Shade Gardening

Many people associate the coziness of gardens with "cool, comfortable, shady garden nooks surrounded by deep-green foliage and brilliant flowers sprinkled with light . . . ." If so, this book is for you. I located this book when my wife began asking me what else we could plant to add color to our yard. I found that everything I said began with, "You have to consider how much sun is available." Because we live in a heavily treed part of New England, no parts of our yard receive full sun except in winter when nothing is growing. During the growing season, we have from 2 hours of sun a day to no sun as our range. This is great for coolness, but limits the flower choices quite a lot. Growing up in a family that did gardening for a living, the degree of shade that plants like is something that I am acutely aware of. On the other hand, I am less sure around the kind of soil moisture and acidity that are desirable. This book was extremely valuable for its encyclopedia of 100 of the most common shade plants. Each listing describes the type of shade, soil, moisture, and care that is best for the plant. For the purposes of this book, shade is considered any area that has less than six hours of direct sunlight a day.If you live in sunny areas, the book also has many valuable ideas for creating shade with screens. There is also an excellent section on how to use sprinkling systems to add moisture. Regardless of where you live in North America, you can use this book because it describes whether each of the plants will do well in your climate zone. If you live in the desert, there are also good ideas for using cacti. The book also gives you a process for evaluating your potential garden sites, adapting them to your desires, planning your garden, and planting and caring for the trees, shrubs, flowers, ferns, and ground cover you choose. So whether you are thinking about impatiens, clivia, hydrangeas, daylilies, forget-me-nots, fuschias or pansies, this book will help you with annuals and perennials. Also, don't forget to think about azaleas, camellias, wisteria and foxglove. If you're not sure what all of these plants are, the many beautiful photographs in the book will fill you in. After you finish thinking about the wonderful choices for your shady areas, I suggest that you think about what you would like to do there. What else do you need to make it perfect? Would a bench suit? Or would a garden swing be better? Or, if you have lots of room, what about a gazebo? Is there room for a bird bath or hummingbird feeder? Help nature weave her magic enchantment into your life!