Front Shade Garden Project

Sunday was such a beautiful day we spent it working on our new shade garden. We really started the project in the Fall by setting newspaper and leaf mulch on the grass to kill it – and it worked perfectly.  All I had left to do was till the soil (with a shovel) and remove any roots.  It already had plenty of worms and organic matter from the leaves and  newspaper.

Added slate under the Apple Arbor & tilled the soil under the Saucer Magnolia

I started the planting by moving shade tolerant plants from other spots in the garden. I added a Camellia, Azalea, 4 Hydrangeas and a Juniper bush (yes I kept it). Then I divided plants in other parts of the garden and added them here, including five variegated evergreen Irises, over 30 Heuchera and a couple Red Twig Dogwood cuttings (I’m experimenting).

To fill in the blanks, I purchased a couple plants too. They’re still hiding so don’t expect to see anything yet. I planted 4 Hosta ‘Avocado’, 4 Hosta ‘Revolution’, 4 Hosta ‘Frozen Margarita’, 4 Hosta ‘Summer Music’, a Hosta ‘Big Daddy’, a Hosta ‘Wolverine’, a Hosta ‘Abiqua Drinking Gourd’, a Heuchera ‘Pino Gris’, 5 Heuchera ‘Purple Palace’, Bleeding Heart ‘Alba’, Darmera peltata, and Astilboides tabularis. Those last two will get really big.

We still need to finish the slate sitting area but at least we have the stones all set out. I’ll post another picture this summer when the garden is showing off.