By Margaret Stewart, for the Puslinch Pioneer
There are many excellent books and articles on creating shade in your garden, including Larry Hodgson’s Making the Most of Shade in which one chapter is devoted to ways to establish shade. The following thoughts are probably influenced by such discussions but arise from my own experience of starting a new garden on an exposed site, having moved many supposedly shade plants to their new inhospitable homes, poor things.
My first tip is that many shade-loving plants can actually tolerate quite a bit of sun. If you can, prepare their new home with lots of compost, manure, anything moisture retentive, and be prepared to water well for at least the short term. And mulch! You’ll be surprised how well they manage. You will be able to stop apologizing to them!
The next reminder is—Patience! While you are settling in your shady babies, interplant with shrubs or small trees. Shrubs are excellent for offering quick shade—plant your shade perennials on the opposite side from afternoon sun—let the shrubs absorb the worst of that and the perennials will be happier. Our native fairy bells (the lovely Uvularia) can actually take quite a bit of sun, but looks amazing planted beneath Golden Flowering Currant, –a gorgeous combo because they both flower at the same time.
If you have the space, and have a good source, plant several small trees close together. You’ll be surprised how quickly you can then underplant with shade-lovers such as Foamflower (Tiarella), ferns, the native geranium (Geranium maculatum). Birches are really good for this because they grow quickly. My real favourite is Pagoda dogwood, (Cornus alternifolia). This very versatile native, though an understory tree itself, in my experience will grow in full sun quite happily and its spreading branches quickly offer dappled shade to anything you might like to grow under it. Plant several in a group and underplant with creeping woodland phlox or hepaticas. Pagoda dogwood will also give you seedlings—the birds love the fruit—so you will soon be able to make several groupings.
Quick fixes? —place a large pot and plant on its mostly shady side. The pot becomes a decorative feature and the fern or Jacob’s Ladder (Polemonium) that you plant beside it settles in happily. Plop in a trellis and plant fast growing annuals such as morning glory on it. They’ll love the sun and provide shade behind them for something more luscious such as primulas, Virginia bluebells (Mertensia) or Globeflower (Trollius).
If you are on good terms with a carpenter, build a trellis or pergola—instant shade. If you are fortunate to have lots of space and access to said carpenter, build a shade house. This is, of course, a more extravagant undertaking. But it will provide a space to baby new plants, grow on seedlings, nurture some true shade lovers while your trees and shrubs grow, and enjoy a cup of tea or cool drink sheltered from that glaring sun.