A Garden in Sun and Shade

Pink flowers litter the path like confetti. It's been raining this June morning and the everything is wet and glossy. 

Wow! Does green every get more vivid than this, I wonder?  

You never know what you'll find when you enter a backyard garden. 

That element of surprise is always exciting...even when the weather is a bit damp and miserable.

The garden I am about to show has a wide, but shallow backyard. Mature trees blur the boundaries of the garden however, making it feel much larger than it is. 

The heavily laden Beauty Bush, with its arching branches of pale pink flowers, is one of the first things that catches your eye. This large shrub takes full advantage of a small break in the tree cover and resides happily in a small pocket of sunshine.

Beauty Bush, Kolkwitzia has a fountain shape with branches that hang in long, sweeping arcs. Plant a Beauty Bush in full sun in average garden soil. This shrub blooms on old wood, so prune it in spring after it flowers. Periodically cut old canes to the ground to renew the shrub. Height: 8-10', Spread: 8-10' USDA Zones: 5-9.

A few of the shade perennials identified:

I haven't noted the hosta, but suffice it to say, they form the foundation of this shady planting.

1. Bloodroot, Sanguinaria 2. Yellow Fumitory or Yellow Corydalis (a long blooming self-seeder) 3. Bleeding heart, Dicentra 4. Goat's Beard, Aruncus dioicus (a young plant, as it is quite small) 5. Violet 6. Heuchera 7. Pulmonaria 8. Lady's Mantle, Alchemilla

A nearby dogwood tree is also covered with small, star-shaped blossoms.

Goat's Beard, Aruncus dioicus is a great, large-sized perennial for any shade garden:

Goat's Beard, Aruncus dioicus has feathery white plumes mid-summer. It has green, ferny foliage, which are quite attractive in its own right.  Full sun or part shade.  Height: 120-180 cm (47-70 inches), Spread: 90-150 cm (35-59 inches.) USDA Zones: 2-9.

A path crosses the length of the backyard and then leads back around to the front of the property. When you reach the front corner of the house, a wooden bench greets your arrival. 

A tree lends privacy to this little courtyard, while a small fountain provides the pleasant ambience of splashing water.

Often when homeowners dispense with the grass at the front of their home, they replace it with a cottage style or natural meadow garden that can seem out of step with the other properties in a suburban neighbourhood. I thought that this more restrained approach to a front garden was a nice alternative.

It's hard to capture a large front yard in a single shot, but what the homeowners have done is terrace the area just in front of the house. A set of steps takes you from the upper terrace down to a garden at street level. 

What I think makes this design approach work:

• This front yard is not a jungle of plants. The garden looks neat enough to fit in with the other front yards and their tidy green lawns. 

• There is great use of open space. Never think that you need to fill every square inch of your garden with plants! Some open space is restful to the eye.  Here a thick layer of mulch creates a path that leads you through the garden.

• Color, texture, shape and height have all been carefully considered. For instance, the soft, grey foliage of a Dianthus sits nicely in front of the spear-shaped foliage of a Bearded Iris. Grey, variegated and burgundy leaves break-up all the green. Low growing plants hide the less-than-attractive feet of the taller plants behind them.

• Imagine the same area without the bench and the metal obelisk. The garden just wouldn't be the same! These two objects really compliment the planting. In contrast with the perennials, the bench is chunky and solid. The obelisk, on the other hand, adds a linear element to the heart of the garden.

• The boxwood hedge that runs down the side and part way across the front of the yard contains the garden like a frame. It also presents a neat and orderly face to the street. 

A closer view of the steps that lead down from the terrace.

Groundcovers and diminutive perennials like perennial geraniums (white flowers) are the perfect choice to fill out the area adjacent to the steps. 

These perennials are so densely packed weeds would have a challenge getting established!

A few of the full sun perennials identified:

1. Ornamental Grass (possibly Northern Sea Oats) 2. Shasta Daisy 3. Penstemon 'Husker Red' 4. Bearded Iris 5. A small daylily like Daylily, 'Happy Returns' 6. Basket of Gold, Aurinia saxatilis  7. Pinks, Dianthus 'Essex Witch'

The rain is really starting to come down as I head back to the shelter and comfort of the warm car. 

A garden that was a pleasant surprise indeed... even on a wet morning in early June!

Hostas have some of the Best Names!

I think I know why this Hosta was named "Wheee".

"Wheee!" is what raindrops cry out then they slide down those curvaceous leaves!

Hosta breeders seem to have a sense of humour when it comes to naming their creations.

Somebody must be a Marvel Comics fan. The hosta you see above is named Hosta 'Wolverine'. It has curvy, tapered leaves that are blue-green with creamy-yellow margins. Height: 15-18" Spread: 40".

Hosta 'Eskimo Pie' (below) has puckered leaves with creamy-yellow to white centres. Its flowers are white. Height: 26 inches, Spread: 32 inches.

Whenever I begin to feel a bit snobbish and dismissive about Hostas, I'll come across a garden that reminds me just how terrific they can be when they are mixed creatively. 

If you love playing with texture, foliage size and color, Hostas have so much to offer. 

