Adding to The Woodland Garden

Woodland Garden Before

The area behind my garage was an section of my yard that I wasn't sure what to do with at first when I first bought my house. It was a huge mess and went unmanned so as such with spaces like that around here Mulberry and honeysuckle invaded. I spent much time getting rid of the Honeysuckle and other weeds, then I hired a tree removal company to remove 6 Mulberries there were growing in the fence line. After that was all removed I was still left with a very shady area with sunlight that only comes in during the middle of the day. So I decided a woodland themed garden was the best idea for this space.

Woodland Garden After

Woodland plants

I knew from the beginning that my plant choices were going to be mostly natives because they are made for the shade! Their genetics are literally integrated for fully shaded spaces. So I chose plants such as wild ginger, May apples and Pennsylvania Sedge which is one of my personal favorites. Woodland Violets also do very well in dark places but this space already had a large amount of violets I was able to leave them and they really make a nice-low groundcover. I also added Hostas and to keep the natural look I just planted those right in with the violets. For the pathways I didn't have a huge budget so I put down flagstone for the part of the path that leads to my garage door which I use very often and I did a rock-lined mulch path for the rest which makes for a nice look.

Understory Trees

 You would think if I spent all the time and funds on removing trees that I would not surely by planting more but actually trees a huge part of a woodland garden for obvious reasons but also because they finish off the ecosystem and create a wooded look. I needed a few understory trees which are short shade-tolerant trees that grow under tall trees. I had a part-sun area in the back so I chose a multi stemmed Serviceberry and a single stemmed Redbud. I also have a Crabapple back there not pictured as well as a Southern Magnolia which is an out-of zone trial tree I'm trying. These trees will eventually grow up and fill out the middle layer of my "woodland" which became pretty void when I removed the invasive. Fallen tree limbs and logs just like in a real-woodland get left in place to naturally rot away, I also leave any leaf-litter that falls. This makes for a very-low maintenance space

Little Lucky in the Woodland Garden

What you can also find in the woodland garden is the 8' metal T-Rex Little Lucky which I've introduced in previous posts. I've done alot of work on this since it was placed it earlier this summer. I drilled some much-needed holes for drainage and treated all the rust spots before finishing off with 4 coats of gloss clear-coat to insure its ready for the winter. This should insure Little Lucky will continue to tower over the woodland garden for many years to come!