Episode 159: Plants that Take Sun and Shade

Collaborative post

Indoor air can be 2-5 times more polluted than outdoor air. Our homes contain a host of invisible toxic compounds, including carbon monoxide, which can hurt our lungs and overall health with constant exposure. While air-purifying plants can be the perfect solution to make your home breathable again, they still can help!

Nothing like a dash of passionate red to instantly liven up your space with warmth and freshness! You can grow these plants to create a contrast and accentuate their beauty among other plants of usual green foliage. And the best part, almost all of them can be grown in pots as well.

If you’ve got a shady garden or you live in an urban apartment where you don’t have access to direct sunlight, this list of Herbs that Grow without Sunlight is going to help you. These low-light herbs can survive in a lack of sunlight!

High humidity is one of the Southeast’s cornerstones, right there with country music and sweet tea. While gardeners have learned to wear its dewy sheen like a badge of honor, humidity can take a toll on the plants in our gardens. Fungus and disease can run rampant without proper airflow, and arid-loving perennials like lavender (Lavandula spp. and cvs., Zones 4–10) and Russian sage (Salvia yangii syn. Perovskia atriplicifolia, Zones 5–9) can simply melt away in our wet summers. If you’re struggling to find plants that will not only tolerate high humidity but thrive in it, start with these plants.

There is little you can do to control how much shade or sunlight a garden bed gets. Sure, you can cut down a tree to let in more sun or build a pergola for shade, but you can’t adjust the tilt of the earth. To find plants that will thrive in your garden, you need to get a handle on how much sunlight reaches each bed throughout the day and in all four seasons. Fortunately, with good observation skills and perhaps a new app on your phone, you can gather all the information you need to choose plants that will grow well in your garden’s brightest sun, deepest shade, and all the partially shaded places in between. 

This plan represents a bed along a property fence between the west side of a house and a large canopy tree. The edge of the border is curved because I find that adds visual interest. This plan includes many plants that are adaptable to sun and shade as well as some supporting players that add interesting textures and forms to the design and that provide repetition and rhythm. The plants are placed according to their needs:

When choosing flowers for graves, it’s important to consider their symbolism so that you can convey the right wishes to the lost soul.

Name: Hydrangea arborescens ‘Kolpinbel’

Name: Cornus kousa var. chinensis

Name: Mahonia repens syn. Berberis repens

Name: Pycnanthemum albescens