summer is here and the shade garden has exploded come with me as we take a
summer tour of this gorgeous space
hey friends welcome to Gardening with Creekside I am Jenny and today we are
here at the shade garden right outside of our kitchen along side of our house
if you will remember back in early May we did a spring tour of this space and
y'all loved it just as much as I do and we've got some great viewer feedback so
we have a few additions to this beautiful space it is summertime so I
said hey let's do an update because if you will remember what it looked like in
May versus now there is a massive difference everybody is happy and
growing and right now their full potential so I said you know what let's
do it update on this video now before we start I'm gonna let you know if you
didn't see the spring one one go back and watch that because it's a great
video and then too this is a mixture of annuals and perennials and some shrubs
in this bed I went through a lot of detail in that first video about those
perennials we're going to do it again but yeah there's a lot of plants in here
and I can't remember every single detail especially the growing zones so pay
attention to the video will pop up all that information so I may not say it but
we'll put it in the video so get your little notepad out and take notes for
the growing zones and all that information but here we are
so this bed is a nice long bed it runs pretty much the length of our house so
we have the house here then off to the other side we have the driveway so this
area is very visible for us all the time not only when we drive in but also this
big bay window is where our kitchen table is so we were looking out of this
window constantly and then the small window behind me is right above my
kitchen sink so again I see it all the time
this bed is gorgeous and I absolutely love it when we did the tour in May one
of you fantastic viewers said Jenny you need to add some window boxes to it and
I love the idea we did it they are gorgeous
- hayracks I got them from the Kinsman Company they have been
a huge blessing and so much fun to watch grow in the last gosh we planted these
at the end of May so it's only been like a month since we've planted them and you
can tell that they are happy and growing the caladiums the browallia the sweet
potato vine all sorts of beautiful shade annuals are in there just a massive
growth in that then down here below it we have just an assortment of perennials
and annuals and they are just exploding look at wiggles and squiggles so this is
wiggles and squiggles hosta which is a really fun hosta this is going to be its
maximum height and you can tell that it's just putting on its flower scapes
it's a great lime-green color nice wavy texture to it but it is a petite hosta
back in the corners and all throughout here we have the rockapulco double
impatient and this is the rose color in the window boxes I have coral reef there
a little hidden because there been a little slow to grow but all throughout
the bed this is the rose then down in front look at diamond frost diamond frost
is just growing and gorgeous I love the airiness of this plant I did the diamond
frost right here because this little corner of the bed for some reason just
gets a lot more sun than the rest of the bed I think it's how the cut of the roof
and so this gets a lot of sun and this diamond frost can do sun or shade so
it's a great addition right here I have three lady in red perennial ferns and I
love perennial ferns they are fantastic they're huge
they have just exploded in growth but I have discovered I have a little issue
going on that maybe y'all can help me with so I have some sort of fungus a
rust smote I don't know what it is we're gonna try to figure it out but along the
leaves of my perennial ferns they're turning black
there is not a bug this is not a bug issue it's not a pest issue I really
think this is some sort of fungal issue so I've trimmed some of them out and
then tomorrow I'm gonna actually treat it with a fungicide spray and hopefully
that will cure this problem I'll cut out the leaves that are most affected and
then spray the rest of the plant but if you happen to have perennial ferns and
you have dealt with this and you know what it is will you please let me know
and how you treat it because it doesn't kill the plant but it just makes them
really ugly for the rest of the season another thing if you are a southerner or
if you were in the region of the country that you were blessed with Japanese
beetles guess what they're here so Japanese beetles also like my ferns and
there are two right there and that's really about the only thing in this bed
that they really will go after there's a couple of ways that I can treat it you
can actually physically pull them off and put them in like a buckets of soapy
water I don't like that because their little legs are sticky and they I don't
like Japanese beetles so I don't do that you could also use a systemic chemical
drench that you pour in the base in the ground of the plant and the plant sucks
up that insecticide and so the Japanese beetles won't eat it you could use
Sevin dust and I know there is controversy spray because that is it
will kill everything including your good pollinators your honeybees your
bumblebees anything that would touch it would kill it but that is an option if
you do use the sevin spray use it very very early in the morning before any of
your pollinators are awake I know that's controversial if you have if you have
Japanese beetles and you found an organic solution to deal with it please
let us know but if you live in the country you don't have Japanese beetles
well consider yourself blessed because they are awful and no insecticidal soap
spray kills them so bless your heart if you don't have them that's all we're gonna say
about that all right moving on look at these
hostas they are blooming now they're getting towards the end of their bloom
cycle and some of them are a little sad at the bottom but I
absolutely love the color variation of these blooms it is not a solid purple it
is almost a variegated with some stripes in there these two I don't have a clue
what they are we got them years ago they're a gorgeous
hosta just know that in areas like this find a hosta that you like go for
