Your Understanding of Shade Can Make or Break a Garden

When gardeners talk about shade, they often do so in a negative context, taking about shade as something to cope with or overcome. Good garden design recognizes, however, that shade can also be a good thing.

Understanding shade, how to take advantage of it, and how to limit or extend it depending on needs and circumstances, can be crucial for success in a garden. As a garden designer, thinking about shade can often take up a good deal of my time.

Understanding Shade

Before we go any further, we need to understand precisely what we mean when we talk about shade. It is important to recognize that shade is more than just the absence of direct sunlight. There are degrees of shade, and also different types of shade to think about.

We also need to think about conditions in the shade other than the amount of light. One key factor that is important in gardening is the moisture level in the soil. Are we looking at moist shade or dry shade conditions? Soil under large trees can be exceedingly dry.

Analyzing the Shade in Your Garden

Learning about shade in a garden means looking at the degree and type of shade already present, and thinking about whether or not we can consider that shade beneficial in a given location, which plants or other features will be suited to a shady position, and which will not.

Creating a sun map of your garden will allow you to visualize and understand the passage of the sun and the shade cast within the space more clearly.

Remember, shade is not a static thing but will often vary and change throughout each day and throughout the year.

Once we know where shade lies in a garden, at various times of the day and year-round, we can begin to work out where less shade might be beneficial, and where that shade is a useful and valuable thing.

Preventing or Reducing Unwanted Shade

Sometimes, shade is something that we would like less of in a garden. In smaller gardens in particular, having too much shade can reduce the number of crops that we can easily grow and make growing more of a challenge.

There are some edibles that we can grow in shade, but most common edible crops need more sun.

We may not be able to do much about some shade, like that cast from buildings. In some cases, however, we may be able to bounce light through the use of mirrors or reflective surfaces.

In other cases, shade might be cast by trees or larger shrubs that we can prune or cut back in order to keep them, but let more light through. Careful pruning can often help us balance the desire for vegetation which gives a private, calm, and enclosed feel for a space, and the desire to reduce shade.

Of course, whenever we are populating a garden and planting trees or shrubs, we should consider the sun's path across the property. In the northern hemisphere, placing taller species to the north of the space will prevent them from casting too much shade.

Increasing Beneficial Shade

Shade can also be beneficial in a garden to reduce temperatures, reduce moisture loss from the soil and plants, and provide different environmental conditions for different plants.

Placing trees or shrubs or other features in a garden where they will cast shade can sometimes bring benefits for other plants, provide pleasant seating or recreation areas outdoors, or even keep the inside of a home or garden building a little cooler during the summer months.

Deciduous trees and shrubs, in particular, will be beneficial because they will cast shade when it is wanted during the warmer part of the year, but allow light to pass between their bare branches during the winter months.