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MADE IN THE SHADE
Ways to play with light in a shade garden
July 24, 2020
by Sandra Heinold/Victoria County Master Gardener Intern
Edited by Charla Borchers Leon/Victoria County Master Gardener
PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY SANDRA HEINOLD, VICTORIA COUNTY MASTER GARDENER INTERN
Shown here is lime-colored foliage up against darker green Giant Liriope in the background that not only presents a contrast in reality but also an illusion of shade vs. partial shade in this setting. The light draws the eye to the focal point bird bath in the front of the bed.
PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY SANDRA HEINOLD, VICTORIA COUNTY MASTER GARDENER INTERN
This Regina Blue Walking Iris plant shown here in bloom was planted between 20-foot Photinia shrubs on a mostly shade fenceline bed where dappled light pushes down and through limbs to blooms of the 4-foot Iris. They are eye-catching in their own right but do not demand attention in this setting.
PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY SANDRA HEINOLD, VICTORIA COUNTY MASTER GARDENER INTERN
The Red Salvia coccinea, also known as Blood Sage, Scarlet Sage or Tropical Sage, is a herbaceous perennial with its origins from South America and Mexico that does well in sun to partial shade. It is shown here in a mostly sunny location, which changes to a shadier one as the day progresses in teh mostly shady backyard.
PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY VICTORIA COUNTY MASTER GARDENER BRENDA HEINOLD
This attractive garden rock helps manipulate light in a garden where there are varying degrees of light. It adds artistic interest to this bed in the back with the front areas planted in blooming materials.
Source: Sandra Heinold
Source: Sandra Heinold
Successful gardening in the shade requires using the available light or creating the illusion of light to make something that pleases the eye and achieves the desired effects.
Light in my own garden
Almost my whole backyard could be classified as a shade garden. What I call my real shade garden, though, is the bed along the back fence. It is the shadiest part of the yard with very limited light.
I spent over a year just watching how the light moves across the space, a strip along an eight-foot tall back fence. It is shaded from the west by the fence, a line of 20-foot tall photinias and two towering pecan trees in my neighbor’s yard. Another neighbor’s huge ash shades it on the southeast.
The sun moves diagonally across it and by midafternoon, it is mostly all in deep shade. I had to find ways to allow light into some areas.
Planned pruning; thinned canopy
I mechanically changed the light level in some places by some judicious pruning. The first thing I did was take the lower branches off the photinias to about 6 feet off the ground. That let me use plant material requiring more light.
I also thinned out the canopy in some places to let in pockets of sunlight, which I have used mostly to spotlight blooms on plants that flower in shade. This lets me make use of light at different heights in the bed.
Changed bed border; considered light for plants
Then I curved the border of the bed so parts of it are deep enough to come out into the light which allows different levels of light on the horizontal plane. The part that curves out farthest and gets the most sun is at the western end of the bed. It allows me to stage a focal point birdbath in it that is highlighted by the morning sun and backlit by the evening sun.
I keep the lighting in mind when I decide what to plant around it. The morning and evening sun come in at a low angle and allow for some interesting effects.
One year I put pink begonias on the east of the birdbath and red and burgundy coleus on the west. The backlit coleus provided some spectacular color.
This year I have orange crocosmia on the west, and I can’t wait to see their blooms backlit in the evening. Always remember where and when the light shines so you can use it to good effect and try to think both vertically and horizontally.
Plant colors, contrast achieve light illusions
Color and contrast in plant material can help achieve the illusion of different levels of light.
One of the things I wanted to do with my shade garden was to make my yard seem bigger, so I wanted to accentuate the depth of the bed.
I planted clumps of giant liriope curving through the bed in front of the photinias. Their dark green color and narrow-leaved fine texture visually push them back into the shade, and serve as a dark backdrop for the front part of the bed.
Plants with light green or lime-colored foliage planted in front of them either create the illusion of sunlight when there is none or enhance it when there is light. They also seem to come forward and feel closer to the viewer.
The contrast between the dark behind and the light in front makes the bed seem deeper and is a pleasing combination. It also draws the eye, which can be a useful thing to help accent focal points.
Blue greens also work well to suggest depth in the shade and in the background. (Blues and purples seem to recede in space and yellows and reds seem to come forward.)
I needed a tall plant to fill some space between two photinias at the back of the bed without calling too much attention to itself, so I planted two Regina blue walking irises there. They’re each over 4 feet tall and about as wide, but don’t draw the eye because their blue green leaves make them seem farther away and shadier.
They are planted in one of the areas that gets a few dapples of mid-morning sun, though, and when the sun spotlights their blooms, the effect is magic to me.
Playing with light brings pleasure to shade gardening
Consciously thinking about ways to use the light you have and how to create the illusion of light in the shade is one of the pleasures of shade gardening. And there’s always more to learn. Next year I think I’ll paint the fence behind the photinias black and see what happens.
The Gardeners’ Dirt is written by members of the Victoria County Master Gardener Association, an educational outreach of Texas A&M AgriLife Extension – Victoria County. Mail your questions in care of the Advocate, P.O. Box 1518, Victoria, TX 77901; or vcmga@vicad.com, or comment on this column at VictoriaAdvocate.com.
ph: 361-935-1556
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