Caring for Your Shade Garden Plants

Shade garden plants thrive in shaded areas, but still need to be properly taken care of. These plants are normally easier to maintain because they stay hearty and moist from the shade. To keep these plants healthy, here are some maintenance techniques and gardening practices.

Manage Water Properly

Every plant needs to be properly managed especially when getting the right amount of water. Water these plants often so that they are moist. These types of gardens normally need a good amount of water because the trees offering these plants shade absorb a lot of the water. This could make the garden dry out a lot quicker than a sunny garden.

Maintaining the Soil

When the leaves start to fall there are a few options that one can do. While dead leaves could be troublesome for some gardens, they can actually be used as a compost for a shade garden. The leaves need to be shredded and then spread among the soil. You can always remove the dead leaves from the garden instead of using it in your compost, but sometimes racking can disrupt the soil. Another option would be to first compost the leaves and then tuck them sporadically in the garden.

Air Circulation

While shade can be good for plants, it can also cause problems with air circulation because the branches from the trees can block the air from moving. Since there can be low air circulation, sometimes the leaves and the flowers of the plant stay wet for a long period of time which can in turn cause disease and wilting. Make sure that your plants are planted further apart from each other when they are in a shade garden so that there is better air circulation to prevent any damages from occurring. It can also help to remove certain branches on the trees offering shade (such as the lowest branches closest to the plants). This will help keep the air moving adequately.

In order to allow these plants to live long and stay healthy, you need to always make sure that there is a proper amount of water at all times, you need to maintain the soil properly and you should always make sure that your plants get the right amount of air circulation. These plants can live long, but they need to be treated a little differently than the plants that soak up the sun.