Perennial Shade Garden
Perennial Shade Garden & Water
No matter what the optimistic magazine articles tell you, a perennial plant requires water to bloom in an optimum manner. The first thing plants do when they're under water restriction is reduce blooming.
So if you want to have a blooming shade garden, you have to provide enough water.
Remember that trees suck water far more efficiently than perennials and a mature maple tree (for example) can suck upwards of 300 gallons of water a day. A small perennial doesn't have a chance against this bigger plant.
Plants that survive under dry conditions do not necessarily thrive. I want a garden that thrives, not survives.
Rule of thumb: An inch and a half for the tree and an inch and a half for the perennials.
It's about the sunlight
First rule of thumb: Not much thrives under evergreens unless they're planted at the edges of the leaf canopy. The shade is too dense and the moisture too low under most of those trees. That's the way nature designed it and even in the wild forest, not much grows in the shade of an evergreen. Instead of trying to fight this, use mulch.
Other than that, if a plant doesn't get long and leggy in this condition, grow it.
It's About Fertility and Soil Condition
You need to increase soil organic matter under trees if you want to garden successfully. That's a bottom line kind of thing for successful organic gardening with perennials.
The easiest way to do this is to lay down a mulch layer and simply garden in that. Maintain the mulch layer. As it decomposes, it will provide the organic matter to keep the soil healthy. As a side benefit, it also reduces water loss and provides excellent weed control. I'd never garden in the shade (or anywhere else come to think of it) without a mulch layer.
It's about plant choices in the perennial shade garden
There's little point trying to grow perennial plants that want sunlight in a perennial shade garden. Here's a list of perennial shade garden plants that thrive in shade to part shade.
You'll have to experiment with some of these in your own garden and placement within the garden as the light levels are not consistent from garden to garden and even within gardens.
Do you have a question about Perennial Shade Garden?
Click here for gardening questions