does full shade mean full shade?

by Clarisse
(Montreal)

Hello, and thank you very much for your website.
I am into Permaculture and try to get in Montreal people's lawn changed for something more useful. this friend of mine has a huge mapple tree in her garden and nothing has grown so far because of the lack of sun and water. It doesnt' die, but it doesn't grow neither. so I was wondering if "full shade" really means no sunlight at all for the all day or is there a minimum required to get plants growing (which would make sens actually!). my friend has not much time to spend in her garden but want to enjoy it, that's why I would like to know about perennial plants able to grow in "full shade".
Thank you very much,
Clarisse.


Doug says that in this case full shade under a maple tree means that not much is going to grow in this kind of shade. It's not so much about the lack of sunlight -as it is the combination of lack of sunlight under the dense leaf canopy and the complete lack of water because maple leaves are very, very greedy.

My normal recommendation is that you can garden on the edges of this plant but that you get to mulch under the rest of it. You either provide enough water for both the tree and the plants or it's a waste of time even trying.