We have never had a great spot for a shade garden on our grounds. Partly, we just don’t have a truly shady area. The area with two maple trees right outside the Demo Garden that faces northwest is about as close as we come. In order to keep wind protection and provide some boundaries, we removed part of the lattice on that end of the garden and built a fence around the outside of the “new” garden boundary.

You can see the new fence, one of the existing maple trees, and the new open area between the two pillars. We already had some groundcovers and a mulched path from a groundcover trial we were doing. They are currently planning the new layout for this garden area and will be planting in 2013. I probably won’t cover this garden in the same detail that I cover the vegetables and herbs, but we’ll definitely take a spin through it every so often.

It also gives a nice view into the garden with that lattice removed. I hope it doesn’t cause a wind problem.