This is a backyard in Mississuaga, Ontario. As you can see, the lot is wider than it is deep. Mature trees around the perimeter of the yard result in a shady garden.

Here the grass does not function as a traditional "lawn". It's more of a pathway that leads you in amongst the various garden beds. 

As you can tell almost immediately, this is a Hosta lovers garden.

Let's start on the left and take a walk around, shall we?

The brick on the main floor of the house is covered with ivy, and in the lefthand corner of the picture, you can see that a Euonymus also trails up the side of the house.

Do you like this combination of blue-green and deep burgundy as much as I do? Most of the Hostas in this garden were well marked, but this one seems to have eluded a plant tag.

At the very bottom of the picture above, and in the image below, is Hosta 'Gypsy Rose' with its distinctive centre band of lime. 'Gypsy Rose' is apparently a mutation of the Hosta 'Striptease'. It can be expected to reach a modest height of just 15".

(Aside: Have you ever seen the classic movie about striper Gypsy Rose Lee? She was a vaudeville burlesque entertainer who used humour to play up the "tease" in "striptease".)  

Hosta 'Gypsy Rose'

Hosta 'Wirlwind' has foliage that changes color throughout the season. Its slug resistant leaf is creamy-white with green veining in spring, light green during the summer and dark green in late summer. Lavender flowers. Height: 20 inches, Spread: 40 inches.

Hosta 'Paradigm' has gold leaves streaked with blue-green. The foliage is tough and corrugated also making it slug resistant. Lavender flowers. Height: 20 inches, Spread: 36 inches.

Hosta 'Night Before Christmas' is a mutation of Hosta 'White Christmas'. It has thicker leaves than 'White Christmas' and wider leaf margins. Purple flowers. Height: 18 inches, Spread: 36 inches.

I wonder if the person who named this next Hosta was a fan of the vampire book series?

Hosta 'Twilght' has dark green, slug resistant leaves with yellow edges and purple flowers. Height: 22 inches Spread: 30 inches. 

Sorry, another unidentified pair, but again, what a nice color combination! 

As I type this I making a mental note to look for a small chartreuse Hosta to mix in with a blue-green Hosta this coming spring.

For anybody new to gardening, a few tips on growing Hostas:

Hostas grow best in moist, well-drained soil. Dappled sunlight and rich, sandy loam is best for good, strong growth. Morning sun will help intensify leaf colors, but hot afternoon sun won't be appreciated.

Hostas are very easy to propagate through division. I always get to work early in the spring and divide them as soon as the tight cones of new foliage poke up a few inches above the ground. You can still divide them later in the season, but you run a greater risk of damaging the foliage if you wait until the leaves fully unfurl. If you don't get around to dividing your hostas in the spring, you can also do it in the fall.

Dig up your Hosta and then cut through the clump with a really sharp shovel. Each division should have about three of the tight foliage cones.

Mulching is a great idea as it helps to keep the soil around your hostas moist. I always use a natural cedar mulch.

Holes in the foliage are a sign of slug damage. Various remedies for slugs is perhaps the subject for another post. To avoid this problem, look for varieties with thick, leathery leaves that state they are "slug resistant". 

Another combination that makes use of yellowy-green. I am not sure of the particular Heuchera cultivar here, but Heuchera 'Citronelle' would be one that is similar.

In the far corner of the garden, there is a Red Twigged Dogwood Shrub (Cornus alba). 

I have a few of these Dogwoods in my own garden, the largest of which is about 6' tall by 6' wide. They like part-sun to full sun. It is a good idea to keep a watchful eye on this type of Dogwood for the first summer after you plant it. They resent dry soil and will perish if you let them go too long without water. After that first year, they settle in pretty nicely and don't require too much pampering. 

The shrub's stems are brilliant red in winter. (A little tip: Each year it is a good idea to prune out a few of the older branches in late winter to reinvigorate the shrub. Pruning encourages fresh growth and that terrific red color.)

Now that we have reached the far corner, we'll head back on the opposite side.

A shady container planting that incorporates Coleus (both multi-colored and lime-colored) with Sweet Potato Vine and Creeping Jenny.

It was raining on the day of the garden tour (June) and you can see that the grass was taking a beating.

Some people might say this garden is fairly low maintenance, but I would think that there is still a quite a bit of work involved here. Just removing the spent flower stems on all these hostas would require quite a bit of effort!  

I'd think there would be times, in a garden like this, where you'd have a lot to do and periods during the summer where the upkeep would be much less labor intensive.

Later in the gardening season there are colorful Phlox and Daylilies (in a few of the sunnier pockets).

Euonymus standards flank the front door. The mix of the blue Junipers and the lime-colored hosta is really nice. The taller perennial is a mid-summer Phlox.

Most of the established part of the garden is at the back of the house, but there were some nice plantings at the front of the house as well. 

Below is a really popular Hosta called 'Sum and Substance'. It's one of the largest Hostas available with a spread that can reach five or six feet. The leaf color varies from chartreuse to gold depending on the amount of sunlight. The flowers are pale lavender.

I'll have more shade garden posts in the coming months.

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