Hurray! Mouse's landlady has finally caved, after much cautious nagging, to let us plant an outdoor garden this year. Mouse is so excited that she was up late last night, laying in bed and plotting about her garden plot. So far she has been over to Plant Native, where you can attempt to create a self-maintaining garden of plants that are sustainable to the place where you live. Unfortunately, the site notes, all bets are off if you live in a city, where the pavement-reflected heat alone effs up the plants that are supposed to like it here. So far, our candidates: tall native grasses, hostas, impatiens, day lilies, Japanese iris*, maybe a row of marigolds or dahlias? Who knows about tall plants that like shade? Anybody know about gardens in Chicago?
P.S.--Did you see the vintage silverware garden markers over at Design Sponge? Whee!
* Day lilies and iris will come from Mouse's mom's garden, which actually does look a bit like the photo.
(Pictured: What Mouse's Garden Could Never Look Like, taken in Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden, South Africa)
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3 nibbles:
My shade garden is in Northern California. So I don't know what happens in the world where the ground freezes and snow falls. Here we can grow amazing hellebores and hydrangeas in the shade. The people who run nurseries in your area will tell you if trying those plants where you live would be sheer insanity or not. Congratulations. Gardens are an unalloyed joy.
That is so fabulous! You are going to have so much fun. I highly recommend Linda Yang's book on city gardening in small spaces - tons of good ideas for shade-loving plants that are winter hardy. Best thing to do is look around at your own microclimate - who is growing what in your neighborhood?
Hydrangea, Japanese anemone, hostas, lupine, coral bells, and hellebores, peonies, begonias (I like the double petal varieties), forget-me-nots, ferns and impatiens like shade.
YAY!
Mmmmmmmmmmmm. This will be wonderful! I second P's advice--see what's growing in your 'hood--though I'm afraid I know more about veg than flowers. Have fun digging in dirt!
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