The Shade Garden

It has come to my attention that have yet to post anything about my shade garden!!

And I realized why:
Because it's my one success story!
There are no funny accident stories!

But hey, girl's gotta brag when she's got ONE sole thing to brag about!

April 2015 I ripped out yards and yards of vines, vinca (gag!) and hugely overgrown boxwoods and planted my dream: A Shade Garden!!

 I was kind of at a loss for what to grow back there until I started researching shade gardens and wow, did I fall in love!
So many beautiful things for shade areas!
All varieties of Hostas and Coral Bells, Bleeding Hearts and Lamb's Ears and on and on the list goes.
And we finally had a place for the adorable bird house hand-made by my Dad-in-law!
I was very pleased with how it came out!

(Here's the "before" shot from when we first toured the house if you really want to appreciate how far we've come!)

That fall, a friend who is actually a phenomenal gardener, was moving out of state. She wanted to "rescue" at least some of her gorgeous shade garden plants (so she gave them to me?! What was she thinking?!!)
She gave me Astible, a fern, more Hostas, Phlox and goodness I can't even remember what else. It was so exciting! I told her no guarantees they'd be alive when she moved back!
One incredible thing she gave me was Native Ginger...a groundcover that spreads fairly quickly, but doesn't put down horrible roots like so many others; very manageable. And it has these adorable little purple flowers in the spring and again in the summer!

Also that fall I planted my gorgeous Yuletide Camellia (which blooms gorgeous red flowers in December!) in the back corner in the hopes that it truly gets to the 8-10' tall that it promises and fills in that corner!

So here we are last spring when everything started coming back
(which in and of itself is a miracle for me!) ...

I have dozens (hundreds?) of beautiful stones that were underneath an old crushed shed we ripped out and so I started making a little cobblestone walkway...sooooo cute!



Things filled out really well; I was very pleased.
I also painted the bird feeder (also made by my Dad-in-law!) and it is such a cute pop of color (especially on a bleak winter or blah dreary day).

In the fall I moved Hostas around (the one by the white bird house had gotten way too enormous for that space!) and divided up / moved around a few others to fill in the gaps. I want a beautifully smooshed, wild-growing gloriousness in this bed!!

And so far this spring, glorious it is!!

 Bleeding hearts in bloom!

Have I mentioned how much I love Native Ginger?!

I even have mushrooms growing like a magical fairy land! ;-D









Like plants, I also can'at bring myself to throw away beautiful pots, even when they're broken. So they get a resting place in the shade garden!









And of course Google decides to take my photo and make it all "ooohhhh". Pretty crazy!

I rescued this rusted old watering can from its discarded state along
the side of the road while I was jogging at our apartment.
Husband thought I was nuts picking up trash along the side of the road,
but I had a vision! This would become a flower pot in a garden one day when
we bought a house! And lo and behold, over 5 years later it's perfect!

So yes, bask with me in my one success! 

I did have a few grasses that must not have gotten enough sun, so they didn't make it past the first year. And I have a Fuchsia bush who can't seem to get above 6" any given year (supposed to get 3-4' :-/). We took down and thinned out a few crowded trees in the backyard, so we'll see how much extra light that lets in this year.
All in all, though, it is going so well and I absolutely love it. It's a little stress-reliving paradise. Just need to design a bench, have husband build it, get some pillows out there with a book and iced drink and I'm not coming back in!