Shade Garden Plan Bundle, 3 To-Scale Plans + Plant Guide (PDF Set)

Three drawn, to-scale planting plans and the plant reference behind them, for USDA Zones 7b-8a. Thirty-two pages. Eighty-five plants across eighteen species - several appear in more than one plan - each with its hardiness zone, mature size and light requirement looked up individually.

Bought separately these are $63. Together they are $29.

SHADE IS NOT ONE CONDITION, AND THAT IS WHY SHADE BEDS FAIL

Under an established oak the tree takes the water before anything else gets a chance. On the damp north side of a house, moisture is the one thing you have plenty of. Those two situations share almost no plants - and the plant that thrives in one is the plant that dies in the other.

Foamflower is the clearest example. It is the backbone of the Woodland plan in this set, because its NC State page says it "is not tolerant of drought conditions." It is named in the Dry Shade guide as a plant that will disappoint you under a tree. Same plant, opposite advice, and the difference is the site.

WHAT IS IN THE SET

1. Dry Shade Garden Plan - 24 x 15 ft bed under a mature tree, 29 plants, 10 species. Every plant documented with explicit drought AND shade language.
2. Woodland Garden Plan - 26 x 15 ft moist shade, 28 plants, 7 species. Every plant carries a printed moisture requirement, quoted.
3. Deer-Resistant Shade Garden Plan - 28 x 16 ft, 28 plants, 8 species. Built from the intersection of shade-tolerant and deer-documented, which is a much shorter list than either alone.
4. Dry Shade Garden Plants Guide - the 10-page reference behind the plans, 26 plants.

A FIVE MINUTE TEST TELLS YOU WHICH PLAN IS YOURS

Dig a hole a spade deep in August, three days after rain. Cool and damp at the bottom, holding together when squeezed - that is moist shade, use the Woodland plan. Dusty, or a mat of fine tree roots in the first six inches - that is dry shade, use the Dry Shade plan. Heavy deer pressure on top of either - use the Deer-Resistant plan, which filters for both at once.

WHAT EVERY PLAN HAS

- Drawn to scale at mature spread. Every circle is the plant at full grown width, not its nursery-pot size. Nothing overlaps at maturity in any of these drawings.
- A USDA hardiness zone on every single plant, read off that plant's own page in the NC State Extension Plant Toolbox rather than inferred from a regional list.
- A site-assumptions page at the front, so you can rule a plan out before spending anything.
- A page on what I left out and why. Every plan has one, and it is usually the most useful page in the document.

WHAT YOU DOWNLOAD

- ALL-4-DOCUMENTS-single-file.pdf - the complete 32-page set in one document
- Individual-Documents-4.zip - the same four as separate PDFs
- 00-START-HERE-SHADE.pdf - the index, with a table telling you which plan is for which problem

WHERE THESE APPLY

Drawn from USDA Zones 7b-8a - the North Carolina Piedmont, where I work. Also upstate South Carolina, north Georgia, middle and east Tennessee, central and southern Virginia, and the warm Piedmont edge into Maryland. Most species run from Zone 3a or 4a. Check the zone column in each schedule against your own zone.

WHAT THIS IS NOT

Not designs for your property - I have not seen your site, your trees, your grade or your soil. Not engineered drawings. I am a licensed North Carolina landscape contractor (CL.1872), not a professional engineer and not a registered landscape architect.

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