Thank You Shade Gardeners!

Hello fellow shade gardeners!

I’m Babers, a novice but enthusiastic gardener in Seattle. This time last year I was going out to discos, then I got engaged to an avid gardener and we bought a house with a big yard. I traded in my dancing shoes for an engagement ring and a pair of garden gloves.

I want to thank everyone who has posted to this site and to the plant database. Because of you all, I went from knowing zero about gardening to becoming fairly knowledgeable about shade plants.

Well, at least I’ve done a lot of research and planted my first garden, (which is a large shade garden under a huge black walnut tree). Now I get to learn the real hands on of gardening. Fighting off slugs, fertilizing, weeding.

I’m attaching pictures of our whole back yard (which is primarily filtered shade), before and after. I’m just so proud. We did all the work ourselves. I’ll do another post with just my shade garden and share what I planted.

Thanks again for all your inspiration, ideas and information!!

Here's the yard last August....

Hello again!

Here's a picture of the yard today!! Just 8 months later!

Wow! What a dramatic turnaround. You're off to a good start, have fun!

Babers, your yard looks wonderful now! Do you know that there are quite a few plants that won't grow under or near black walnut trees? The roots contain a substance called juglone that will kill them. If you compost the leaves, give them a longer-than-usual time to cure before using them. There are also many plants that are resistant to juglone, as your pretty garden shows.

Wow kneff!! This is why I joined this forum. I just did a simple "google" search and found out more than I wanted to know on juglone. I think you just saved us a lot of time and mone! Thanks.

Boy, time to get rid of our compost! Black walnut leaves should absolutely NOT be used for compost. Also, the drip line seems to be the most effected area, though no where really seems to be "safe". I also found some lists of plants tolerant and not tolerant to juglone. In particular, we will keep an eye on our 3 brand new rhodedendrons and on the giant colombine, they might be toast! Luckily most of what I have planted will be okay, especially the 30 or so hostas I planted.

This message was edited Mar 15, 2004 12:21 AM

This message was edited Mar 15, 2004 12:23 AM

Juglone is a growth inhibitor which keeps the plants around the Black Walnut from thriving. Plants are not the only organisms that are affected by juglone. Equine enthusiasts need to know that Black Walnuts are extremely toxic to horses. They can cause colic, laminitis, respiratory problems and even death from ingesting the leaves or even just standing in shavings made from black walnut trees. I'm not sure if other animals are affected.

LimeyLisa Kay