 |
| This hosta gets just the right amount of sun and shade. |
As the earth rotates on its axis, the shadows lengthen and shorten with the seasons. If you plan your garden in winter, the shadows (or the sun) that you plan around may not be there when you begin to plant! Depending upon your landscape design, these little pockets of sun and shadow can make planting difficult. The shadows are moving now - have you been noticing them?
Shadows made from your home can also work to your advantage. I have a gardenia and a rose planted next to each other, thanks to the shade from my home that gives the gardenia shade all day except for early in the morning. The rose, although it is next to the gardenia, is planted at a different angle, and it gets shade only in the late afternoon. I can not tell you how tickled I am to have a rose and a gardenia blooming next to each other!
 |
| The rose in front and the gardenia in back will soon be blooming together. |
In another area of my garden, I have a rose planted next to a hydrangea. The rose receives morning sun, but is shaded in late afternoon by a tall tree some feet away from it. Here in the south, hydrangeas need protection from the sun. So, the hydrangea is actually shaded by the rose in the morning, and by the tree in the afternoon. Planting shade loving plants and sun loving plants together have become like a little game to me.
And if you have a difficult area to work around, try to be creative. My hardest area to plant was an area that received full shade until late afternoon. Too much shade for most sun loving plants, yet the setting sun would burn any shade loving plant to a crisp! My solution? I planted a tree in front of that spot, and the sun's blazing rays are blocked. No more crispy plants!
 |
| A tree planted in front of this fence protects the plants in back of it from the harsh afternoon sun. |
Gardens are greatly affected by shadows. Look for them. Maybe you will be able make a game of the sun and shadows in your own garden.
You're right you really have to use your conditions for the right plants. I have planted a couple more trees this year in my back to help, but it will be at least a few more years before they even start to help. Your tree there was the right thing for that garden and looks like a great tree too.
ReplyDeleteCher Sunray Gardens
I have some trees that I will probably lose in a couple of years, or less. Then the conditions there will change drastically! Sometimes shadows are trickier than we initially think!
DeleteVery good planning, Holley. More gardeners should heed and their would not be so many unhappy plants.
ReplyDeleteIt can be difficult to understand shadows and light unless we are out there taking notice. But it's those little areas that are the most difficult that give me the biggest amount of satisfaction - after I've figured them out!
DeleteI'm still trying to figure out my shadows from everything. The hard part is now the trees are growing and where I used to have sun I now have shade. I think understanding it all is vitally important. So happy about your gardenia and rose side by side! I know that is heaven and I can just picture how pretty!
ReplyDeleteI have an area that went from full sun to full shade after planting some trees. It was very difficult for me to re-think what I had learned about that area.
Deletemy RIP list has taught me that the only true shade I have is along the south-facing wall of the house, where I grow Pelargonium tomentosum. The only indigenous scented pelargonium with soft minty leaves demanding shade.
ReplyDeleteThat is like our hydrangeas here. The saying is to always put hydrangeas on the north side of the house - where, here, it is always shady.
DeleteYou are right. It isn't so easy to find the right place to the right plant...Have a nice weekend!
ReplyDeleteNo, it's not always easy, and I still have a few plants that I need to move around that are now getting shade where before it was sunny.
DeleteThe light and shadow play in the garden and your photos show it! We here need more sun and all the plants seem to be more contrast having sun and shadow.
ReplyDeleteAt my house, I have very little shade, but as the trees grow that I have planted, I'm beginning to have to learn more about shade plants!
DeleteMy backyard is full of tricky bits, sun in summer, shade in winter. The trick is planting plants that tolerate sun and shade, and my roses get sun in the warmer months when they need it. I have trees growing only along one fence, where the shade will not matter in a few years. You definately have to think ahead when your planning a garden and pay attention to the seasons. Good post Hollygarden.
ReplyDeleteI think where it is sunny in summer and shady in winter is tricky, too. You have to really watch carefully to know exactly what to plant. One of the hardest places I ever planted was an evergreen groundcover that would get full shade in winter and full sun in summer.
DeleteI like your solution for late afternoon sun - I also found an area like that the hardest to plant. Lucky you to grow gardenias, I wish you could photograph the scent...
ReplyDeleteYes, that afternoon sun can really be hard, but it's harder when there's no light until it gets hit by that harsh sun. As the tree grows, it's beginning to become the umbrella of shade I planned for it to be.
DeleteWell put! It is for sure one of the hardest games we play! I have yet to conquer it!
