Swapping Sun for Shade
Gardens are always changing, for one reason or another. The biggest change in my country garden can be from sunny to shady (or vice versa) as new trees grow large, or older trees are cut down. These changes are not always easy to plan for, hmm...
The Logs are cut
In 2017 two of my garden areas were in a complete pickle. One had got too sunny, the other too shady.
Too shady...
The Copper Beech tree over the water race had spread out its leafy arms and was getting rather large. The garden underneath, originally planted with roses, was now super shady all summer long. I just didn't think carefully enough into the garden's future. Trees grow, and Copper Beech trees are wide spreaders. Leaves equal shade. I know all that now.
The Copper Beech Tree
Under the Copper Beech I'd planted a curve of Rhapsody in Blue standards (all recycled, five dollars each), with perennials in the gaps. Early favourites were a green leafed Santolina and a red flowering Monarda. More rescued roses (Golden Celebrations and a Margaret Merril) grew nearby, with yellow and purple pansies underneath. The colour contrast (soft yellows and purple-blues) was all I'd thought about. And design-wise it all started off rather nicely.
Struggling...
But quite soon the roses were struggling in the shade - there was simply not enough sun for them to do well. Those early perennials didn't flourish for very long, either. A cheeky little Euphorbia, given to me by a so-called gardening friend, had taken over. It didn't even notice the increasing shade, and quickly became an invasive nuisance.
Azaleas by the Courtyard
I also needed to relocated all my deciduous Azaleas. Trees that used to provide them with dappled shade had been removed, and as a result the Azalea garden by the driveway had become super sunny - so hot that the leaf edges of the shrubs were being burnt.
What to do?
Aargh! What to do? The answer came to me one late winter's day. What was needed was a complete swap - roses out, azaleas in. Each shrub could have the other more suitable location. Easy peasy! Now my wee collection of deciduous Azaleas are extremely happy in their new, approved location. And the roses are perfectly happy, thank you very much, in their new sunny garden. Swapping the plants over was the perfect solution!