Planting the Dry Shade Garden: The Best Plants for the Toughest Spot in Your Garden

by Graham Rice

In this book you'll learn how to prune selectively to admit more light and how to amend soil to increase its moisture retention. You'll also learn about more than 130 plants that accept reduced light and moisture levels-long-blooming woodland gems like epimediums and hellebores, and even lush foliage plants like evergreen ferns and hardy gingers, shrubs, climbers, perennials, ground covers, bulbs, annuals, and perennials- there is an entire palette to help you transform challenging spaces into rich, rewarding gardens.

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction, Reference

192 pages, Paperback

First published July 19, 2011

Reviews

[Leslie]

Yay! An easy to use straightforward book about plants that will survive in dry shady areas. This is one of the toughest growing areas, but Graham Rice has written a concise and logical work to help gardeners beautify and plant appropriately. His well thought out approach describes the types of shaded areas; which seems like a no-brainer, but even experienced gardeners can benefit from observations about the difference between areas shaded by walls and fences and those shaded by trees. I took notes on several of his recommended plants and we'll see how my garden will benefit.

[Pat]

A practical, useful book. Not just a bunch of pretty pictures. Although garden envy is a thing to which I am highly susceptible.
I borrowed this so many times from the library! The bulb selections, were great! I planted several named daffodils, and others two falls seasons ago. Last Spring they made a great showing outside my front door, under a big birch tree, with morning shade added from a bigger, rangy maple. The bulbs made a good showing last spring and are coming up again now. This year is the real test as they will be flowering from bulbs developed in last years shade cover. The leaves look strong so far, but we will see how it turns out.

[Ligaya]

The ebook version was annoying because the left margin clipped off several letters of each line... Oy! but despite that, there's a lot of great information that I hadn't heard of before about dealing with a shady garden: improving the light by pruning nearby trees and mulching and making raised bed to increase moisture retention. The plant selections merely confirmed my present choices, so I was a bit disappointed that I didn't find anything new. Writing is clear and concise. And, of course, more photos would always be appreciated.

[Robin]

Good overview, helpful strategy and plant recommendations. Would have appreciated more info about native plants and some planting diagrams, additional examples of how to combine the plants, etc. Recommended.

[Becky]

Useful tips

A good read and plenty of ideas for a woodland garden. I have gleaned a few more ideas and better still specific variations of species to try and establish in a very dry wood.

[Carole Fox]

I read the ebook version, and while the information was interesting, the links did not provide access to the individual entries from the index. This made the publication less useful as a reference,

[Debbie]

A fabulous reference book for those gardeners who have shade in their beds. Outstanding photography.

[Missy]

Great resource

[Erin]

Not exactly what I was looking for. I was looking for more information on techniques for dry shade gardens; this has more information about the different plant species. It does have beautiful pictures.

[Carrie]

Includes ideas for making shade planting sites better for the plants, and recommendations for good shade plants for all but the coldest gardens (covers Z2-9). It has a definite British/Pacific Northwest focus, but anyone should be able to get some ideas from this book to improve shady garden spots.

[Janet Rose]

Great photos of plants for shade gardens with detailed descriptions.

[Monnette]

I really wish it had pictures for all the suggested plants but it did have a lot of pictures already. not exactly what I was hoping for but still informative