Big Red

I really underestimated how shady the garden I created under the dining room windows is. It's deeply shady all day. My plant choices are all wrong.

You can see the big red rain barrel that I moved from the other side of the house. There, it was out of the way and unseen. Here it kind of dominates the dark recesses of what was supposed to be a flowery shrubbery under the windows.

Even the camera doesn't know what to do with so much deep shade.

Big Red sits in the only spot of sunlight this space gets, but it's also where a pool of standing water quickly accumulates from the canale pouring off the roof above it. The rain barrel will capture most of the water when it rains, and keep the garden from flooding. And it will then be a handy source for watering the plants here -- the hose is on the other side of the fence.

Now, instead of a flowery shrubbery, my view from inside is of a red plastic tub. At least it's something to look at. The plants not so much.

Room with a view . .  .            
              . . . . of a red plastic tub.

What to plant here? I thought it would get bright morning sun and then afternoon dappled shade in summer. In the winter sunlight comes straight at this side of the house all morning long. In summer, with the sun further to the north, it sits squarely behind the tall cottonwood all morning, then the house throws shadows the rest of the day.

The agastaches and caryopteris -- sun lovers -- have already come out. Black-eyed Susan was moved. I have several groundcover plumbagos (Ceratostigma plumbaginoides) getting started, and they like shade. They'll cover the dirt nicely at some point and they have tiny blue blooms. I also put in some white bellflowers (Campanulas) that will grow low and spread out a bit and they'll take shade.

Annual impatiens are blooming pale pink. They need to bulk up, or I have to plant more.

But I don't want a whole garden of groundcovers and pale little low things. I want to see something out the window. Shrubby St. Johnswort and fragrant sumacs are planted there -- the green blobby things that are visible. They'll take shade, but "take shade" means at least a couple hours of sun and then light shade, not the day long gloom I have.

The blue-green St. Johnswort by the relax sign (Hypericum 'Blue Velvet') is thin looking with bare stems inside the mound of foliage. It doesn't look good, and has declined since transplant. The glossy leaved sumacs looked great and were growing in this shady place, but one succumbed to verticillium wilt right away and had to come out. A second one is showing signs. When the third one gets it and all have to be removed, there won't be any nice big blobs of green to anchor the shrubbery in this garden.

Fragrant sumac and St. Johnswort shrubs will tolerate shade, but not all day.

Start over.

I'll get some tall yellow columbines (aquilegia chrysantha) at the fall plant sales, they are full shade plants. What else can thrive in constant deep shade, grow tall enough and have enough presence to be seen out the window, and offer some color or interest? And handle rapid transpiration in our dry air?

I'm not coming up with much beyond shade groundcovers. Low mounding grasses like blue festuca and Japanese forest grass. Other low things like ferns, lamium, hostas of course . . . I'm not getting very inspired.

So far Big Red is the only focal point for form or color in this garden.

Big Red peeks through the aspens.
Yellow leaves are from the cottonwood, dropping from the drought.