Gardens Throwing Shade

 

I was in the MN Landscape Arboretum Bookstore to pick up 𝘚𝘱𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘋𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘨: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘕𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘚𝘬𝘺, 𝘐𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘒𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘭𝘦𝘥𝘨𝘦, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘓𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘴𝘮𝘰𝘴 by Travis Novitsky and Annette S. Lee. Travis presented his work for my landscape photographer speaker series in early December, 2023 —just a month after his book had been released. He was the third of five guest artists I brought in for my last event as photography programs manager at the institution colloquially known as "the Arb." His presentation was full of connections made between the night sky, photography, seasonality, human experience and how these come together through storytelling. If you have the chance to hear him speak, do it -or pick up his book.

Book in hand, I turned to look across the aisle, and eyed 𝘓𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘰𝘪𝘭 by James Nardi, a book I read a dozen years ago in my Brooklyn apartment, merely 3 feet from our garden and its mixed-blessing soil between the apartment wall and sidewalk. In this book, Nardi describes the soil as a cosmos under our feet, and within it, a universe of chemical compounds, ionized atoms, and organisms. If you want to understand how over-watering can be toxic to a plant or be able to explain how electrical charge relates to fertility, this book is a good read. 

Next to Life in the Soil was another book on earthworms. While paging through this book, I got to thinking about failures common to native gardening under shaded, home landscape conditions. Out in the park, the gardener sees Trillium grandiflorum or Caulophyllum thalictroides, and thinks "I’ve got shade and medium soil, so this should grow in my yard." After purchasing these difficult-to-find plants, siting and digging them in, they don’t make it. The gardener questions the plant (was it healthy?), the sky (too much sun, not enough water?), or the source (can’t trust that nursery!). 

Blue Cohosh, Caulophyllum thalictroides, in bloom at Shelterwood

These questions should be asked, but are only the beginning. Forest-dwelling plants have a complex relationship to the earth conditioned by millennia of dead leaf and wood deposition, decayed and partially decomposed, along with fungi, insects, and microbes. The chemical composition of such healthy soil is light years apart from scraped, compacted, replaced, overused, apparently healthy but relatively lifeless earth around our homes. Even in apparently natural woodlands, soil in human-occupied regions has often declined to simple mineral soils that lack layers of organic matter. These layers are necessary in support of those plant species we desire for our yards. In other words, trees alone are not enough. Yard trees have a very different relationship to yard soil than forest trees have to forest soil —something I repeat to Shelterwood customers each year. 

 

You may be wondering what a gardener can do to grow more soil-sensitive species among those species well-adapted to survive less hospitable conditions (I’m looking at you, PA Sedge). Before addressing that, a brief discussion about the types of shade that can be found around common home sites in the U.S. is necessary. See the following post to learn more (to be published on Jan 1, 2025).

 

Cutleaf Toothwort, Cardamine concatenata, in coir pot at Shelterwood