How to Make a Vertical Pallet Garden for Shade

This spring when I came home with a bunch of free leftover shade plants after working at our garden club's annual plant sale, I knew just what I wanted to do.

shady pallet garden!

We've had a stack of pallets sitting in our basement, and I've been toying with the idea of making a pallet garden out of one for awhile.  We had a bare wall by our patio that really could use some livening up, and a pallet garden was perfect.  Now that I had the plants, it was time!

Here is what I did to make my pallet garden:

Step 1:  Painting.

I chose to spray paint the pallet black, since I really wanted to showcase the plants.

I only wanted four rows of plants (no plants on the very bottom), and I wanted to be able to put taller plants in my pallet garden, so this pallet that I had was perfect.  (If you want to recreate this garden and your pallet has too many boards on the front, you will need to pry some of the boards off.)

Step 2:  Make pockets for the soil and plants.

I made 8 pockets in total, since there's a board running through the middle of the pallet, and I made them out of landscaping fabric.  For each pocket, I cut the landscaping fabric slightly longer than the pocket would end up.

I then folded the landscaping fabric up so that the pockets would be a double thickness of fabric.  I then folded it up in half again (same way) to make a double-thick pocket.

I then stapled most of the way down each side.

To give the pocket more of a bottom, I then flattened the bottom part and stapled it flat on each side, like so:

Thus the bottom should make a 'Y' shape, and each side of your pocket should end up looking like this:

the bottom of the pocket

Now for the magic: turn the pocket inside out (or should I say 'right side out'?)

making a pocket for a pallet garden

Tada!  It should look like a (double-thick) pocket now.

Step 3:  Stuff the pockets inside the pallet and staple them all around the inside with a staple gun.

(This is easier said than done, as it takes a loooot of stapling.  You want those pockets secure!)

Step 4: Fill with dirt and plant!

My pallet garden is leaning against the wall on the north side of my house, and it is also under a deck, so I used plants that would do well in the shade.  I used the plants I happen to have, which included: white and red Wax Begonias, Astilbe, Variegated Solomon's Seal, Epimediums, golden Creeping Jenny, golden Japanese Forest Grass, and a couple ferns that I scrounged from my shade garden.

I have to thank my mother-in-law for giving me a whole tray of Wax Begonias that she had bought and didn't need, as they really add great pops of color in the pallet garden.

I'm so happy with how it turned out!  We'll see how it ages through the summer.  I'm really hoping to overwinter some of the perennials for next year, too, so we'll see how that goes.

Happy gardening!

A Shady Progression

The past few weeks have seen the normal spring rush of planting, reworking garden beds, preparing for our garden club plant sale, and attending end-of-the-school-year events for me.  It is so great to be outside in the beautiful spring weather.  While the vegetable garden always demands and receives  some attention in spring, lately my main gardening focus and delight has been on the shade garden.

working in the shade garden - spring 2017

My shade garden is at the Northwest corner of the house.  It has an awkward corner shape and transitions from deep shade right next to the house to sun near the edges, with pockets of hot afternoon sun that sometimes poses a challenge for plantings.  It also is where all of the ugly utility boxes are mounted.  It is a work in progress (isn't it always?), but it has come a long way in the last three years, and I enjoy looking back and seeing its progression from barren nothingness.

spring 2014

This is the only 'before' photo I could find of this area, from the spring of 2014.   This corner slopes downwards and to the left. This photo is from when we put in drainage to redirect water that was leaking into our unfinished basement from the gutter spout.  A couple large boulders on the left hold up soil.

fall 2014

In the fall of 2014, Mr. Red House and I built a low retaining wall to help with the slope.  With the addition of more soil, my shade garden was born.

2015

That fall and the next spring we put in a few tiny trees - two Japanese maples, a weeping Canadian Hemlock, and a little Carolina Silverbell - and started putting in plants, including Japanese anemone.  Stepping stones were added to make a clear path to all the utility boxes.  Native ferns happily pop up by themselves near the house, which we enjoy.

2016

In 2016 we added a few more plants.  I used the sunny edges of the wall to grow Ground Cherries (which the chipmunks promptly ate for their water content during our drought).  The Japanese anemone and ferns started getting a little out of control, and there wasn't enough access to the utility boxes without wading through plants.  The shade garden really needed some work.

2017

This spring I pulled out some of the plants, moved some around, and added more much-needed stepping stones to the utility area. The shade garden now has a lovely progression of flowers throughout the spring beginning with early spring bulbs and including a number of miniature daffodils that are planted along the edge of the retaining wall.

the miniature daffodil 'Mite'

In later spring blooms the brilliant pink of the Rhododendron 'Weston's Aglo', a small-leaved rhododendron hybridized by the nearby Weston Nurseries.

The pink is mimicked throughout the garden by Old-fashioned Bleeding Heart, a favorite of mine ever since seeing it growing up in my grandmother's garden...

Old-fashioned Bleeding Heart

...and then continued by the dark pink Azaleas.

The bright pinks are softened by touches of white from Summer Snowflakes and hostas...

 ...as well as the blooms of the now much-larger Carolina Silverbell.

