How to Plant Flowers in the Shade
Tackle the problem of a bare, shady spot in your yard by planting shade-loving flowers. Choosing the right plants will produce as lovely a garden as can be found in any sunny spot. Another benefit is to the gardener's time; shade-loving plants are often hardier and require less maintenance. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- A shaded garden spot
- Shovel
- Garden rake
- Fertilizer or topsoil, if desired
- Mulch or compost
- Shade-loving flowers and plants
- Trowel
- Hand cultivator
- Gloves, if desired
Instructions
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Planting Flowers in the Shade
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Prepare your shady garden spot. If no garden has existed there before, you will need to turn over the soil. Use a shovel to dig down about a foot throughout the area you want to plant. Be sure to chop up dense chunks of dirt, and remove any large stones. Use the garden rake to comb through the soil and even it out over the entire area chosen for your garden. If you are planting beneath a shade tree, watch out for tree roots; you may have to plant around them.
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Add fertilizer, topsoil or compost. Depending on the quality of the soil, you may want to add a few bags of topsoil or existing compost into your garden spot. Shade flowers can often tolerate dry soil, but most still like the soil to be rich. Some gardeners prefer not to use a chemical fertilizer, but you can add a flower fertilizer to the soil, spreading it evenly throughout the shade garden. Rake whichever additive you prefer thoroughly into the soil, making an even mixture.
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3
Choose shade-tolerant flowers. Checking with your local nursery is the best approach to finding out which plants are both well-adjusted to your local climate and can grow in shady areas. Consider whether color, foliage, or scent is most important to you when choosing. For instance, hosta plants provide plenty of green foliage to your shade garden, but impatiens or begonia flowers come in a variety of pretty colors and also love the shade. Several ivy varieties also do well in shade, if you provide a trellis or wall for them to climb. Other shade-loving flowers, depending on your climate and amount of shade, include trillium, columbine, phlox, primrose, alyssum and lily-of-the-valley. Also, choose some annuals to give your shade garden a good start next year. Impatiens, violas and Boston fern all are shade-loving annuals. Ask your local nursery for other recommendations. Local wildflowers and native plants may also be perfect for your shady spot.
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Plant your shade garden. Decide where you want each flower or plant to live. Dig a hole for each plant, using a trowel. A good rule of thumb is to dig as big a hole for each plant as the pot it comes in, plus a little extra for its roots to spread out in. Remove the nursery containers carefully, being careful not to tear the roots of your flowers. If they are root-bound, growing in a circle at the bottom of the pot, pull the roots apart gently, so they can begin to grow outward. Place each plant in its hole, and firm up the soil around the hole with your hands, so that the plant is entirely supported by the dirt. Water each plant well. If you like, add in a little bit of fertilizer around each plant's new home.
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Mulch your shade garden. Use any type you prefer, such as leaf mulch, wood mulch, grass clippings (if they have not been treated with herbicides), light compost, or a mixture of any of the above. Apply the mulch in a thin layer, about two or three inches deep, but don't put it over any plant or flower leaves. Rake the mulch into an even layer around the plants with a hand cultivator.
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Tips & Warnings
For ongoing care of your shade flower garden, water it regularly. Gardens generally need about an inch of water each week, so if nature does not provide that much rain, give your shade garden a good soak weekly, especially after a hot day.
Renew the mulch on a regular basis, raking it with the hand cultivator to loosen it. If needed, add more mulch throughout the season. Its purpose is to retain moisture around your plants and keep down weeds, although fewer weeds will invade shady gardens than sunny gardens.
If your shade-loving flowers are planted underneath a tree, they need more frequent mulching and watering, since the tree, as the dominant plant, will use much of the soil's resources. You may also need to add more compost or fertilizer in the beginning stages of preparing your garden. Also, watch out for tree roots when you plant. Don't chop or dig big roots up; your tree needs them.
Before planting, observe how much sun your garden spot really gets. If it is more than four hours in the day, you should select plants and flowers that do well in partial shade, not deep shade. If your spot gets more than six hours of sunlight, it's not a shade garden at all, and you can plant flowers that need full sun.
