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What Kind of Shade? - Part Two - Dry Shade

© Marge Talt

In my heavily wooded garden, most of my shade is dry shade. This dryness is due to the intense root competition from the mature trees who want every drop of moisture for themselves. You will also find dry shade immediately next to a building or a masonry wall.

If your shady conditions are dry, you will need to resign yourself to providing extra water during hot summer months in order to grow anything beyond Pachysandra terminalis (Japanese Spurge) and Lamiastrum galeobdolon ( Lamium galeobdolon, Golden Dead Nettle, Yellow Archangel). Even these tough ground covers will need an extra drink during times of drought.

Roof overhangs are designed to keep water away from building walls and foundations, and grades are generally sloped away from a building for the same reason. A tall, freestanding, masonry wall can, depending on orientation, deflect a fair amount of rainfall from the ground at the base of the wall. Porous masonry can also absorb a certain amount of water. These factors cause the soil to be dryer at the base of walls than it is only a few feet away from them.

I find it best to leave at least 18" between a planting bed and a building. If you want to plant a medium to large growing shrub next to a building, you need to place it far enough away from the building to leave this amount of space between it and the wall when it matures. Maintaining this space between plantings and a building keeps plants away from the driest area, promotes better air circulation reducing chances of fungal diseases and lessens most plants tendency to lean away from a wall in search of light. It also gives you somewhere to walk or at least put a foot while tending the back of the bed. If I had a tall, freestanding, masonry wall, I would use this same rule of thumb. My masonry garden walls are all less than 3' tall, so I'm not as particular about keeping plants away from them, since they don't really block rainfall or air circulation to any noticeable extent.

In addition to supplemental watering, incorporating copious amounts of organic material (compost, leaf mould, rotted wood chips, etc.) into the soil will help hold moisture as well as improving tilth (the physical condition of the soil in respect of how well it supports plant growth). A permanent mulch of chopped leaves, wood chips, pine bark or even gravel will also keep moisture from evaporating as well as assist in maintaining more even soil temperatures.

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