Plants That Cope With Dry Shade

Tamsin Westhorpe with advice on tackling one of the trickiest growing environments.

- Tamsin Westhorpe

EVERYONE wants to live on the sunny side of the street! When looking for the perfect property, it is rare for a gardener to have on their wish list “a generous area of dry shade”. It’s even more unusual for gardeners to yearn for a north-facing plot, unless they have a growing collection of hostas to accommodate.

Whatever the aspect of your garden, it will have shade at some point of the day, and if you have mature trees or garden walls it is a certainty. There is no denying that gardening in dry shade is tricky and you will lose plants, but gardeners love a challenge!

Growing successfully in dry shade requires more preparation than any other situation. Don’t expect even the right plants to thrive if they are planted directly into the soil with no improvements made to the growing medium. Shade-loving plants might be tough, but they do need some light and water to survive.