alternatively, an insecticidal soap spray will get rid of them, or use a water and dish soap mix (2 tsp soap to a spray bottle full of water) and spray it on.

Make sure you get it up under leaves to get them all. The soap will destroy their protective coating, and the aphids will dehydrate and die.

Natural Pest Control in the Garden

There is a plethora of commercial sprays available to battle aphids, from pyrethrin-based ones to insecticidal soaps and oils to growth regulators. The growth regulators work by interfering with the growth cycles so the aphids don’t mature, or else by preventing the molting.

Soaps and oils are more earth-friendly and less aggressive but still effective. Let the soap sprays sit on the plant for a couple of hours, and then rinse it off with clear water. Whatever you use, make certain to wash any vegetables or fruits that have been sprayed.

You can also encourage the natural aphid predators – ladybugs, lacewings, hoverflies wrens, and chickadees. Put up some birdhouses to attract the birds, plant some parsley, alyssum, clover, or yarrow to attract the hoverflies. If you don’t have any ladybugs in your garden, you can buy them online.

Early Aphid Detection:

Aphids are inconspicuous little pests.

They can quickly produce colonies of offspring and will do it over and over. Your veggies, flowers, shrubs, and trees can be destroyed before you even realize they’re there. Aphids can be green (little chameleons!), black, red, brown, or even yellow.

There are thousands of species.

And they pierce the plant, sucking up the juices and transmitting diseases at the same time. The ‘honeydew’ they secrete is loved by ants, so you’ll often see ants running up and down the stems of your plants – a sure sign of aphids somewhere. The honeydew is also a great fungus attractor.

 

Aphids on new plant growth

So, walk through your garden several times a week paying close attention to the underside of leaves and the newest growth, including flower buds. Look for any new leaves that are stunted and curled under – they’re likely hosting a bunch of aphids. Examine any newly purchased plants and transplants before you set them into the garden.

Ladybugs:

Most ladybugs are predators. They eat other insects, most of which are considered pests to gardeners. They are often called a ‘gardener’s best friend’.

The most common insects that Shade Garden Plants ladybugs eat are aphids, which are serious plant pests. That’s why ladybugs can be the gardener’s best friend. They will control the pest insects in the garden without the gardener having to use chemical pesticides. Even larval ladybugs eat aphids. They also eat other insects that have soft bodies, like mites, whiteflies, and scale insects – all of which are pests of plants.

No ladybugs? Did you know you can buy them? Shade Garden Plants, and you’re on your way to pest control in the garden – organically.