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Photo Credit: ©2000 Dolezal Publishing/Doug Dealey

Dappled or consistently light shade is the best lighting condition for shade gardening, allowing for the greatest variety of plantings.

If you want a thriving, gorgeous shade garden, the first order of business is to take a hard look at the light you get in your yard. Plan to take five or six trips into your various potential gardening areas, starting in early morning, then late morning, noon and at 2 and 4 o’clock in the afternoon. Make a note of how much sun each area of the yard gets at each time. (Then repeat this process at several points throughout the year, as the sun rises at different angles, depending on the season.)

While you’re out there, characterize the type of light each area of your yard gets. (This, too, changes as the day goes on.) Does one area receive limited light all day, or full sun part of the day and little the rest? If the latter is true, you have what’s known as “partial” or “half shade.” Does an area receive dappled shade – shade created by sunlight filtering through tree branches speckling the plants below? That’s known as “moderate shade.” Finally, if your area is shaded but remains bright all day, you have hit nirvana: “light shade.” Though there are plantings that will thrive in any of these conditions, light shade will give you the largest choice of plants.

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Photo Credit: ©2000 Dolezal Publishing/Doug Dealey

Most flowering shade plants are dependent on some sun to encourage their blooms. For example, this fuchsia thrives on morning light but welcomes afternoon shade from the house’s east wall.

The next step in evaluating shade locations is looking at the soil. Start by squeezing a handful of it tightly, then open your fist and examine it. If the soil stays tightly formed together in a lump, you likely have a mostly clay soil. If it crumbles apart spontaneously, you have sandy soil. If it lightly clings together and only falls apart when poked with your finger, you just may have the perfect mix of clay, sand and silt – called “loam.” (If your soil is less than ideal, don’t worry – you can amend it to your plants’ needs.)

The last step is determining the acidity or alkalinity of your soil, which you can do by purchasing a soil test or an electronic pH meter, readily available at most local garden centers. Once you know the acidity of your soil, you can either adjust your soil’s pH, or plan to use plants that thrive in that particular type of soil.

After you’ve tackled the task of assessing your light and soil situation, you can decide on the best spot – or spots – for your shade garden, as well as the type of shade garden you want to have. Once you’ve got this basic information, you can take advantage of each space’s strengths and compensate for any weaknesses so you can build your perfect garden that’s made in (and for) the shade!