Epimedium blooms in late April and May. These leaves often persist through winter.
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How do you turn the dry, shady areas beneath trees and large shrubs into beautiful garden spots lush with color and texture? That is one of the toughest challenges for many gardeners. Most ornamental plants want plenty of sunlight and moisture to thrive. What to do when the thirsty roots of large woodies soak up the moisture from the soil, and their dense canopy cuts off the sun?
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Athyrium niponicum grows with Saxifraga stolonifera in dry shade under a hedge of large shrubs, just a few inches from our driveway.
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Many of us gardening in established neighborhoods face this challenge. Our shady spots may be under trees, near foundations, in the shade of a neighbor’s home, or around overgrown shrubs. If we try to maintain a lawn, it’s thin and patchy. Weeds invade where grass is slow to grow.
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Gravel makes for a very good mulch over newly planted areas, especially on sloping ground.
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If we give up and do nothing, then we’re left with these ugly, bare spots in our yard that may even begin to erode after heavy rains. There are ways to work with these areas to transform them from bare to beautiful.
Luckily, there are some reliable perennials that will grow well in dry shade if we give them just a little encouragement. A useful garden mantra, ‘Right plant, right place!’ is the first key to success in dry shade. We can also make the spot a little more accommodating and dress it up a bit with some simple infrastructure.
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Have you ever noticed how the ground under a rock is cool and moist? Rocks, bricks, pavers and gravel all help hold moisture in the soil. Using these to border and build your planting area will help conserve moisture and provide cool, moist places for the roots of your shade perennials.
Simply laying a single layer of landscaping bricks around the area you plan to cultivate begins the garden making process. You can also use large rocks, cinder blocks, wood, or even shallow pots. If you use cinder blocks or pots, fill the openings with compost or potting soil and plant them up, too!
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The stump garden begun in 2015 with a pair of ferns has grown into this beautiful section of our fern garden, as it was in May of 2018. Once begun, gardens tend to expand.
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After you outline the new bed, spread a few inches of compost to improve the soil, hold moisture and provide a little more depth for planting the roots of new plants. You can’t dig it in if you are planting over the roots of a tree or large shrub, but don’ worry.
Earthworms and other invertebrates in the soil will appreciate the compost and move it down into deeper layers of soil for you. Adding an inch or so of fresh compost each spring will help improve the soil further with each passing year. If there are weeds or grass in the area already, then lay some paper grocery bags or several layers of newsprint over the existing vegetation and then cover the paper in compost.
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Butterfly garden in March 2012, trimmed, weeded, and with a fresh topping of compost.
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Care must be taken to not bury the woody roots too deeply. They don’t like that! You also can’t pile compost or mulch up the woody trunk of a tree without harming it. ‘Mulch volcanoes’ climbing tree trunks and burying roots invite disease and weaken a tree. Keep your new layer of compost a few inches away from the root collar and trunk of any nearby trees or large shrubs.
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If you can only dig a few inches deep in an area where you want to place a well rooted plant, consider partially burying an attractive clay pot. If you can enlarge the drainage holes without breaking the pot, do so and allow the plant’s roots room to escape and find their own way deeper into the soil. Planting this way can also protect tasty plants from moles and voles. I sometimes use this strategy for tender Hostas and Caladiums, that want to stay moist all of the time.
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This experimental raised bed under a dogwood tree is bordered with hypertufa planters and planted with a combination of hardy Begonia and ferns, with a few Caladiums planted each spring.
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The pot helps you create a soil ‘microclimate’ for these particular plants. Those pots also help other plants near them. Unglazed terra cotta can absorb and hold water, releasing it back to the soil and roots as needed. Likewise, if you place decorative pavers, stones, planters, etc. within the bed, they will also help to hold moisture and roots can grow under them.
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“Soil security”
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If you are planting on a dry, shady slope, use this idea to create terraces. Each terrace will hold some of the rain water that otherwise would simply run off. Planting behind the pavers or timbers used to create each terrace offers a moist spot for roots. I’ve also used pieces of broken pots to create planting niches on a slope. Once the roots grow in, after a season or two, you can often remove the broken pot to use elsewhere.
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The terraces help stop erosion, holding moisture behind the stones long enough that it sinks in rather than just runnimg off.
