Garden Glimpses: Made in the Shade
I’ve put a lot of time, energy and money into establishing a diverse shade garden under the canopy of the paper birch and Norway maple in the southwest corner of the yard. Flanked by a large, now ancient, stand of mixed lilacs in the south and the new eight-foot fence in the west, further screening it from the sun, the area cried out for development, and after three years, my efforts are beginning to pay off. The problem was the rootiness of the area, the lack of proper amendment to the dense clay soil, and the insatiable appetite for moisture from the shallow-rooted birch, which creates a dry shade environment in its drain field.