Carolina Silverbell tree

Another favorite of mine, the Foamflower, blooms in a little cloud of softer pink. 

birdbath with foamflower blooming on the right

Other spring blooms in the shade garden include epimediums, ajuga, lungwort, lanium, and brunnera.   Later will bloom white clematis, cotoneaster, heuchera, hostas, ligularia, iris, Japanese anemone, and grey-headed coneflowers that I have planted along the sunny edges of the garden.

purple heuchera leaves contrast with that of a weeping Japanese maple

This spring I also acquired a few special native woodland plants - trillium, bloodroot, and trout lily - that I tucked under the growing trees and look forward to seeing in bloom next year.  The shade garden is filling out!

There are still some plants to move and things to do, but I love the progress on my shade garden so far...

...and happily I'm not the only one.

Fall Projects

Another season, another project here at the Red House Garden!

This fall we decided to tackle an awkward part of the yard - a back corner of the house where the yard slopes.  In order to help this area be less ugly and more usable, we chose to put in a low retaining wall. 

Thanks to interlocking stones available nowadays, this project only took a couple of weekends.  The hardest part was digging and laying the first layer of stones so that they were level.

A bunch of sand, interlocking stones, capstones, landscape adhesive, and two weary backs later...

Ta da!
What was previously an awkward, weedy corner of the house is now going to be my shade garden.

Now I have the winter to think about how to landscape this area - though I couldn't resist browsing for my new garden at the local nursery's end of the season sale.  We found a Weeping Canadian Hemlock and a 'Waterfall' Japanese Maple that just insisted on coming home with us and being planted in the new garden.

beautiful fall leaves of 'Waterfall' Japanese Maple

Fall is a busy season in the garden.  In addition to the rock wall, we are also working to complete our other autumn tasks: bulb planting, garden cleanup, and insulating our new greenhouse. 

For as we all know, winter is coming...

and there is only so much more time before the snow hits up here in New England!

Toad Lilies - a Whole Lot of Weird Going On

When Mr. Red House first saw a picture of a Toad Lily, his comment was 'Weird.'  And I rather agree with him.

  They have beautiful but weird-looking flowers, they have a weird name, and there is possibly an even weirder story behind how they became to be known as 'Toad Liles'.

Some say that they are called 'Toad Lilies' due the spotted flowers, which makes sense...

..but others say that these little flowers got their name when a 'Stone-age' tribe in the Philippines that was 'discovered' in the 1970's was shown rubbing juice from this plant all over their hand and arms before going to catch frogs to eat (as a supposed attractant for frogs).  

This was part of what is now known as the Tasaday hoax, where a man named Manuel Elizalde, Jr. (advisor to the president of the Philippines) had a primitive local group (the Tasaday people) dress up and act even more primitively so that he could claim that he had found a 'Stone-age' tribe. 

The tribe was documented by National Geographic, and a book was even written about it (The Gentle Tasaday) before it was finally discovered that it was a hoax contrived by Elizalde (who reportedly made off with quite a lot of money from the foundation that was set up to protect the Tasaday).

Toad Lilies and Toad Lily juice doesn't really attract frogs or toads either - that part was a hoax as well.

Weird, huh?

These little flowers are native to parts of Asia, such as the Himalayas, China, Japan, and, of course, the Philippines.  They grow naturally along the edges of woodlands, preferring shade and rich, moist soil.  You might want to plant them somewhere where you can see the diminutive blooms close up!

Well, however weird their name or story, Toad Lilies are an exotically beautiful addition for a late-blooming shade garden!

The Variegated Weeping Redbud

Several weeks ago I posted about the new stone bench we got for my shade garden, and how I was searching for a plant for behind the seat to give the area some height.

The requirements were rather daunting - the plant had to be skinny enough to fit behind the bench, and it had to tolerate a fair amount of shade and some not-so great-draining clay soil.  Oh, and something with flowers would be preferred..

I spent awhile trying to find a plant that would work.  After blogging about this difficult corner some gardeners gave me some great suggestions to think about; however, soon afterwards we unexpectedly happened upon a plant that amazingly fit all the requirements for the site.

Meet our new variegated weeping Redbud tree - Cercis canadensis ‘Whitewater’:

Cercis canadensis 'Whitewater' behind garden bench

We found this unusual Redbud cultivar while perusing our local nursery, which was having a great sale on trees and shrubs.  Mr. Red House (who can never resist a tree) fell in love with it, and it happened to be perfect for this corner.  The 'Whitewater' Redbud tree grows to around 7 feet tall and only 3 feet wide, and, according to the nursery, can tolerate quite a bit of shade. 

variegated leaves of the 'Whitewater' Redbud tree

A recent cultivar of our native deciduous Redbud tree, the 'Whitewater' Redbud sends out white-splashed leaves that become greener as the summer progresses.  A bonus - like the common Eastern Redbud, this tree will sport magenta-rose colored flowers in early spring.  (I can't wait!)

Redbuds are known to tolerate clay soils quite well, though not necessarily heavy waterlogged ones.  The amount of compost I've incorporated into my shade bed should hopefully be sufficient - thankfully this site doesn't get truly sodden like some other parts of the garden!

I was pleasantly surprised to find out this this cultivar was locally developed right here at North Carolina State University by Dr. Dennis Werner.  I'm hoping that means that it will do exceptionally well in this area!

Of course now I need some medium height plants to bridge the height gap between the tree and the rest of the garden...and I'm going to have to move those hostas that don't really match well...

Is there any such thing as a completed garden?