Gardening: Neglected flower bed being turned into shade garden

One of my main pandemic projects last summer was to rejuvenate a large bed in our backyard.

The place had been neglected for a number of years, so the weeds and brush had a good head start, and it took a good weekend to chop, dig and prune out the stuff I didn’t want anymore. The area used to get a lot more sun but the trees have grown up over the years so it now gets about three hours of midday sun and deep shade the rest of the day. As a result, I’m rebuilding it as a shade garden.

First to go were several old overgrown barberry and forsythia bushes that were starved for light. Next were some irises and daylilies that weren’t blooming because of the lack of light. The daylilies found a new home in a sunnier spot.

I pruned off one big limb on a white dogwood that was susceptible to breaking in the snow. At the end of the season, I covered the whole bed with 3 inches of compost. With all this work done, the fun starts; what do I replant it with?

One of the first things that went back in was a chance find of an orphaned weeping Japanese maple a friend salvaged from another friend’s garden. It was a little beat up, but it hung in there for its first summer. The extra shade probably helped it through the heat.

After mulling over what to replant over the winter, I decided to take the project in stages. First, I planted some anchor shrubs like Autumn Brilliance serviceberry and yellow currant. Both will bloom early with the forsythia I left. The serviceberry turns yellow in the fall. To balance the dark red leaves of the Japanese maple I planted two dark-red elderberries at the other end of the bed. I added a dwarf hemlock to give some weight to the middle of the bed.

For the border of the bed along the walk, I will plant clumps of lily of the valley, epimedium, lungwort and dead nettle. These plants will stay under a foot tall but make a nice border frame for the rest of the garden. Behind the front border, I am putting in taller plants like foxglove, delphinium, ferns and bleeding heart.

One unusual plant I’ve moved in is voodoo lily. This is a relative of the giant corpse flower that often hits the news when it blooms. It gets about 2 feet tall with long, strap-like leaves and a blood red flower that is actually a spathe and a long spike like a calla lily.

I always know when it comes into bloom because, like its giant cousin, it emits a faint odor of rotting flesh. The smell lasts a couple of days and for me is part of the adventure of growing different plants.

After this year’s planting, I will let the garden grow out over several years, adding a few plants at a time.

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Pat Munts can be reached at pat@inlandnwgardening.com