ReplyDeleteSometimes it's easy, but sometimes it takes a lot of watching to know exactly how much shade an area gets. It's not always obvious!
DeleteI often curse the dry, barren patches of my garden - until reading this post I never thought of it as a game where I had a part to play. This wet, dreary summer made me realise how much hydrangeas love shade, the mopheads have been quite spectacular.
ReplyDeleteI, too, hate the dry patches in my garden. I think most plants prefer a little too much water instead of too little!
DeleteThat's a great game! I love doing little tricks like that with plants. No one else knows (or cares) how clever I have been, but I get a lot of satisfaction anyway. Major points for a rose and a gardenia together!
ReplyDeleteYou are right - it's a personal satisfaction game, since most people would never notice what was blooming together. It's still fun to play!
DeleteYou are very right, but since i don't often stay in the garden because I come home only 2x a month, living in the concrete jungle of the city at the 5th floor. In my we.st window I always see the position of the sun based on a big church very prominent as the baseline. And the sun shifts so very far to the north in a year and i think it even widens as years pass! I wonder if that is alarming or not!Now it is again going back to position
ReplyDeleteIt would be very interesting to know if it really is widening! I think the planets do a lot more than we realize!
DeleteI must say that this is an interesting way to approach planting. I would not have thought that a rose and hydrangea or a rose and a gardenia could coexist, but with a bit of clever thinking you have made it possible.
ReplyDeleteI have always loved roses and hydrangeas, and I have always wanted to have them blooming together. The hydrangea was planted there this year, but I hope next year my dream will come true and they will bloom beside each other!
DeleteYou are SO observant. I charted the sun in my front yard for a full season before I planted the border. Amazing how the house and changing role of the sun make a difference in the plants you should choose, isnt it? I now have to take into consideration the trees growing, and how their growth is changing the lighting in the garden. Isnt it great to be so connected to our environment that we notice these things!
ReplyDeleteThat is so smart of you to chart the sun for some time before planting. Just looking outside one day, and making decision on the shade patterns during that one particular time, can bring a lot of tears to a budding gardener.
DeleteGreat advice...Little different for me here. I have shade that is dry due to mature trees. So it is a great challenge. I actually long for sun here. Of course it depends on your challenges where you are...dry shade, flooded areas these are my challenges that I am working through...
ReplyDeleteDry shade is the worst, I think. I have a couple of areas like that, and they are always a source of frustration.
DeleteYour right about shadows from the house. It really takes time to understand how those shadows work through the seasons. The bed along the east side of the house, for example, gets way more sun than I realized during the summer.
ReplyDeleteI am always amazed how much the shadows can move. It is hard to plan in winter what will be planted in summer if the sun is not taken into consideration.
DeleteOur neighbors can affect our garden by what they grow or let come up wild. My neighbor has let some Tallow Trees growing on his side of the fence making my vegetable beds get too much shade. I will have to go for a visit ...will have to take some sweets along. They say the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. I hope it works.
ReplyDeleteI hope they will see your side of it. Perhaps if you share a few tomatoes, they will want your vegetable beds to get more sun! Good luck!
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely a tricky aspect of gardening. And then there are the seasonal variations, too. For example, My back garden faces south. So it gets tons of sun in winter and early spring, before the Oak trees leaf out. But it's deeply shaded in summer. You wouldn't think Peonies would grow well at all, but if they form buds before the Oaks leaf out, they do quite well. Great post!
ReplyDeleteSounds like the perfect area for some camellias, if it's not too cold there for them. Peonies sound beautiful there!
DeleteShadows simply add another dimension to the garden and can enhance the beauty of plants (as well as their growth of course). Nice subject matter! :)
ReplyDeleteShadows are very important - and as you say, not only for their survival, but can also enhance their beauty!
DeleteRose and Gardenia that sounds great. The other thing to learn about your garden is where the dry spots are.
ReplyDeleteYes, dry spots can be very frustrating. Especially if you don't realize the problem is with water, and not sun or shade!
DeleteThis is absolutely something I pay attention to, especially now that I need to re-work some parts of my front yard. The shadows and amount of light the area gets now are very different than what it'll get in late spring and summer.
ReplyDeleteYes, the shadows have been moving at a very fast pace lately, it seems. I am always surprised how much the shadows move across my pond from summer to winter, and then back again.
DeleteYou can grow Gardenias in your garden, how lucky you are. Their scent is of another world, but together with roses. I don't know.
ReplyDeleteI do love gardenias. Their scent is wonderful! And they grow well if they are happy. If they're not, though, they let you know!
Delete