different sizes different colors different textures these are growing and
are very happy in the back we have three milk and honey astilbes
astilbes are a great perennial for your shade this particular
one they'll start out a white and then they'll turn to a creamy pink color so
those three were additions to the garden in the late winter this year and that's
Annette's Holly fern is so happy if she is growing and putting on new fronds it's just a
great I call it Annette's Holly fern because
it came from my friend Annette in Texas it's really just a Holly fern but I
name plants after people so that's Annette's Holly fern and Holly ferns are
great they're evergreen they're a nice nice and coarse and tough very
low-maintenance bugs don't like them Japanese beetles don't like them so
that's a win-win and it'll get nice and big as it continues to grow we've got
again more wiggles and squiggles but look at this area right here this is
like insane if you remember back in May this is a Sun King both of these are the
same plant it is a type of spikenard and this beautiful massive plants
they're loving life clearly and they are thriving they will get to be about a
three foot by three foot here in the middle other Sun Kings is a ghost fern
this ghost fern does not have the fungus too much of what the lady in red does
but I have another ghost fern down here that does so this is saying it's
susceptible to the same fun fungus believe it or not this is a pot do you
remember the bright blue pot from that garden tour back in May well it's still
there but you really can't see the pot at all because the ghost fern has grown
up so much the Sun Kings but in this pot is the
white browallia from proven winners this is snow princess which is a sweet
alyssum and then under here somewhere is dichondra Silver Falls which is totally
hidden but it's this beautiful silvery grey
foliage plant that trails and again the Sun Kings have just grown so much that
you can really can't see it but it still works
it still works and then of course the window box here this window box does get
more Sun if you remember when we planted it I told you that this gets more Sun so
we put in the superbena right out from proven winners to bring that pop of
white get some more Sun it's doing great there's the blue browallia in there more
caladiums and then back there there is the double impatience of the coral reef
now I know right now you can't really see those double impatience but when I'm
standing there at my kitchen sink washing dishes I can't see it so it's
like almost that's there's two different containers with this what you see right
here and then when you're inside looking out what you see so it's a lot of fun
and I've just enjoyed it so much coming down through here again there's more
browalia this hydrangea right here is Diva from proven winners now there are some
older blooms and we did just get a big rainstorm so there that's why these are
pushed down but this is Diva, Diva is a lace cap hydrangea she'll get to be
about a 3x3 it is pH dependent so it'll be pink or blue depending on your the
soil pH level that you have this is a new bud this hydrangea is not on
irrigation so you can tell that there's been a couple of times when it's gotten
really hot and it's gotten dry so that's why there is some burning on the leaves
I would like at some point to put some irrigation in here especially on the
hydrangea so they could receive consistent water that will help with the
heat wilt it helps keep them fresh and the blooms looking long better
longer but Deva is doing great this is she's not even a year old in this garden
so she is doing well here we have if you remember back in May I told you about
this is Frannie's hydrangea again this is not a scientific name but my friend
Francesca who we call Frannie gave this to us when we moved in this house almost
17 years ago and we really have no clue what it is I think it could be Waterfall
hydrangea but I'm not really sure so it's just simply Frannie's hydrangea
normally I always cut it down early spring because it is just so big but
when I did that I would get blooms late in like almost like September October so
this year was a test to see if she would bloom on her old growth she does she's
gorgeous and so I'm I'm loving Frannie's hydrangea right now and then of course
so we're dealing with the Sun right now you know you never know the weather in
North Carolina they say if you don't like the weather just wait five minutes
it'll change we had thunder and lightning and storms just 30 minutes ago
but here we are so you can see again the Solomon seal has filled in I mean look
at Frannie look at Frannie look at look how pretty she is is that not gorgeous
it's almost a white almost a light blue it's just gorgeous now down here I
finally remembered what this hydrangea is this is proven winners let's dance
starlight it is another lace cap hydrangea it will be pH dependent so
this one is pink it could be blue next year maybe blue who knows but it's a 3
by 3 it is fantastic if I remember correctly on this one this is known 5 to
9 but we'll put all that information up there for you and then down here at the
bottom are those three of the terenia so again it's an annual from proven winners
it is mostly shade but it can do some sun so it does really well here because
clearly evening late afternoon it does get Sun
but the torenia is doing great it's low it spreads wide and this is the large
blue amethyst and the pollinators absolutely love it so it is just filling
in then this is that another ghost fern that is doing really well this one did
have the same kind of fungus on it but I have already cut all of that infected
leaves out but just again here we are end of June
July is just knocking on the door and everything is gorgeous and thriving and
loving life it just shows you don't give up on your plants I do feed these
regularly with the water-soluble fertilizer from proven winners when I
planted all my annuals of course I used a slow release and now I'm using the
water-soluble every 7 to 10 days but hope this is giving you a little bit of
inspiration I hope you've enjoyed the update on how gorgeous this shade bed is
doing make sure that you like this video and if you're not already subscribed a
Gardening with Creekside please do so and I guess we'll see you in the next video
thanks guys bye