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Great Lakes Gardening

Blank slate in need of ideas-in over my head?

chitowngardengrl

14 years ago

Hello-long time lurker, first time poster. Everyone on here has so many great ideas and alot of those have helped me in the past with small garden projects. I feel like I have a bit of a "black thumb" sometimes. With the help of all you good folks on here I was able to plant a jap maple (bloodgood) a few years back and it is thriving. Everytime I look at it I get goosepimples! Here's my new quandry. We are in the process of fixing our front porch and have removed dead landscaping. We are in the city of Chicago and the front faces north. I do get some light east and west thru the canopy of maple trees on the street. The photo below shows the house at about 5:30pm getting some light from the west. The house does get a good amount of east light in the morning, but the area against the lattice is still very shady.

I've gotten some great ideas on foundation plants from the forum members, but I still am having a hard time with the corners which aren't very spacious, but need height. The grass is another story altogether-we are working on it!

Any windy city natives out there with this same type of property/shade issues?

Thanks!

Sara

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Comments (2)

diggerb2
14 years ago
well first how much height are you looking for?
what i'd do is fo with some sort of vine or climber to go up the column and use a shrub at the base-- seeing as you are in the city, it'll be a bit warmer than zone 5. what do other people on your side of the street have?
and what color scheme's do you like? how formal or informal do you want your yard to be. and how big is the yard? how important is grass?

you could go with a hardy climbing rose--
trumpet vine? wisteria?(hardiness issues), clematis?
i'd do something that goes up, and then drapes a bit over the roof and eaves.

depending on the vine you choose, you'll need a compementary bush that handles shade. i usually suggets
kerria japonica as a shrub in shady positions-- as it does
bloom there and may bloom again during the summer. has bright green stems all winter too. you can prune it-- you loose flowers-- into a nice neat shape, but if you let it
go it makes a nice mounding shrub that tops out at 4-5 foot
and about 4-6 feet wide. its relaxed but not sloppy-- comes with bright gold/yellow flowers that can be singles or doubles.

ov course with a beige house i'd head off for a yellow, red, orange color scheme with green accents.

diggerb
pondwelr
14 years ago
climbing hydrangea is a lovely, but VERY slow growing vine
that does well in shade. Quite spectacular when mature.
Mine didn't flower until year 5. I also had a hybred honeysuckle vine that did really well in a north/shade
situation.

In the beds below these two vines, I have astilbe, hosta,
solomon seal, ferns and jack in the pulpit and bleeding heart. Many spring bulbs do well too, and bloom before the trees leaf out.
Pondy
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