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Choose plants in small pots. Given a choice between a 2″ pot and an 8″ pot, choose the smallest size available. You may not be able to dig a very large hole, and the smaller root balls will be easier to plant. Sometimes you can knock a new plant out of its pot and divide it, then plant the smaller sections, with their roots. Check to make sure that each crown or stem has some roots attached before separating it from the parent plant. This will work with many vines, with Hostas and with many ferns. You can cover more ground initially with fewer new plants by dividing as you plant.
Use a sharp, narrow digging tool. You might use a butcher knife, a hori hori, or a narrow trowel to dig out small areas between roots for new plants.
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Larger potted perennials can often be split into divisions and planted in much smaller holes.
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Also choose a couple of plants that will quickly spread out as ground cover. Some plants, like Lamium, or dead-nettles, will grow quickly and strike roots at the leaf nodes. This is a good strategy for plants to survive in dry shade, because they have lots of roots supporting their stems, leaves and flowers. Once you have this established, you can easily dig up divisions, with roots, to move around. Vinca minor will also grow this way and bloom each spring. These plants can become invasive, so plan to keep their growth contained so they don’t overwhelm other plants in your scheme.
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Ferns and Lamium grow in one of the shadiest areas of our garden, below a stand of hazel trees. From this small beginning in 2014, the Lamium spread out to cover a very large area. It grows a bit further each year, carpeting a dry, shady area where its needs are met.
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Plants like Ajuga and Saxifraga spread by stolons. Each rosette of leaves strikes its own roots, but several stolons, or runners, will radiate out from each plant, forming a new little plant at the end of each of these creeping ‘stems.’ A thick mat of plants will form within a few years. You can dig up any rosette, once it has a few leaves, and transplant it to another area.
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The Lamium spread to cover the entire area after just a few years.
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There are a surprisingly large number of flowering plants that will grow in ‘dry shade.’ Some will need moist soil for the first year or two as they establish, and then once their roots grow deep, they can survive on their own without a lot of extra water during dry spells. Native gingers, hardy Cyclamens, ivies, Hellebores, Pachysandra, Liriope, Epimedium, perennial Geranium macrorrhizum, and some spring bulbs like Hycinthoides (Spanish bluebells) and Muscari will thrive.
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Saxifraga spreads by stolons
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Italian Arum thrives in dry shade from September through May, but will disappear during the summer. You might balance it with Hostas , which will emerge just a few weeks before the Arum fades, or with Caladiums. Mayapples, Podophyllum, will appear in March and disappear by July. But their striking leaves add drama to a planting in the shade. Highly poisonous, deer and rabbits won’t touch them.
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Mayapples and Vinca cover the ground in this narrow area under large Azalea shrubs.
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Hostas will grow well once established, thought they can’t stay dry for extended periods of time. Heucheras and Tiarellas will also grow well in partial shade. They will bloom better if they get some sun in the early spring. If you have rabbits or deer browsing in your garden, you will need to protect the Hostas and Heucheras with animal deterrents.
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Although we may think of ferns as plants for moist areas, some will perform well in dry shade, too. Native Christmas ferns, Polystichum acrostichoides, Japanese painted ferns, Athyrium niponicum, and autumn fern, ‘Brilliance’ are among those that do very well in dry shade.
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Plants growing in dry shade will most commonly bloom in late winter and early spring, before the leaves on deciduous trees grow back into a thick canopy. During the rest of the year, the garden depends on foliage color and texture for its interest.
When designing for dry shade, consider the various leaf colors, textures, plant heights, and shapes to design a harmonious composition. You might create a very restful, harmonious scene by repeating the same limited palette of plants over the entire area. You can also create drama with dramatic foliage plants like Caladiums and Hosta.
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Many dry shade plants are evergreen, holding their places throughout the year. But plan for winter when deciduous ferns die back, and also for the months after spring ephemerals disappear. As in other parts of the garden, a little pre-planning allows the display of flowers and foliage to shift and change throughout the gardening year.
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As our climate shifts and summers grow hotter, shade gardening will become more important for maintaining our own health and comfort. Large trees help shelter our homes and gardens from summer’s sun. We may not be able to grow velvety lawns beneath the trees, but we can certainly create beautiful plantings in their shelter.
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As you find tough and beautiful plants that work well in your own microclimate, use them again and again to create a sense of unity throughout your garden. If these are plants that you can easily propagate or divide, you soon realize that this is a thrifty way to create beauty in those challenging spots in your garden.
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Woodland Gnome 2019
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Forest Garden 