Great article (again). Interesting that you're defining deep shade here as those areas of your garden that receive two - three hours of direct sunlight each day. What about areas that are under a canopy, say of a mature apple tree that is pruned and allows maybe 60-75% light but not direct? i.e. the ground layer is continuously shaded but only lightly? I observe that this is a common context for forest gardens where canopy is managed for light but not removed entirely. So will the plants listed above be OK in these conditions, and/or is there a further list of those that will?
Hi Chris, great question, thank you. I'd call the conditions you describe dappled shade. The plants in this list will certainly grow well in dappled shade and there are many more plants that will grow in dappled shade. I think of the shade categories as follows.
Full Shade - Plant requires between 2 - 3 hours of direct sunlight each day (north sides of buildings and walls, under dense canopies or under a bridge.)
Partial Shade - Plant requires 3 to 6 hours of direct sun each day, preferably in the cooler hours of the morning and early afternoon(on the east and west sides of buildings or woodland).
Dappled Shade - Plant requires interrupted sunlight for at least 6 hours or more each day, including some or all of the midday hours (under trees with high lifted branches and/or sparse foliage, thinned crowns or under thinly vegetated arbors).
Full Sun - Plant requires direct sunlight for at least 6 hours or more each day including some or all of the midday hours (open areas with no tall structures around).
ah dappled shade - that's the expression I was looking for! Yes, thanks for the explanation/clarification. Do you have a list for plants that can thrive in dappled shade? (other than the above)
As always Paul your extensive work on polycultures and regenerative landscaping has gone from strength to strength over the years and in particular in the last 4 years. I'm very glad I remained subscribed to your news letter as have always found it fascinating and very helpful. So much so that I decided it was high time I joined your substack.
On that note, bigging up aside, a critical comment about typos and errors in the above fantastic post about plants for deep shade. Just thought I'd let you know there's a mistake under the common blue violet paragraph - somehow during your editing you must have entered this sentence under common blue violet heading instead of under sweet woodruff. Can you spot the mistake? Just thought you might appreciate this being brought to your attention.
Other than that I've very quickly skim read it so, not sure if any other typos, wrongly inserted sentences or grammatical errors, but I'm sure now that I've spotted that, you'll be diligently re proof reading your copy or firing whoever is responsible?😂😉
Thanks again though for a highly informative post. Excellent read. 👍🙏
Great article (again). Interesting that you're defining deep shade here as those areas of your garden that receive two - three hours of direct sunlight each day. What about areas that are under a canopy, say of a mature apple tree that is pruned and allows maybe 60-75% light but not direct? i.e. the ground layer is continuously shaded but only lightly? I observe that this is a common context for forest gardens where canopy is managed for light but not removed entirely. So will the plants listed above be OK in these conditions, and/or is there a further list of those that will?
Hi Chris, great question, thank you. I'd call the conditions you describe dappled shade. The plants in this list will certainly grow well in dappled shade and there are many more plants that will grow in dappled shade. I think of the shade categories as follows.
Full Shade - Plant requires between 2 - 3 hours of direct sunlight each day (north sides of buildings and walls, under dense canopies or under a bridge.)
Partial Shade - Plant requires 3 to 6 hours of direct sun each day, preferably in the cooler hours of the morning and early afternoon(on the east and west sides of buildings or woodland).
Dappled Shade - Plant requires interrupted sunlight for at least 6 hours or more each day, including some or all of the midday hours (under trees with high lifted branches and/or sparse foliage, thinned crowns or under thinly vegetated arbors).
Full Sun - Plant requires direct sunlight for at least 6 hours or more each day including some or all of the midday hours (open areas with no tall structures around).
ah dappled shade - that's the expression I was looking for! Yes, thanks for the explanation/clarification. Do you have a list for plants that can thrive in dappled shade? (other than the above)
Hi Chris, not at the moment but many plants can thrive in dappled shade. I'll work on post that covers some of my favorites from our Forest Garden.
Thank you, such a useful reference, the whole series of posts has been an education :)
Glad to hear it. Thank you !
As always Paul your extensive work on polycultures and regenerative landscaping has gone from strength to strength over the years and in particular in the last 4 years. I'm very glad I remained subscribed to your news letter as have always found it fascinating and very helpful. So much so that I decided it was high time I joined your substack.
On that note, bigging up aside, a critical comment about typos and errors in the above fantastic post about plants for deep shade. Just thought I'd let you know there's a mistake under the common blue violet paragraph - somehow during your editing you must have entered this sentence under common blue violet heading instead of under sweet woodruff. Can you spot the mistake? Just thought you might appreciate this being brought to your attention.
Other than that I've very quickly skim read it so, not sure if any other typos, wrongly inserted sentences or grammatical errors, but I'm sure now that I've spotted that, you'll be diligently re proof reading your copy or firing whoever is responsible?😂😉
Thanks again though for a highly informative post. Excellent read. 👍🙏
Hi Michael, thanks for your support and thank you for pointing out the typo, I have made the correction. All the best !