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Re: [SG] Welcome

Many thanks for your warm and informative welcome.  I approach this List
with some trepidation as I am an inexperienced shade gardener.  I live
on 2 acres of heaven in Long Grove, IL (Suburban Chicago, Zone 4 next to
the house and 5 further out.)  I have a once-sunny perennial garden and
two shade gardens - #1 is a 5 year old fern.astilbe wildflower garden
and the other is a brand new (this Spring) (12-18 feet) between the
garage and the house.  I put in a  Japanese maple and two trellises
(with Clematis paniculata on one and Lonicera Dropmore scarlet on the
other) and some wild ginger, astilbe, dicentra, epimedium, brunnera
macrophylla and alchemilla mollis.  The alchemilla has not done well and
I am trying (unsuccessfully) to love the hostas which have not done
well.  I waited too long to treat the slugs with Diatamaceous earth.
And I must confess that I never liked them anyway.  They are "Sum and
Substance" , "Love Pat" and "Krossa Regal" and I only planted them
because they were so highly recommended for a shade garden by the
teachers of the courses I have been taking at the Chicago Botanical
Garden.

I am so lucky to live near the Garden (CBG) and to have the time to take
classes there now.  I am 61, a consultant to hospital trade
associations, and semi-retired.  This fall I will be planning the circle
in front of the house (about 30 feet in diameter) and plan to move some
big grasses in there from my perennial garden where they are making
shade for everything around them.  I am taking some relevant courses at
the GArden this fall to help with the landscape design--and my own basic
knowledge.

This is more than you asked for by way of introduction, but I have a lot
of pent up questions and interest.  Mostly, what is shade?  My new shade
garden is 3 hours a day of bright sun and the rest in deep shade.  That
is very different than dappled shade.  Do you treat it the same way?

Tell me, am I sending this just to you or to the whole list.  I am
pretty new at netiquette too.

Nancy S. deGrazia
Long Grove, IL
Zone 4 or 5
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