Thursday, June 4, 2009

The West Side Story

After the North side, the West side of a building probably gets the least amount of direct sun, usually limited to 1 PM and later in the afternoon. The problem with our West side is the fact that there are numerous trees to the South and West which limit direct sunlight to less than an hour, with the rest of the day being in deep shade or dappled shade. When we bought the house, there were three Junipers centred in front of the chimney, a couple of indeterminate dead shrubs, and two small Yews in front of each window, along with a few other plants. With the lack of sunlight, the original inhabitants here were getting quite spindly and pathetic, so three years ago I cut them all down and dug them out. The Rhododendron, the tall blue/green Hostas and the gold/green minis were planted two summers ago, while the new white Hostas went in this year. The small Japanese Maple (a shade loving tree if there ever was one) was originally planted in a part shade spot with full afternoon sun (sun from noon til 5) and was doing quite well, but I decided to relocate it here, as I have another tree planned for its original location. Another Rhododendron will be located in front of the other window, to balance the first. The grass between the garden bed and the driveway is patchy, and I am in the process of transplanting sod from other areas in the back yard to improve the area.

2 comments: