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Starting a Shade Garden
05/22/12
Kathy Burns-Millyard
Starting a Shade Garden
The shade garden can be exploding with color and texture. No matter how much
shade is in your landscape, the right flowers, plants, bushes and bulbs will
grow in this area when given a chance. As there are various types of shade,
you will need to choose the plants that are 'right' for the type of shade you
have: partial, dense, full, or filtered shade.
In starting a shade garden, one of the easiest shade gardens will be the filtered
shade garden. What you need to do first is look at the trees or bushes that
are making this area a filtered shade garden. Pruning off the lower branches
on taller bushes and on the tree will allow additional light into your garden.
Because you are planning a filtered shade garden, you do want some amount of
sunlight in that garden below the tree.
Thinning out the bottom saplings that are trying to grow from the tree is needed
at this time to ensure they do not grow up in your garden. Underbrush and thorny
bushes should be cut down and dug up at this time before starting your shade
garden.
Now you can work on the soil that is in the area that you want to create that
new garden. Adding organic materials, more soil, compost, manure or other types
of nutrients to the soil will prepare the fine garden bed that will hold your
shade plants.
When possible, do not disturb the roots of the tree that will be in or around
the garden area. Cutting or disturbing the roots of a tree can cause damage
or death to the tree over time. Working with the soil and adding the needed
materials to make your garden about six inches deep is going to be the ultimate
situation for your new plants.
After planting your first shade plants in the garden continue to water them
every few days until the roots begin to 'take hold' and support the plants.
When placing your plants in the soil of your new garden, mulching around the
plants will hold the water in the soil for your plants to thrive best.
This article is provided courtesy of The Garden Source Network - http://www.garden-source.com
- a large gardening network devoted to helping you find all the gardening materials
you need, such as Seeds, Live Plants, Roses, Trees and Beautiful decor. This
article may be distributed and published on any website, as long as this statement
and URL remain intact, and the website address is linked properly.
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