Shade Landscaping Tips

Mastering shade landscaping is valuable for most home gardens. Whether it's a row of trees or hedges intended as a wind break or for privacy, or simply the position of the home itself, areas of partial to total shade are common in most gardens and yards. Planting a garden without regard to the degree of sun, along with soil and other conditions can simply be a waste of time. Knowledge of shade landscaping is valuable for a variety of reasons:

• Planned shade. Often, the demand for shade landscaping has nothing to do with the inadvertent location of a home or trees that block the sun. Shade gardens are quite popular as cool, respites from the summer heat. Additionally, canopies and coverings on patios and near swimming pools also account for the need for shade landscaping.
• Unplanned shade. As explained previously, it isn't unusual at all to find yards or gardens obscured by partial or even total shade. The reason can be your house or a neighbor's house, as well as full, evergreen trees on your property and nearby. Remember that in the case of trees, the root systems will be competing for nutrients with garden plants nearby, so precise water and fertilizer use is also a key component of shade landscaping.

Finding Plants for Shade Landscaping

You may want to consider the services of a landscape architect with experience handling shade gardens. It's important to match the right plants to the exact conditions in your yard, and an expert can take all the risk out of a selecting a plant that may not bloom well - or worse - may not survive a shade garden. A landscape architect can also talk about the mix between perennials and annuals. You probably don't want to replant your entire garden every year, but adding some new elements each year can be an exciting annual project. Here are some common shade landscaping plants you may want to consider for your yard or garden:

• Ajuga. This popular plant is a ground cover that grows no more than 6 inches high. A number of varieties of the ajuga offer dark purple or variegated leaves, along with pink or white flowers. Other varieties of this aggressive plant produce a thick growth of shiny green leaves with blue flowers.
• Bleeding heart. A delicate-looking plant because of the heart-shaped blossoms that literally hang from long stems, available in pink or white. Bleeding heart needs little care and will grow to about 4 feet in height.
• Hosta. A very easy-care perennial that handles the shade beautifully. The hosta is a plant in demand and is available in many varieties. Some of the choices include miniatures no more than a few inches wide to much larger plants that are as much as 6 feet wide. The leaves come in colors ranging from green and blue to chartreuse and gold, with some varieties adding a wonderful fragrance to your garden.
• Red twig dogwood. This plant can grow 8 feet or taller, with a thick production of leaves and scads of white blooms in the summer. There's a show coming in the fall when the leaves turn a shiny, dark purple. Of course, there's always the red bark on the branches.