Designing Shade Gardens to Add Colours to Your New Home

Written by: Marwa Imtiaz

Not every plant can survive in dark places, there is a difference between the types of the plants that will survive in different types of shades. The sunlight coming to your garden will help you out to choose the plants for your garden. Here are some different types of shade given below:

Full Shade in the Garden:

A garden that receives more than 6 hours of shade in a day is considered as a garden with no direct sunlight or a small-scale sunlight garden. Gardens with the houses facing northern areas are more shady as compared to the other directions of the house. This mostly happens when the house is surrounded by high and big buildings. 

Limited or Partial Shade Garden:

These types of shade gardens are mostly found in mountainous areas and the manmade wales, structures or the buildings. These make the sunlight not reach the garden space or the sunlight will reach the specific area for just the time in between 2 to 6 hours. The sunlight is completely blocked in these areas at the day time. Shade plants are preferable for such a garden or housing facing towards the east. There is cool morning sunshine or the sun in that area. Unlike, west facing houses experience hotter sun in after-noon times. This can cause the shade plants to burn out. 

Speckled or Spotted Sunlight:

This is the sunlight which is found in the gardens that are in the shade of trees canopy. The spotted pattern is formed due to the sunlight changing its pattern all the day. The amount of sunlight and shade is determined by the size and the number of the trees present at the place. 

Shade Garden Designing Ideas for Adding the Colours:

Here are some inspirations for your shade garden, they includes:

Choose Brighter Colours of the Plants:

Use the light colour of the plants such as light yellows and lighter shades of golden to add up more light into the darkest areas of the shade garden. Plant a bright coloured japanese forest grass at the entrance point to make it more welcoming and to add warmth to that space. So you can sit there in the relaxing time and enjoy the peace there. 

Add Some Creativity into Your Shaded Gardens:

Work on the mixing of fun and odd intonations to create a personalized shaded garden for your home. As shaded gardens are not bright and lightened, to make them more bright consider adding different sized silver sphere balls on random spots in your garden. This will drive the attention towards them immediately. This will reflect the light in the garden and make it more charming. To add more interest, place a small water container made up of marble or any other material. Place some of the balls into that water. It will also give a look of a water or a fairy garden, and make it more interesting for the visitors. 

Add on some Blooming Flowers Shrubs:

This is one of the best corner shade garden ideas, if you want to make a proper lawn type space and feeling in your shade garden, then use these flowering shrubs to create a lining around the space. It will also be colourful to make it more attractive, rather than typical green shrubs. You can also have height to cover the area to sit and also different textures will be added to your garden. Rhododendron is the evergreen shrub that will keep your garden green even in the winter season. Shaded gardens look mesmerizing with such shrubs. 

Use Architecture into your Shade Landscaping:

Find out some antique or architectural pieces to make the look of your garden more interesting. This landscape for the new garden ideas features some round landmarks to create an overwhelming look. Use old drums, tubs or barrels to make containers for the plants. As they can be used in place of pots. Adding different textures, sizes and colours will make your shaded garden more appealing even in the winter season. 

Make Groups of the Plants:

Every plant or 99 percent of the plants look very attractive when they are planted in the form of a group or a clustered form. This will create a very different landscape for your garden. You can use astilbe and sedum to make the clusters of flowers coming out of the land. 

Play with the Shapes:

If you want your garden a masterpiece that everyone compliments, then play such shapes of the green in your garden. Make shapes of the plants using the machine used for cutting plants. Make a heart shaped shrub around some free plants to make it eye-catching. 

Use Shade Friendly Trees in your garden:

To give an interesting look to your garden, create layers in there. To fill up the space of your lower perennials under the canopy of trees by using some tall trees that are shade friendly. This will cover up the gap by architectural technique. The different heights will add different layers, it will ultimately make the garden more attractive. 

Make a Waterfall into your Shade Garden:

To make your garden more appealing by adding a water body like a waterfall into your garden. 

FAQS

What types of plants grow well in shade?

You can plant Foliage plants, Groundcovers, Flowering plants and Perennials in your shade gardens. 

How much sunlight does a shade garden need?

Shade gardens typically receive light from dappled sun, filtered sunlight, or full shade. But there is a difference between partial shade, dappled shade and full shade. 

Can I have flowers in a shade garden?

Yes, you can grow these plants in your shade garden. Such as, Astilbes, Bleeding hearts, Foxgloves, Toad lilies and Impatiens. 

Do shade gardens require a lot of water?

The shade friendly plants retain more water as compared to the sunlight friendly plants, but it wholly depends upon the variations of the soil and weather.