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At first I was like....what?.......then I was like....oh.....
Originally posted by Jedi
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Keep your proverbial glass "half full". Look at your yard like a beautiful "blank canvas" and think positively... you don't need to even REMOVE sod in order to make your gardens.
I agree with the others. Find inexpensive ways to create paths, garden "rooms" and focal point features and you will have the BEST garden on the whole block. Some cities collect Christmas trees and yard waste and provide free compost and wood chips to residents so long as you pick them up. Some cities will even deliver for a small fee. Make yard sale'ing a weekly excursion during summer and you will find awesome little garden features such as fountains, windchimes, plants, pots, bird baths, bird feeders, garden chairs and benches, bird houses and little nick nacks that might suit your taste. Grab nicely shaped/textured rocks from the roadside, attend plant swaps and join the seed swapping forums. Watch the paper for residents having plant sales and churches selling perennials/annuals to raise money. Make a friend in your neighbourhood who loves gardening and you can make swaps. Before you know it your garden will be a showpiece!
)
The variety of shade plants you can use are abundant and just because it's shade, doesn't mean that you can have loads of colour as well. Even plants who's flowers aren't that particularly "gorgeous" can have the most interesting foliages that you don't need the flowers for them to put on a good show.
Here are just a sampling of all the wonderful plants/shrubs you can place in your backyard which is fully shaded:
Shade PERENNIALS:
Bleeding Hearts
Anemones
Astilbes
Ferns (hundreds of varieties)
Hostas (hundreds of varieties)
Hellebores
Columbines (hundreds of varieties, shapes, sizes, colours etc)
Corydallis
Violets
Jacks
Coral Bells
Solomon's Seals (several varieties)
May Apple
Jacob's Ladder
Primrose
Pulmonarias (great varieties to choose from and super foliage)
Toad Lilies
Globe Flowers
Wild Ginger
Cardinal Flower
Asiatic Lilies (can grow in filtered shade)
Foxglove (can take dappled shade)
Lady's Mantle
Spiderwort (dappled shade)
Lily of the valley (caution: can get out of control)
Virginia Bluebells
Bergenias
Mosses (great for little "fairy garden features" or pond areas)
Bugleweed (good for groundcover but can spread too far)
Cranesbill
Ligularia
Monkshood
Then there are shade ANNUALS:
Coleus (large varieties of size and colour combos)
Begonias
Impatiens
Forget-me-nots
Nicotiana
Elephant Ears
Nasturtiums
Pinks
Bachellor Buttons
***I'm not an annual gardener so others may be able to add to the list***
SHRUBS for shade... here are a few that I have in my woodland garden:
Nannyberry
Serviceberry
Highbush Cranberry
Elderberry
Silky Dogwood
Pagoda/Alternate Leaf Dogwood
Redbud (large shrub/small tree depending on how you prune it)
Winged Sumac
Arrow Wood Viburnum
Ninebark
Winterberry
Witchhazel
Chokecherry
I agree with the others. Find inexpensive ways to create paths, garden "rooms" and focal point features and you will have the BEST garden on the whole block. Some cities collect Christmas trees and yard waste and provide free compost and wood chips to residents so long as you pick them up. Some cities will even deliver for a small fee. Make yard sale'ing a weekly excursion during summer and you will find awesome little garden features such as fountains, windchimes, plants, pots, bird baths, bird feeders, garden chairs and benches, bird houses and little nick nacks that might suit your taste. Grab nicely shaped/textured rocks from the roadside, attend plant swaps and join the seed swapping forums. Watch the paper for residents having plant sales and churches selling perennials/annuals to raise money. Make a friend in your neighbourhood who loves gardening and you can make swaps. Before you know it your garden will be a showpiece!
)The variety of shade plants you can use are abundant and just because it's shade, doesn't mean that you can have loads of colour as well. Even plants who's flowers aren't that particularly "gorgeous" can have the most interesting foliages that you don't need the flowers for them to put on a good show.
Here are just a sampling of all the wonderful plants/shrubs you can place in your backyard which is fully shaded:
Shade PERENNIALS:
Bleeding Hearts
Anemones
Astilbes
Ferns (hundreds of varieties)
Hostas (hundreds of varieties)
Hellebores
Columbines (hundreds of varieties, shapes, sizes, colours etc)
Corydallis
Violets
Jacks
Coral Bells
Solomon's Seals (several varieties)
May Apple
Jacob's Ladder
Primrose
Pulmonarias (great varieties to choose from and super foliage)
Toad Lilies
Globe Flowers
Wild Ginger
Cardinal Flower
Asiatic Lilies (can grow in filtered shade)
Foxglove (can take dappled shade)
Lady's Mantle
Spiderwort (dappled shade)
Lily of the valley (caution: can get out of control)
Virginia Bluebells
Bergenias
Mosses (great for little "fairy garden features" or pond areas)
Bugleweed (good for groundcover but can spread too far)
Cranesbill
Ligularia
Monkshood
Then there are shade ANNUALS:
Coleus (large varieties of size and colour combos)
Begonias
Impatiens
Forget-me-nots
Nicotiana
Elephant Ears
Nasturtiums
Pinks
Bachellor Buttons
***I'm not an annual gardener so others may be able to add to the list***
SHRUBS for shade... here are a few that I have in my woodland garden:
Nannyberry
Serviceberry
Highbush Cranberry
Elderberry
Silky Dogwood
Pagoda/Alternate Leaf Dogwood
Redbud (large shrub/small tree depending on how you prune it)
Winged Sumac
Arrow Wood Viburnum
Ninebark
Winterberry
Witchhazel
Chokecherry
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