Re: Re: CULT: Garden Shade

Here are a few helpful hints, maybe, for shade.  In the first place, my back 
backyard, to diferentiate it from the backyard closer to the house,. was bare 
- no trees.  So  I had a nursery plant some, what I called "instant trees".  
I was too old to wait 20 years for a tree to be useful, so I  planted fairly 
large trees.  Two years before my garden was on a national AIS tour (that was 
in '91) I had a Yoshina Cherry,  Kousa dogwood, several Buitterfly bushes 
(botanical name erased by a senior moment, right now), Amelanchnier, 
Metasequoia(sp?) - anyhow a Dawn Redwood that was 5' tall and now is about 
30' - and I love it, one of the deciduous conifers - and it is in the NW 
corner of my yard  And a zelkova which is replacing the "Dutch Elm which has 
succumbed to an eradicating disease - and the Zelkova is good for wind and 
drought, incidentally.  Well, these trees were planted in "89 in areas that 
would NOT put my irises at a disadvantage, but where I could weed in the a.m. 
and move around as the sun moved around, so that I would be in a different 
area in the afternoon.  That took thought and I mapped out my garden for each 
hour as to where the sun would be, also taking into account as much as 
possible, not to upset the sun/shade for my neighbors.  I told the nursery I 
did NOT want to rake leaves, nor pick up fruit!!!   At this old age, I really 
appreciate THAT thoughtfulness!  So these trees fill the bill (except for my 
pocketbook) - except for the Dawn Redwood which drops its needles in one 
fellswoop after a heavy frost - they turn a glorious shiny penny color first. 
 And those needles have to be raked up,sort of!   

Since then I have added a Korean Mt. Ash(Sorbus anifolia) that is my most 
expensive tree and a joy to behold.  It is fairly rare and not easily found.  
Also a Stewartsia,  a Parrotia (sp?), Yellowwood, and a Carolina Silverbell. 
plus other specmen smaller trees, such as 5 different kinds of Maple that are 
not the common  bigleaf maples whose leaves pack on the ground.  One oak that 
 came in some  pineneedles in R.I. when  one of my daughters lived up there, 
and I was using  needles as edging of iris plots to keep the grass from 
encroaching into the beds - and the next spring I found this dear little oak 
tree growing out of its acorn, and I couldn't  toss it out, and it is now  
huge (that was back in '73 and in the backyard closer to the house - and oak 
leaves curl and don't mat) The back back yard was bought after we had the 
house and lot, and  the addition is 100 x 100 sq.ft. (10,000 sq.ft.  and is 
all just garden  with a perimeter of trees, shrubbery, and tall stuff.  With 
2 to 3 ft  areas of grass between plots and a wide enuf area of grass 0n the 
South side (shaded with lilacs,  various kinds of dogwood,  styrax (sp?) and 
fringe trees) to play croquet if the grand or great-grands ever come long 
enuf to play!

 Now that is a brief(?!) resume of my permanent, shifting shade.  For  when I 
HAD to be in the sun, I carried a Beach umbrella which you jam into the 
ground, and as the sun moves, I swivel it around so I'm in the shade -- 
eventually it has to be moved and  jammed into the ground again -- maybe a 
foot deep?   Oh, how I wish I could do the weeding - it is a wonderful way to 
get a lot of thinking done, as well as observation of how things are growing! 
 But if I get down on the ground it would take a derrick to get me up again, 
and my knees will no longer  stand kneeling, (that is a queer combination of 
two words!) and I could never  weed sideways nor bending over from sitting  I 
don't know whether any of this helps for shade!..  And I still haven't found 
anyone to do it for me this year!  Woe is me!  Rosalie nr Baltimore, USA  
maybe spring is coming to zone 7, we had a sunny day!   ryfigge@aol.com

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