• Shady environments: There are a couple of different ways to create a shady environment for your shade gardening. The easiest way to have a shady environment for your shade garden is to place your shade plants under already existing trees. If you don't have shady trees, you can be creative and make or use another type of structure to help you create more shade. For example, an umbrella, awning, or balcony to create the shade that you need.
• Get the soil ready: There are some shady gardens that sometimes have such poor soil that you can't even dig a hole! If the soil underneath your tree has too many roots, or if the ground is so dry that nothing will be able to live there, then you may need to get the soil ready before actually planting. One way that you can help to improve and prepare the soil is by spreading a thick layer of organic material over the shade garden area. The tree you are planting underneath should be able to provide you with a lot of leaves (which is an organic material you can use!). Chop up the leaves into smaller pieces and spread them underneath the tree. A compost activator is a great way for you to keep these leaves moist so they will decompose. After time, you will have rich humus for your shade garden. Once you have rich humus soil, earthworms will begin to come to your shade garden area and loosen up the soil even further!
• Find the right plants: Once the soil for your shade garden is ready and prepared, then it is time for you to place some plants in your shady garden! One of the tricks to shade gardening is finding the right plants that will grow well in the shade. Most people have their shade gardens located underneath trees, and you will need to find plants that can compete well with the tree for nutrients from the soil. In addition, these plants need to be able to handle the poorer soil and reduced light quality that is located underneath trees.

There are a couple of plants that do well in shady gardens. If you are interested in planting annuals, then you could consider planting impatiens, pansies, forget-me-nots, or wax begonias. Great perennials for shady gardens include foxglove, bleeding heart, primroses, cinnamon fern, and Virginia Bluebells. Columbines also look great in shade gardens. If you would like some ground covers, you might want to consider placing English Ivy, partridgeberry, wild ginger, and sweet woodruff in your shade garden. Lilyturf is also a really great ground cover that looks nice in a shade garden.

As you can see, shade gardening is a little bit different from other kinds of gardening! Make sure that you take the color of your plants into consideration when placing them in your shade garden as well. If they are dark colored plants, you will not be able to really see them in the shade! Instead, pick colors that are lighter - such as pastels or whites. Light purple is a great color for a shade garden. This way, your great garden will be able to stand out and be noticed well!