Shade Garden 2025
Shade is shade, right? Actually my dear friend and former boss Maurice of Joy Creek Nursery taught me to think of shade in a much more nuanced way. There is deep dark shade from dense tree canopies, light shade from a deciduous canopy, if a canopy has been lifted or thinned then it's likely partial shade. Consider shade from structures. That's a solid dark line of shade that creates quite a temperature change from sunny to dark and cool. Think of a city in the middle of summer in the shade of skyscrapers with wind whipping through. Definitely different from dappled shade of a maple tree in your backyard. Think of shade cast from your neighbor's new four-story ADU. Or, perhaps it's only shady for part of the year then burning hot in summer. Perhaps it's shady for most of the day and then you get a hit of hot afternoon sun for an hour or two. Then there's aspect - is it a slope, is it flat, is it well-drained or swampy? Somewhere in between? North facing, south o...
