Mike, the gardener

Hi, Joe and Zoe.

It's lovely to be back with you again.

Now, I have quite a sunny garden, but my previous garden was complete shade.

And even in this garden, I have areas of shade, which some people get really frightened of, especially dry shade.

So I'm here today to convince you all, don't be afraid of shade.

There's plenty you can plant.

Let me show you.

Ferns are a mainstay of the shade garden with some preferring moist soil, some preferring dry shade.

Now if you're looking for dry shade ferns, this one here is a perfect choice.

This is the male buckler fern and it comes out with this beautifully burnished orange and yellowy coloured foliage, just so eye-catching in a shady position.

Then there's the male scale fern, this is Christata

And it's beautifully dissected and look at all the details on there.

Lovely shade of green and this sits perfectly under my Acer tree.

For something super textural and super soft, how about this beautiful Hakon grass?

Its variegated yellow and green stripes are just so enticing and do light up a shady area and they sit perfectly with ferns.

And there's geraniums.

Then there's Lady's Mantle, El Camila, with its chartreuse flowers.

Hellebores.

And this lovely Brunnera, it's one called Jack Frost, with this incredible patterning on the foliage.

Another one for a damper shade, a Stilbees.