13 Lovely Shade Garden Design Ideas – How to Design a Beautiful Shade Garden

Last Updated on October 31, 2021 by Phil

Looking for shade garden design ideas? Here’s how to design a shade garden that’s stunning to look at.

Awe-inspiring shade gardens can be challenging to create because the lack of light make its harder to appreciate the different elements.

When our minds think of gardens, it automatically associates this with bright, happy colors. So, a shade garden may not fit this description.

As such, it is your job to add the proper elements to bring out the beauty of your shade garden.

Below are some easy ways to do this.

How to Design a Beautiful Shade Garden

Pick a Garden Style You Want

Gardens come in many shapes and sizes. And, before you embark on a shade garden, you’ll want to choose a design style to follow. Cottage gardens as well as English gardens are popular. But, you can likewise go with a tropical garden or even a Japanese Zen look.

The style you decide on will depend on what you prefer and feel matches your home and yard.

This will dictate the different elements in the garden.

Grow Shade Plants

Growing a beautiful garden is all about staying consistent so that the entire yard has some kind of flow to it. The more natural it is, the better it will look.

In contrast, having all sorts of different things can make it look cluttered and unorganized.

Since you’re planning to grow bigger plants that will case some shade on your garden or use your home or other structures to block light, it is important you choose the right plants.

Some plants like full sun, which is at least 6 hours of sunlight daily. In your case, you want low light plants that can tolerate partial or full shade.

This will let them thrive even when there is dappled or indirect light only reaching them more most parts of the day.

Attractive Containers

Container plants are a great addition to your garden because they can easily be moved. Plus, you can replace the plants and containers whenever you want.

This lets you experiment to see which areas it looks best in.

Another benefit of containers is it lets you add different kinds of plants to your garden. Thus, you can have full sun plants in containers and position them where they get a lot of sunlight in the garden.

Make Sure there a Lot of Colors

At certain times of the day, shade gardens can get dark when the sun is hidden behind some of the larger trees and plants.

The good news is there are many beautiful flowers plants with amazing colors that thrive in shade. Thus, you can brighten the look of your shade garden by creating lovely hues in it.

Add Hardscape Elements

Rocks are a great way to add borders as well as break up the monotony of green grass and plants. They also work great as décor pieces since you can choose different sizes, shapes, colors and texture.

Here, it is all up to the way you use them.

Include Some Curves

To add more character and texture to your garden, take full advantage of curves and rounded edges. These are a great way to vary the look of different sections.

You can also use a curving path to guide the eyes of the visitors. This makes the entire landscape more interesting compared to having straight lines.

Water Features

Another lovely feature to add it you have the space is to create a water feature. This can come in the form or small fountains, or mini-creeks. You can likewise make a small artificial pond with circulating water if you want.

Adding some kind of flowing water feature produces movement and reflects light as well as produces calming sounds that liven up an otherwise potentially gloomy, dark shade garden.

Allow Some Light to Get Through

I know that the purpose of this garden is to provide shade. And, you can use that shade to create a bench or seating area where you and your close friends and family can spend quality time.

But, make sure to let some light in.

Having light hit certain areas in your garden will allow different silhouettes and colors to come out during various times of the day. It also makes your shade garden a pleasing place to relax.

Add a Bridge

A small bridge is another way to add interest in your garden. Again, this breaks up the pattern of greens, grass and trees.

You don’t have to create an elaborate bridge. Nor does it have to go over water. It can be a land bridge.

Depending on the size of your garden, the bridge can be small or medium sized.

Make it Look Like the Woods

Because of its darker appearance the presence of dappled light, shade gardens tend to resemble the woods and parts of the forest.

As such, using elements in the woods is a great way to make the environment look more familiar to most people. This is allow them to quickly appreciate its beauty.

Use Trees as Borders

Trees are the main sources of shade in your garden. But, they’re not limited to that. You can use them to create varying looks depending on the kinds of trees you use.

Another way of using trees is by creating edgings with them. Their trunks are perfect for making borders because they’re different to the grass and everything around them.

Include Some Tall Shrubs and Vines to Fill Up the Upper Spaces

Leaving a blank space between the grass, and small plants and the taller tress will make your shade forest look bare.

As such, it is a good item to mix in some vines, climbers and tall shrubs. If you can mix in different colors, all the better.

The goal here is to fill up the space in between the low plants, bushes and grass and the trees.

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