When we bought our home, we loved that it was in the middle of the woods. Cut to four years later, we never want to see another tree ever again. Gardening in the shade is a bit more limiting than in areas with sunlight. While there are beautiful options for shaded areas, I have found it is mostly the same options over and over and over again. I myself love color and flowers, which can be a bit tricky on our property as we have only a few areas that are full sun. Other than removing about 360 trees, we had to get creative.
We went back and forth about what should go in the front area because in the summer it is mostly shade, but in the winter it gets a lot of sun because there aren’t any leaves on the trees. So we decided this would be a good spot for rotating plants for different seasons. We started with Mandevilla, because I love Mandevilla, and it needs a bit of protection from the sun, but it didn’t perform as well as I was hoping so we dug it all up and transplanted it and were back at square one. We decided to go with impatiens since they tolerate a lot of shade. We couldn’t find enough of the same color from our local nurseries, so we have an interesting array of colors that kind of resembles a Lisa Frank painting, but I am just so happy to see some color. After planting them, we decided it still needed more. We decided to try some Begonias and Coleus.
Now, as an adult, I have always had an an aversion to Begonias because my grandmother would make me plant HUNDREDS of them every summer for her when I was growing up. So after I worked through that childhood trauma, I decided to trial some in the front area of our house. They have done AMAZING. With just minimal soil amendments they bloom constantly! I interspersed some Coleus in there as well and it has also done amazing.
While this year we are mostly trialing things out, we have discovered some great options for this area. It may look like a wild reject Lisa Frank painting, but I am in love because I get to see color and can work out a layout and color scheme for next year!
