While the sunny section of the front yard is well on its way to looking fabulous, the shady side is coming along more slowly. The front of my house is north-facing, and the shady side is inhabited by a fairly large birch tree. The bed up near the house gets very little sunlight---maybe three hours or so in the early morning. The lower part of the lawn is in dappled sunlight for most of the day, with some weird little areas that manage full sun. Suffice to say, it's driving me crazy.

On one hand, it gives me plenty of opportunities to play with woodland and other shade loving plants. Right now, the bed near the house holds a bleeding heart, ostrich, royal, and japanese ferns, a few hostas, siberian irises (in the sunnier parts), astilbe, and some daylilies that bloom surprisingly well given how little sun they get. In the area that gets part sun, I planted some euphorbias (including the brand-new 'Jessie,' which I'm trialling in my garden this year), irises, more daylilies, and a few black-eyed susans.

The main trouble I'm having is that I want the two sides of the yard to look like they belong together. So far, I've managed to use a few of the same plants on each side of the yard, so that will tie it together somewhat. It's something that will evolve over time. I know I want to add more ferns to the shady side (my husband loves ferns), as well as more astilbes and some tiarellas. I'm waiting for some pink bleeding heart seeds (courtesy of Jenny from the ITGO Seed Exchange) and those will fill out the shade garden nicely. I also want to diversify the hostas in my garden, which gives me the perfect opportunity to put an order in over at Plant Delights.

So, there it is, the good, the bad, what's working and what's not working so well. The more I devote my back yard to vegetable gardening (more on that another time), the more I appreciate my front yard. Not that there won't be edibles in the front yard---I will be incorporating plenty of edibles into the sunny-side garden and in containers on my porch (which is now pretty sunny---so glad that awning is gone!) The sunny side will also give me the opportunity to grow more herbs, including some very pretty bronze fennel that Kim sent me a while back and some fernleaf dill that is also on its way from Jenny.

Maybe the best thing of all about this change is that planning for next year's additions will keep me plenty busy over the winter, poring over my catalogs, trading on the seed exchange, and writing all of my lists. I'm so glad I finally got moving on it. It gives me more places to play in the garden. By next fall, most, if not all, of the grass will be gone. Then what?

You know, that hell strip is looking pretty bare.....