Lately, I have been dreaming about starting a shade garden in my home’s side yard. With a playground behind our house, our backyard can sometimes be noisy, and the side yard, which is on the north (and shadier) side of the house, is a lot quieter. Also, my kids love to use the Slip ‘N Slide in the side yard, which has a wide expanse of grass.
So, I’d love to create a rock garden in the shade next to the house, to provide a pretty place for me to sit when I am watching the kids play, or if I want a quiet spot to read a magazine or a book.
To jump start my plans, I did some research on Pinterest and the Internet for shade and rock garden ideas. You can find the gardens that inspired me on MomHomeGuide’s Yard and Garden Pinterest page.
A collage with the elements I’d like to include in my shade garden – red gravel, some boxwood and ornamental grasses, snapdragons, creeping pholx and a pretty garden bench.
The side of the house where I’d like to place the garden abuts our paver patio, which is surrounded by small red gravel. So I plan to use red gravel as the base for my side garden. I’d like to add some gray gravel and perhaps some gray paver edging and some gray stepping stones to add a bit of contrast.
In the garden, I’d like to plant some boxwood and some miniature ornamental grasses. I might also like to add some creeping garden phlox in violet, purple snapdragons, and a pretty garden bench to sit on. I created a collage on PicMonkey.com to serve as an idea board for what I’d like my garden to look – what do you think?