The Corner Shade Garden in Mid-April

Behind the location of our future arbor lies the Corner Shade Garden. I planted this garden last year with hostas, heucheras, and assorted other plants after the removal of a sinister privet bush. Privet has become an invasive problem here in Tennessee and I just didn't like it in this corner next to our house. In its place went an Oak Leaf Hydrangea to serve as the center piece of the garden. The hydrangea was soon surrounded by some of my favorite plants for shade, hostas and heucheras! I planted a few annuals in this area last year like coleus and impatiens but I haven't planted any for this year yet. I was waiting for the freeze date to pass and just haven't purchased any yet.

Let me show you how the garden is doing up close!

I have a little cleanup to do with some debris that has collected, but if you ignore that you can see the 'Ginko Craig' hostas have filled out. You can even see one of the plants I'll be using for the Arbor Project.  Well not really, but you can see its pot! What a handsome pot it is.  I'll give you a hint as to it's identity, I witnessed a hummingbird visit it twice yesterday. I dropped some rosemary clippings in the garden to hopefully keep any critters with keen noses away. (Yes that means you rabbits!)

 

The 'Patriot' Hostas are one of my favorites among the hostas. I love the variegation. It's happy planted together with a 'Purple Palace' heuchera.  Hostas and heucheras look great together!

This little hostas is an unidentified variety from a box. I bought a little box of hosta roots two years ago and planted them. Most of them never did anything last year, but now they are coming up all over! This green leaved variety has a slight darker green variegation toward the outside of the leaves.

  

  

This hosta came to me through the Middle TN Plant Swap last year. It's grown quite well in its current home. 

  

Here's another acquisition from the plant swap variegated Soloman's Seal. With cool foliage and flowers what more can you ask for?  It's so cool it probably deserves its own post!

  

Here's a glimpse of the garden. The oak leaf hydrangea is still working on filling out its foliage as are many of the other inhabitants. It's fun to watch the hostas emerge at different times. Each variety seems to have their own way of doing things, some arrive early and some late, but as always a hosta arrives exactly when it means to arrive.  

 

There's always work to be done in every garden and this one is no exception. The rock pathway needs more stones to fill in the gaps and the weeding needs done. I suspect I'll need to move the Soloman's seal since it's behind the hydrangea. I was really just trying to find a spot for it last year and plopped it in (plopping in is the technical term) where I thought it would survive our merciless, hot and dry summer. It's survived and then some. I think this corner shade garden will begin migrating (enlarging) closer to the arbor once it has been completed!