Home » Plants & Animals » Garden Planning » Foliage To The Rescue! Part 2

Foliage To The Rescue! Part 2

© Nathalie Gignac Henderson

We often have problem spots in our yard and we can transform them with plants which will thrive in them. To plant successfully, you must know how much light the plants will receive each day and the amount of water required. Catalogues usually use symbols to tell you this information. And don't forget the zones. Fall is the best time for planting some plants. The soil temperature is still fairly warm, which helps fall-planted perennials, including trees, shrubs, and vines, to begin building their root system. In spring, the plant will already have started to grow, and will grow faster than spring-planted varieties. So, if you want to do some planting, now is the time to set up your beds!

The Shaded Garden
Diverse foliage textures and colours can grab the attention in shady settings, with little or no help from flowers. But to plant successfully in shade, you have to know what kind of shade you have.

Gardens with cool, dappled shade created by a canopy of tree branches. are called woodland gardens. Partial shade is where an area is in full sun for part of the day and in shade for the rest. Full-shaded areas are always in shadow but receive diffused light. And finally, dense shade is where little or no light penetrates. Such place are often very dry because of the heavy growth over head which obstructs rainfall. You will notice that the catalogue entries for most shady-area plants specify 3 hours to half a day of shade. Most require shade in the hottest part of the day.

To fill a shaded spot, you can use plants such as Hostas which have a bit of gold or light shade leaves, light coloured ferns like Japanese painted fern, caladium, "Silver Queen" winter creeper, astilbe, lily turf, dead nettle, bergenia, and impatiens. Use variegated foliage which has stripes or spots of yellow, white, or red. Many shrubs and trees have coloured foliage, such as the Japanese aucuba, Eastern redbud, Japanese or golden fullmoon maple. Don't forget the effect you want to obtain, choose the plants that will brighten these spots and bring them into view.

Sandy and Infertile Gardens
By adding some green to the desert, a sandy and infertile garden can be fixed. These places are difficult for plants to establish themselves in. Under such conditions, you can put together an arrangement by choosing foliage plants which prefer poor soil. Plants well suited for this include blue juniper, staghorn sumac, beach wormwood, little bluestem, butterfly weed, blue lyme grass, dwarf blue sheep's fescue, yucca, bayberry, lamb's-ears, and "Vera Jameson" sedum.