Hi, I've decided to dig up the grass from my front yard and to replace it with a PNW native garden (I live in Vancouver). Unfortunately, I don't really know how to go about planning this - all my other gardening experience has been while filling spaces, not starting from scratch. The patch of garden I'm dealing with is 10'x35', faces east, has a giant rhodo in the SE corner, and an 80' hemlock overhead (that doesn't block the light). The SE side of the site is wetter & generally shadier (due to an underground creek & the rhodo, respectively), so I was going to turn that into a deep-medium shade area and use forest plants & lots of evergreens (no conifers) to create layers. The NE side is more exposed and less wet, so I was going to make that the bright-medium light area, with more edge & disturbance plants, and more perennials. I would imagine that the sunny side of the yard would be easier to plan for. I'm having trouble with the shady side... I've bought lots of salal, evergreen huckleberry, a red-osier dogwood, and have plenty (PLENTY!) of sword & lady ferns to create low shade, plus various non-evergreen species like salmonberry, huckleberry, nootka rose, etc that'll create shade in the summer. But: how do I decide how to arrange them? how can I be sure that I'm getting the combinations & their preferences right? how can I provide enough shade for the shade-lovers (rattlesnake plantain etc) year-round without shoving everything under dense ferns? how do I create 'taller' shade without risking any plants I put in for that will grow 20' tall & block out my view? how do I plan ahead to leave each plant enough space to grow into without having the garden look bare (or to not plant shade-lovers) for the first 5yrs Basically, how do I plan for a layered shade garden in a place that isn't already shaded? My stockpile of shade loving plants will be greatful for any suggestions you can give. Thanks!
I would arange in clumps of threes and such, as I have discovered even numbers look contrived good luck. You might want to concider buying some trees, like dogwoods, cedars, furs... They provide shade in the forests.
Thanks Carol Ja. That's good advice (& I agree - threes usually work better). I'll try to make sure that I plan things out in odd numbers :) Unfortunately, though, I don't think we can really use any of those large trees (apart from a red osier dogwood that we plan to keep short) because the native garden will be in our front yard, directly between our livingroom windows & our view of the mountains. So anything likely to grow much taller than 8ft would block that view. Also, the narrowness of the plot means that very tall plants/trees will cast a significant shadow over ALL of the rest of the plants in the native garden, not just the shade-lovers. Is there nothing in the 3-5ft range that keeps its leaves year-round?
I found a local site that has some pretty good info on grouping natives and which includes some simple sample plans. http://dnr.metrokc.gov/wlr/pi/go-native/PlanList.aspx
If you can afford one year I would plant some experiments and see which grows best where...there is a lot of info on zones and sites exposure etc, but I have found that many of my plants tend to do well in microenvironments totally outside of what is suggested. Play for one year and then expand.. If you have the time...will save you the headache in the long run and you won't be fighting your plants. Deb Good Luck!
Don't rule our even or odd numbers. Either works fine if you use them right. Sometimes, I'll place 3 of a tree genus in a group on one side of the yard, and then a fourth not far away. Also, 4 trees can look fine, if planted staggered. Occassionally, with even or odd numbers, I'll select trees of varying heights. I used to follow the rule of odd numbers, until I left that mold and found that both ways are useful. A spacing guideline, can be based off a graph or grid line concept. If you plotted your main plants on a graph, ones in a triangular spacing would not be on the same "X" or same "Y" axis. You could also plant rows, but the guideline above is also successful. For fun, I should try and make a diagram to illustrate that. It's so much easier to show than explain. RETURN AND EDIT... I'm not quite sure what the code is in a forum to link to an MS Word doc. But I made a illustration and it's at this location... http://www.mdvaden.com/documents/triangles.doc
