SHADE GARDEN

Welcome to Peru, Venezuela, Hong Kong, Morocco and Serbia.  That makes  63 countries!





In my yard, I am slowly losing sunlight because of  my maturing trees.  It has been a struggle growing grass the past few years, lots of shade, not a lot of moisture.  3 large pine trees sit in a triangular pattern so the pine needles can act as mulch as they fall.  I have not raked them up in about 3 years.

So I gave up last year and decided to reduce my lawn size by turning this area into a shade garden.  I took small areas and covered them with newspaper and/or large pieces of cardboard when available.  I then threw leaves, grass clippings, mulch, and  pine needles on top of the cardboard to cover it.  This helped to kill the remaining grass so it wouldn't grow through the mulch.



The newer area I started working on still had grass breaking through.  My husband and I bought some artwork this year and saved the HUGE cardboard boxes they came in.

Grass still poking through

Large pieces of cardboard

I have been slowly adding small shrubs, trees and perennials as I run across them.  I did plant about 4 or 5 native ferns last fall, but the bunnies must have eaten them to the ground so severely they could not recover.  I also lost a small dogwood tree. And the Bayberry and hydrangea are oddly shaped due to bunny pruning.

Rabbit damage on small dogwood tree - RIP

In the older part of the garden I have a hemlock tree, a young Paw Paw tree, pee wee hydrangea (native), and a bayberry.

bayberry is the strange shrub on the left.

pee wee hydrangea

For plants:  hosta, columbine, painted fern, helleborus, wood aster, and a mystery plant bought from a sale  table at a local nursery for 50% off.

Japanese painted fern

 Since the rabbits decimated all the ferns I planted,  I was shocked to see this fern emerge in the middle of the garden, far away from where they were planted.

mystery fern

wood aster - another rabbit favorite

Hellebore

Hosta

Below is Aguilegia canadensis a native columbine.  It will reseed and spread.  This is the end blossom this year.

Native Columbine

On the other side of the fence is the same shade, but I have plants in an old raised bed that used to hold vegetables about 20 years ago when there was sun.

Astilbe

Black Cohosh - Racemosa

Heuchera - Coral Bells

Dicentrra - Bleeding Heart

Spicebush - lindera benzoin

Above is the Spicebush - the host plant of the Spicebush Swallowtail Butterfly.  The larva has the appearance of large eyes to scare off predators.  I will be checking for these caterpillars this summer.





Below is the Virginia Creeper.  The leaves turn a brilliant red in the fall.  The berries are an important food source for birds in the winter.

Virginia Creeper

Weighing down cardboard with mulch

I will be picking up some mulch this week to finish covering up the cardboard.  Next fall, all the leaves not mowed will be thrown onto this garden.

My neighbors must think I am nuts!

Too Early to Plant

35 countries and counting!  Welcome to Columbia, Czech Republic, Romania, and Spain!

pansies

Touran Neon Rose Saxifraga

hellebore

Earliest flowers

Well, it's been one whole year since I started this blog.  I feel like I am starting all over again!  Seed catalogs have been scoured, existing seeds counted and ordering of new seeds has begun.  I will be setting up my lights this month to start a lot of seeds.  Learned a lot, that was my goal with this blog.  I wanted to keep a good record so I knew what to change the next year.  I will not be growing potatoes this year.  I had a wireworm infestation last year.  That is the larval stage of the click beetle.  I really didn't like paying too much attention when I cleaned the potatoes and had to cut away the parts that were eaten. Yuk. The stink bugs did a number on my tomatoes at the farm garden, but not in my garden at my house.  So, I am trying sweet potatoes at my house this year, and I will plant my tomatoes in my back yard.






I do use seeds from other planting seasons.  The rate of germination goes down, but when they do germinate, the plants do just fine.  The trick is to put an extra seed or two into the planting cell.
Look for the strongest seedling and then cut the others down to the dirt with a pair of scissors.  Pulling the weaklings out will disturb the root system of the remaining plant and possibly weaken or kill it.








I still have to clean up my perennial beds here at the house and up at the farm. I am waiting for a nice warm day, though.  My hellebores are blooming nicely.  They are also called lenten rose, I assume because they bloom around Lent. The Witch Hazel at the Demonstration Garden is in bloom also.  Smells medicinal, and very clean.

 Our Master Gardener group has taken on a huge project this year.  We are adding on to our existing Demonstration Garden at the Extension office.  A HUGE vegetable garden.  I have even started a blog for that garden for the MGs.  Check us out at  FREDCOMGDEMOGARDEN.BLOGSPOT.COM.

     

On the Mother Earth News website I found a really nice garden planning program.  You design your garden and then post it to the web so others can view it.  I put my first rough draft of one of the garden beds on the web  so my team members could view it and have ideas to change or add when we have our next meeting.
 http://gardenplanner.motherearthnews.com/garden-plan.aspx?p=238647

20x60

Also on my list of garden chores is pruning back my Japanese maple and my magnolia shrub/tree.  We had a professional arborist come out to do the big trees.  Looks great, lots of dead wood and broken branches were taken out.




Checked my oak log inoculated with shitake fungi, nothing yet.