The Woodland Garden
Woodland on your property, even the tiniest grove, places you among the most fortunate of gardeners. If there is no woodland but you are willing to invest some effort and time in creating the effect, you can still enjoy the style of shade garden that for many people is the most magical and the easiest to maintain. But before you roll up your sleeves, first consider exactly what a woodland garden is and how the style came about, then go about planning and establishing your woodland garden.
This style of shade gardening evolved in the late 19th century with the influential horticulturists William Robinson and Gertrude Jekyll, who favored “wild” or “natural” gardens over the traditional formal gardens composed of tender annuals. The new style was adaptable to the modest home or to the estate. It was a refreshing change from what Gertrude Jekyll termed the “parade of conscious effort” that characterized the Victorian style. A typical Robinson or Jekyll garden might have some relatively formal elements nearest the house and, in its farthest reaches, naturalistic woodland.
One of the special properties of woodland is the long dormancy of most deciduous trees in its high canopy. This period of leaflessness allows late winter and early spring bloomers to flourish in the weak sun of the early season, then lie protected or dormant through the shady hot months. The edge of a woodland, perhaps in grass unclipped except when bulb foliage is dormant, is a perfect place for naturalizing bulbs.
Consider this list of possibilities for other low, herbaceous plants for your woodland garden. When you read about them, note their particular seasons, their sizes and textures, and the colors of their flowers. Some serve as ground covers, others as clumps or specimens: Agapanthus, Begonia x semperflorens, and Liriope.
Of course, a woodland garden includes more than the canopy forming its roof and the bulbs and herbaceous plants carpeting its floor. For beauty and for variety of size, there should be shrubs and small trees, placed informally so that they do not heavily shade smaller plants or hide them from view. Rhododendron and Pieris have already been mentioned. Consider also these shrubs, both deciduous and evergreen: Abelia, Aucuba, Buxus, Gaultheria, Hydrangea, Kalmia, Leucothoe, Mahonia, Pittosporum, and Vaccinium.
Consider these small trees as long-term residents of the woodland, or as temporary residents to make shade until the canopy develops, if you are creating a woodland: Acer palmatum, Cornus florida, Hamamelis, and Ligustrum.
The shaded bog garden is a specialized woodland garden with a style all its own. A wet spot in your shade
garden can be an asset. Here is your chance to use such bold-textured plants as Asarum, Caltha, Hosta, Polygonatum, and Trillium, as well as water-loving ferns Adiantum and Osmunda. Other especially beautiful bog plants for shade are Clethra, Iris kaempferi, and Mimulus. The following plants like moisture but need some drainage, so they can be situated at the edge of the bog: Hemerocallis, Hosta, and Vaccinium.
If your garden lacks a boggy spot, you can contrive a permanent seep to create one. Of course a tiny pool or a short stream, perhaps with one or two large rocks and a recirculating pump, can create a focal point of great beauty with very little water After all, water—even as a small feature—is “the soul of garden,” as Jekyll wrote. Just be sure to put some tiny mosquito fish into the water to keep the atmosphere from deteriorating.
The most disheartening obstacle that you might encounter in making a garden in an existing woodland is impenetrable mats of tree roots. Thinning roots, removing the weakest and some of the most crowded, can help, and pruning can increase needed light. But after trying whatever plants you most desire, you may have to limit your efforts to some of those that compete successfully with tree roots—for example, Agapanthus, Ajuga, Bergenia, Convallaria, Hedera, Soleirolia, and Vinca.
Plants that get only surface water will develop surface roots, so if rain is infrequent or fails to penetrate far, start out your new trees—and maintain them—by using a hose-attached deep-watering spike. Or irrigate slowly over long periods, then dig down—carefully to see how far the water has penetrated. A core sampler does least harm to roots.
A well-established woodland will have a deep laver of humus that conserves moisture, admits enough air to roots, and provides a medium for the roots of many herbaceous woodland plants. The constant decomposition of this humus will acidify the soil and provide nutrients for the plants. Only occasionally, under certain trees and with constant moisture, will woodland soil become too acidic for some woodland plants and require balancing with ground limestone or agricultural lime. More often, garden soil requires more acidity, achieved by adding quantities of organic materials to the soil, and perhaps some nitrogen to replace nitrogen consumed by bacteria that break down the organic materials.
A final consideration, before you draw up your plan and implement it: How much water are you willing—or able, under occasional drought conditions—to give your woodland garden? If you live in an area of regular summer rainfall, you need not worry- about this problem. But if you live in a summer-dry area, you must make a decision (and not just about a woodland garden). If you want the garden to maintain itself once established, or require only a very occasional deep watering, choose drought-tolerant plants and mulch them heavily.
