Corner Shade Garden – April 2011

The Corner Shade Garden – April is when it all gets seriously growing. It’s not completely full of hosta foliage since the season has really just begun but as the days pass, the plants will grow, and the garden will fill in very nicely! Looking at the corner shade garden through the arbor you can see a Japanese maple that is completely full of leaves already. Head on is the eyesore of the garden – the heating/AC unit – we have to have it, I just need to find a way to screen it. The rock borders have been collected over the years and added to the corner shade garden and several others.

Immediately to the right as you pass beneath the arbor is the Japanese maple again along with a rain barrel I bought last year (Amazon link). It’s from Fiskars and has done a really nice job of collecting extra water for watering the gardens. I’ve been loading up plastic jugs and bringing them down to the garden shed to water the plants there. I hope to eventually add a rain barrel by the garden shed too. Irises are just to the right and several feet behind the Japanese maple.

Here’s the main part of the corner shade garden. Hostas like ‘Gingko Craig’ and ‘Patriot’ accompany heucheras, Japanese painted ferns, hellebores, an oak leaf hydrangea, astilbe, and Solomon’s Seal.

These two ajuga plants used to be just one that I divided in the fall. I’m going to let them fill in around the stepping stones to crowd out any potential weeds and weeds I have! The major culprits in this bed are the chickweed and wild strawberries.

From this position we’re looking out from behind the ‘Constellation’ dogwood back toward the rain barrel.

And a little closer! The Solomon’s Seal is on the left top. The really big hosta on the left came from a plant swap two years ago.  To the right of that hosta is a heucherella called ‘Stoplight’. Heucherellas are hybrids of heucheras and tiarellas (Foamflower).  Most of the heucheras in this garden are ‘Palace Purple’ but there is also some ‘Southern Comfort’ hanging around! With a name like that how could your southern garden not have it?

Plants in the Corner Shade Garden:

• Oak Leaf Hydrangea
• ‘Lady in Red’ Hydrangea
• Astilbe
• Hostas: ‘Ginkgo Craig’, ‘Patriot’, and several unnamed
• Hellebores – 2
• Heuchera: ‘Palace Purple’, ‘Southern Comfort’, ‘Mocha’, ‘Fireworks’
• Ajuga
• Solomon’s Seal (Polygonatum odoratum ‘Variegatum’)
• Japanese Painted Ferns
• Japanese Forest Grass (Hakonechloa macra ‘Aureola’)
• Pokeweed – those Mockingbirds planted it – time to weed!