Far from being a limiting factor, the gift of shade cools, calms and brings so much variety to your plot. Here, Monty shares why he wouldn’t be without it
One of the most common misconceptions I come across in gardening is that shade is somehow less good than sun, or that it is a problem to be solved. Not so. As a rule, shade adds both depth and quality to the range of plants you can grow, as well as aesthetic pleasure for the gardener.
Gardens would be immeasurably duller without plenty of shade. I love the plants that thrive in it as well as the way in which light moves to bring texture and depth to what would be a flat desert in unbroken sun. Almost all shade shifts and varies in intensity. Many leaves merely filter the light, casting a gentle, even delicate, shadow that improves not just the cultivation but also the appearance of many plants, and even the darkest of back yards can become a beautiful garden.
Embracing damp shade
There is a triangular section of our garden at Longmeadow that is surrounded on all sides by high hedges. We call it the Damp Garden but, in reality, it is only damper than the rest of the garden for a few weeks of the year when covered by flood water. This is because our garden is a raised plateau on the edge of some water meadows that have been flooded regularly for thousands of years. The river that floods them is the Arrow, which runs 50 yards from our back door, bringing rainwater down from the Welsh hills. For a few weeks every year, about a third of the garden returns to water meadow – and very beautiful it is too. I wish it happened more.
In reality, as a result of the 15ft hornbeam hedges sheltering the south and western sides, it is more of a ‘shade’ than ‘damp’ garden. While at any one time a good third of the garden is always in full sun, the key is that in summer all of it is in shade for at least half the time – and this seems to be the right balance for almost all ‘shade-loving’ plants.
I juggle when plants are in shade, as carefully as how much shade they get. For example, I allow ligularias to receive sunshine in early morning and evening but keep them from the midday glare as assiduously as a toddler by the sea. Other plants seem remarkably easy with a good baking, such as hostas, thalictrums, rodgersias, rheums, galtonias, lilies, cardiocrinums, angelica, primulas, gunneras and ferns, so long as they can spend a few hours every day in shade. The garden evolved into its current form, as
