I have the same situation and there isn't more sunshine elsewhere in my little clearing in the woods where we live and work at a year round camp. It's not ideal to have large trees around, but you can still grow things even if it takes longer to maturity. I'd suggest you watch the sun patterns as the seasons change & draw them out on paper, so you know which beds have spring sun or winter sun. Summer sun is easy. We had a huge ice storm in January and at least a dozen trees in lost 25+ feet at the top. They took down a lot of branches as they fell, so we have an increase of sunshine now but it was a huge mess. When we have an arborist out to remove those damaged trees will have even more sun though filtered some. Warm weather crops are especially slower to maturity and I don't even bother attempting corn. I used only chicken & rabbit manures from our animals & homemade compost for many years, but in the past 4 years or so switched to making horse manure compost to increase the volume for enough organic matter to remain constant and not all disappear. We also started adding a complete organic granular fertilizer according to the label in spring when planting and it's sped up growth enough that we are able to grow more than summer vegetables. It's just harder for the plants with less sun in early spring & late fall, but if I can get them almost mature by mid-August when the sun lowers in position the warm weather crops ripen still & cool crops hold well over fall & winter. The little window between late March & mid July is prime time for growing everything, so I try to leave space for late crops to be planted in mid July for overwintering. Hope that helps~ Corrine

As I am only in my second season of growing in this situation, I am a complete novice....but a few tentative observations. Firstly, not only is the entire area rooty (it is a poplar plantation) and dry, I have no irrigation either (apart from a ridiculous saucepan on a long stick), so, I am growing from seed, directly in situ, or transferring tiny plants straight into the ground rather than potting them on (which is what I would normally do). As they only get puddled in once, it is quite true to say, the smaller, the better, when it comes down to establishing a rootmass. Then, there are the roots themselves. The bigger, the better....so, looking at what is growing already, I am seeing plants with great tap-roots or vigorous rhizome-y type affairs which can search out the (plentiful) water down at water table level. Cow parsley, hogweeds, nettles are all rampant....which gives me huge encouragement as my woods are nothing like evergreen plantations or beechwoods. Grasses grow freely, so I have added clovers and sainfoins, along with many wildflower seeds. Bulbs, of course, are an obvious suggestion - 3000 narcissi were planted last year - after 50 years of fallow neglect, the fertility in the soil is surprisingly high (as the chickweed and nettle attests) and I am helping out further with comfrey. and various legumes (the lathyrus of various types are doing well) From seed, foxgloves, meconopsis, aquilegias, hesperis, hardy geraniums, salvias, callirhoe, linaria, martagons, bluebells, campanulas, cenolophium, peucedanum, chaerophyllum, millium, valerian, campions,lysimachias and epilobiums are thriving....and I have added many other varieties (as I feel it is going to involve harsh selection and extensive culling). Of course, I am still feverish with delight at owning A WOOD....although I alternate between despair, glee, delusional tendencies and insane optimism....sometimes in the same day..

Don't worry about your daffs in the woods. They don't need to be fed and they don't need to be watered to survive for YEARS! They simply go dormant the end of June and return the following Jan-Feb. (Actually they prefer to be dry while they are dormant.) The only thing that slows them down is getting too crowded. They have to be dug and thinnned about every five years or they will stop blooming well, although you will still have plenty of foliage. I have some in my woods that have been there for 25 years. I had about the same experience as you had with other shade plants in my yard under Red Oak trees. Had to water the hydrangea the most as I hate wilted leaves. Hostas bloomed but blister beetles are worse in the heat. My cinnamon ferm died back, but it does every summer. It will be back next spring. Same for the native maidenhair. The astilbe disappeared. Don't know if it will come back, but I hope so. Same with the Hellebore. The varigated Solomon Seal is next to the Hydrangea, so looked good all summer, but the native a little further away died away. It will come back though. I have lily of the vally under a redbud tree which has been there for 20 years. I don't water it but it gets a little run off the house. Had to water the azaleas and rhodies often, as well as the camellias but they are blooming now. I have a couple old fashioned spirea that I water and some that I never water and they've lived for over 20 years but don't bloom as well. Same for forsythia and mock orange and Kerria--Have some I never water except for the first 2-3 years. AFter that they're on their own. Have others I do water so I won't lose them all. I have a row of daylilies in shade under a black walnut that I never water and they always bloom well--10 years now. Same with tigerlilies under a redbud tree--get morning sun. Our native spring ephemerals--bloodroot, woodland phlox, dwarf iris, anemone, columbine, hepatica, trout lily, Dutchman's breetch's all do fine without water in the summer as they simply go dormant and revive the next spring early. And I never water liriope or vinca minor and both have survived for 15 years. Also have a row of bearded iris in shade under oak and walnut which I never water and which bloom but not as well as those in the garden which I water once or twice over the summer, but also which never get fungus or rot. I have a sedum that I pulled out of the woods years ago that survives without added water and blooms in June. If our summers stay this hot and dry we're all going to be xeriscaping I think. Good Luck Dorothy @ Mulberry Knob

Hello, everyone, A year ago I moved into an 1870's cottage in Little Rock. The front yard (holding to old Southern nomenclature for now) is already a pretty, highly traditional (if predictable) azalea, dogwood, oak mix, but the back is a mess with some nice plants. It already divides fairly naturally into three areas. I'm going to follow my longwinded predisposition and describe the whole space before getting to my questions, which mainly apply to the third, quite shady area north of the house, which will be a woodland areas focusing on natives and bird habitat. 1. The first spot is tiny, about 12' square just north of the garage. The garage is a separate outbuilding west of the house, and I'm turning it into a pottery, so gardening-unlike myself-is on a no fat diet for now. Bamboo, an unknown tree, loropetalum, and a non-blooming biggish crepe myrtle grow there now. The crepe myrtle is on the property line opposite the garage, and makes a natural division into the next area, I plan to stay with all dark foliage and blue and pink bloomers back here. 2. in the central portion, I cut down two sassafras trees (to which my neighbors objected and for which I had no love). This made a sunny area. This is 35 feet wide at one end and 25 the other (where the deck cuts in), and about 50 feet long. Here, I want roses and other sun lovers in the broader, full sun space. The narrower portion is partly shaded by a large unidentified tree that butts up to the deck and is midway between the house and the garage. The narrower space ends where a magnolia grandiflora stands just west of a large crepe myrtle. Almost buried behind the trash trees among broken furniture was a lovely wrought iron, gothic arch. I've moved that so that it bisects this sunny section of the yard from area 3., which is almost full, but not deep shade, as it lies on the north wall of the house. Steps come down from the deck across from the crepe myrtle. To the left of the steps, a small fishpond sits off a picture window in the sunroom. The pond is currently uninhabited due to Beelzebub the raccoon, who ate the previous tenants last winter. The pond needs a total. face lift and has to be deepened before restocking. However, my desk is by that window and, even in it's ugly as-is state, you talk about bird watching heaven! I LOVE it! So re-camping that little pool is where the largest pot of my broke-ass garden-dedicated pesos are headed this round. OK, so now you'll pass under the arch into 3., a small (25' L x 15' W?) woodland garden. At present this area has 2 small redbuds, a pretty 10 foot Enlish holly, a lot of spindly nandina, a multitude of evil-minded vicious, but well-grown Rotunda holliies, and the a/c condensers. Opposite the house is a 6' fence. I thought I could put in 2-3 native shrubs and some vines here. On the other side against the house, I want to replace the Rotundas with mix of camellias and natives. So I finally get to the question, what should I plant, hoping for 4 season interest?