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Shade Garden Ideas

Some Shade Garden Ideas for your Gardening!

Shade gardens are - as the words imply - gardens that grow and thrive in shade. The common knowledge is that plants need lot of sunlight to grow.

It is well known that plants need a lot of sunlight to grow. They need sunlight to make food and hence exposure to the sun is vital. However, there are also many plants that can grow and thrive in the shade too.

It is no surprise that the rain forests hosting some of the tallest trees on this earth have pretty dense undergrowth and a lot of shade too. Although there is not a lot of sunlight penetrating through the thick canopy of rain forests the sun does not reach a lot of plants that are growing underneath the dense canopy and these plants thrive in shade.

The same logic applies to shade gardening. If you are keen on exploring shade garden ideas, you should be aware of the following:

The plants that grow in shade are typically not as colourful and bright as the ones that grow in sunlight. Ample sunlight may not be necessary to survive and thrive, but lack of sunlight does have its effects.
Flowering plants rarely blossom in shade. Burgeoning flowers require a lot of energy and hence a lot of sunlight. So don’t expect your shade gardens to be quite as aromatic and flowery as gardens in full sun.
Likewise, edible plants do not grow in shade except for those that would naturally grow in partial shade such as the edge of woodland, such as fruit berries. So you are mainly looking at decorative plants for your personal shade garden.

Having just read the above, the prospect of a shade garden may seem not very exciting to you, but don’t be mistaken by the limitations of shade. There are a wide variety of ornamental plants that are ideally suited for shade gardens. You can play with the shapes and colours of leaves, and the various sizes of plants and their hues, to create an interesting mosaic in your shade garden.

Depending on how shady your garden is, you can pick from a wide range of plants in all shapes and sizes that can fit into your shade garden ideas. You can choose from Conifers, evergreen shrubs, annuals, climbers or vines, deciduous shrubs, perennials and even ornamental grasses for your shade garden design.

See a shade garden plants collection

One of the best ideas for creating your shade gardens is to use potted plants. There are many advantages to potted plants; the biggest one is that they are mobile. In a constrained sunlight environment, you can move the pots around to ensure that the plants get a decent share of sunlight if and when needed. During harsh and cold winters, potted plants can also be stored inside the house, thereby protecting them from the worst of the winter weather.

Another of the shade garden ideas worth experimenting with is using a collage of plants tolerant to varying levels of shade. There are plants that survive in dense shades, others that require partial shade, and some others that need at least a dappled shade.

If you observe your shade garden and make keen notes of the manner in which the sunlight traverses your garden in a day, you can place plants in appropriate locations to make the most of the sunlight and still have a thriving garden.

When you mix a match shade tolerance with the variety of plants, you can create an artistic shade garden.

Shade Gardening Books

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Summary

In summary, shade gardens are as great and exciting to grow and maintain as regular gardens. Though you may be limited in terms of colours (due to limitation on flowering plants), you can still create great gardens.

You need to consider ideas based around pot gardening, shade tolerance and plant varieties to make visually pleasing gardens.

See more ideas using a preplanned garden