Make peace with your shady garden

Shady gardens usually develop gradually as the trees and shrubs in your garden grow. You might find that where you once had thriving annuals and shrubs that flowered profusely, your plants suddenly start looking tired and sick. Shrubs become leggy and bear fewer blooms and the never-ending battle against fungal diseases begins. Other sun lovers fade and eventually die. When you start noticing these symptoms it is time to redesign that section of your garden.

What type of shade?
Before running to your nearest garden centre for shade-loving plants you must fi rst know what kind of shaded garden you have.

Make peace with your shady garden

Moist, full shade
If you have a moist, shaded garden with a running stream or another water feature you will be able to plant many plants that flourish in high humidity. Try tree ferns (Cyathea), indigenous maiden's hair ferns, (Adiantum capillus-veneris), elephant's ears (Alocasia macrorhiza), fuchsia, moss varieties and bluebell bush (Mackaya bella). If the garden is also sheltered, you can try exotic indoor plants such as Bromeliads, Caladium and Diffenbachia (dumb cane). A 'subtropical' shady garden can also be artificially created in a sheltered spot in your garden where there is no direct sunlight by using fine mist sprayers to make the atmosphere moist.

More plants for moist, full-shade gardens

Make peace with your shady garden

Dry, full shade
This type of shady garden is found under trees and mature shrubs in flower beds. While the plants are still young enough light is allowed through but when the branches have grown longer and the bed is in the shade for half the day or longer, it changes into a dark shade garden. Due to the gluttonous root systems of large trees the topsoil in the bed becomes depleted. One of the ways to overcome this problem is to plant hardy shade lovers with shallow root systems, or the kind that like to grow densely together and almost root bound. Clivias (Clivia miniata), fairy crassula (Crassula multicava) and bear's breeches (Acanthus mollis) like these conditions and will survive periods of drought.

More plants for dry, full-shade gardens

Make peace with your shady garden

Light or dappled shade
Sometimes your shaded areas are not under trees but rather in a courtyard or the alleyway between the boundary wall and the house. These types of shady gardens are easier to maintain than those under trees because your plants are not continually in competition with tree roots. However, consider that high walls keep away rain and these beds therefore need to be watered in the rainy season. An organic mulch will help to prevent the soil from drying out too quickly. Although deciduous trees can cast deep shade in the summer months, they also allow a considerable amount of light through in autumn, winter and early spring. Since most garden flowers in a natural habitat adapt to the life cycle of the deciduous forest trees under which they grow by becoming dormant in summer, you can use the same clever plan under your trees that shed their leaves. Plant spring bulbs such as narcissus, freesias, hyacinths, grape hyacinths, snowdrops (Leucojum) and annuals such as fairy primulas (Primula malacoides), pansies and violets around deciduous trees for an abundance of colour. In summer, perennials such as Helleborus (Lenten rose), dwarf agapanthus, Sutera and Vinca minor will hold the fort.

More plants for light shade

Make peace with your shady garden

Semi-shade
If your bed only gets partial shade – two to six hours per day – even plants that like full sun will do well but those that prefer full shade will deteriorate.

Plants that flourish in semi-shade