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Most of the gardening I've done has been in shady areas. We've lived in our present home for a long time and it is surrounded by woods and mature trees, which I love, but it makes gardening a bit of a challenge, but I've learned a lot about shade gardening!

Wet shade has to be the most difficult location to grow plants successfully. One plant that thrives in these habitat is the Turtle Head plant (Chelone ). It grows naturally in wet, boggy areas. It is a perennial that grows about two-feet tall, maximum. Mine is located on the north side of my house under an area where water drips and sometimes collects with every rain. It blooms in late summer, but it a nice rich green sturdy plant all year long. Because of this, it makes a great background for a perennial bed that has deep shade in the back and more sun in the front of the bed.

Ferns are great for shade. I planted three or four Cinnamon Stick Ferns in a shady area and now I have several large areas filled in from the babies that it produced. It can be invasive, so keep that in mind, but they are so beautiful and squeeze out weeds, so relatively carefree.

Japanese painted ferns are a silvery color fern with red stems and veins. I have several next to the front steps of my porch as they're so pretty and it's nice to have them in a location where you see them close up. They are easy to propagate from offshoots and aren't invasive.

Sweet Woodruff, Vinca Minor, Pachysandra, Bishop's weed and violets are perfect for filling in large areas where you want low growth.

Sweet Woodruff (Galium odoratum), sometimes called wild baby's breath' is perfect for large shady areas. It offers
small white blooms in spring and looks like a beautiful misty white carpet. They are very aromatic and form a solid low green area the rest of the year. I plant spring bulbs under it and it is a beautiful backdrop for tulips, hyacinths and a large variety of similar flowers.

Creeping Myrtle (vinca minor) is wonderful stuff to grow under trees. After it fills an area in, it offers a great replacement for lawn, which is often difficult to grow under mature trees. Also, in the fall, we let the tree leaves fall on it and they quickly decay, which in turn feeds the trees. Very few weeds push their way once Vinca is established and it remains an even height and remains a dark, shiny green year round.

Pachysandra will only grow in shade, so sort if keeps itself in check, as it is an invasive ground cover, but very hardy and perfect for shade.

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