20 Shady Garden Corner Ideas for a Vibrant Shade Garden

It's easy to love a sunny garden where colorful flowers grow in abundance, adding color to your landscape. Daylilies, lavender, blanketflower, and irises are just a few sun-loving favorites. But if you have a shady yard or a spot that gets little sun, it doesn't mean you can't grow bright blooms to add beauty in darker areas. Using these shady garden corner ideas, enjoy bold, beautiful colors in a shade garden where your yard gets the least sun. Mix and match shade-tolerant annuals, perennials, and shrubs to make every inch of your yard a stunning getaway.

Related: 23 Beautiful Perennials for Shade That Are Easy to Grow

Add a Shade Garden Path

A surefire way to improve any shady backyard is to divide and conquer. Here, a paver walkway creates a sense of purpose and destination among a mass of hostas and other foliage plants and makes the stroll from the gate to the front door a pleasant experience.

Related: Flagstone Walkway Ideas for Garden Paths and Front Entryways

Plant Less Grass in Shade Gardens

Every lawn struggles if it doesn't get enough light. So instead of fighting a big patch of fading grass in your yard, keep only a small section of turf and make it a landscape element by surrounding it with a shade garden. Or give up the grass and use shade-loving groundcovers, such as heuchera and ajuga.

Make Your Shade Garden a Retreat

Add a bench and some flowers to transform an unused, shady spot in your yard into a cool and stylish summer oasis. A shady retreat is the perfect place to enjoy a glass of lemonade on hot, sunny summer days. Consider using salvaged landscaping materials to create a personal garden retreat framework without investing a significant chunk of change.

Use Plants with Different Textures

Make a bold, dramatic statement in your shade garden, even without flowers, by combining plants with different foliage textures and colors. An easy way to create texture combinations is by pairing leaves with opposite characteristics. Here, golden meadow rue is a stunning contrast to anemone, purple-leaf coral bells, and big-leaf umbrella plants.

Related: 12 Plants with Colorful Leaves for Brightening Up Your Garden

Go for Bright Colors

Shades of yellow and gold shine in the shade, so use them to illuminate dim spots. The bright foliage will add warmth, creating an inviting spot to lay a blanket and sit for a while. Here, golden Japanese forest grass complements a hosta and gold-leaf 'Chardonnay Pearls' deutzia.

Plant Shade-Loving Groundcovers

Take advantage of low-growing groundcovers that crowd out weeds to make your shade garden easier to maintain. As a bonus, many types provide an attractive carpet of color that can add a living path to your landscape. For example, this golden creeping Jenny practically glows underneath a planting of blue hostas, purple coleus, and black mondo grass.

Add Art to Your Shade Garden

Mix in fun, quirky garden accents to lend personality to your shade garden. A collection of silver spheres creates a focal point and adds light and charm to this garden. The colorful orbs floating in the water garden offer even more interest. Or provide a whimsical touch with a fairy garden that will delight visitors who find it by surprise.

Pick Interesting Shade Garden Materials

Look past the plants and consider making hardscape elements the focal point of your shade garden. For example, a path mulched with dark wood chips becomes a stunning garden design element when surrounded by white-variegated bishop's weed, ornamental grasses, or golden groundcovers. To help you get started, try creating a base map of your yard.

Related: How to Make a Wood Chip Path

Plant Flowering Shrubs

Perennials, such as hostas, are always popular for shade gardens but don't forget about the wide selection of flowering shrubs to pack your shady spots with color, texture, and height. Here, various azaleas and rhododendrons provide a big spring punch, and their evergreen foliage keeps the garden looking good in winter.

Install a Water Feature

Install a stream or another water feature to give your shade garden extra-sensory appeal through the sound of trickling water. A simple fountain and recirculating pump are all it takes to make garden magic or DIY a small pond filled with shade-loving plants and gathered rocks.

Employ Architectural Elements

Look for unique objects to fill your garden with interest. This landscape features a series of round millstones, old barrels as containers, and various paving materials. They add a curated element, and the multiple sizes and heights are a great accent to the plants.

Choose Shade-Loving Annuals

Select annuals to create color in shady spots. Annuals are a perfect addition to a shade garden, as they bloom all summer long. Top varieties include impatiens, balsam, torenia, browallia, coleus, and iresine. Mix and match the colors of your plants for a dynamic look.

Related: Annual vs. Perennial: What’s the Difference Between These Plants?

Create Interesting Plant Combinations

Sprinkle your shade garden with a few stunning plant combinations to act as focal points. Here, a Japanese maple is a perfect companion for a couple of types of hostas and 'Gold Heart' bleeding hearts. Include deer-resistant shade plants like pachysandra and columbine to keep critters from munching on your foliage.

Test Garden Tip

Hostas usually have a coarse texture, so you can't go wrong by mixing them with fine-textured plants.

Design Edging with Shade-Loving Plants

Edge your beds and borders with interesting plants and materials. Here, Japanese forest grass gives the border a stunning color and texture. Look for rustic architectural elements like terra-cotta pots or other objects that reflect your personality. Adding curves to the border will make it feel organic and natural.

Plant in Large Numbers

Almost every type of plant looks better in large groupings than individually. Here, drifts of astilbe seem to explode out of a groundcover of golden sedum for a colorful and sumptuous-looking landscape.

Test Garden Tip

Planting en masse doesn't necessarily mean growing only a single variety. Here, several selections of astilbe combine for an eye-catching garden.

Include Perennial Vines to Add Color

Grow perennial vines to add an extra layer of color to your shade garden. Smaller vines, such as clematis, are often happy to scramble up the trunk of small- to medium-sized trees. Bigger vines are ideal for covering a wall or creating a privacy screen. Provide climbing plants with trellises or other fixtures, if there aren't trees nearby, so they can find their way up blank walls.

Test Garden Tip

Three of the best vines for shady spots are Dutchman's pipe, climbing hydrangea, and Virginia creeper.

Related: 18 Wall Trellis Ideas for a Gorgeous Display of Flowering Vines

Pay Attention to Shade Garden Shapes

Go beyond color and texture to make your garden a showpiece. Use plant shapes to draw the eye. For example, a tightly clipped boxwood hedge contrasts with the looser plants they surround while echoing the smooth lines of a terra-cotta urn.

Mix Up Shapes in Hardscapes

Utilize other landscape features to give your yard eye-catching shapes. Here, rectangular pavers set in a geometric pattern contrast with a fringe tree's oval leaves. Leaving space between the pavers for mulch or grass creates a more casual feel.

Test Garden Tip

Go a step beyond this in your yard by mixing materials for a path. For example, replace a few of the pavers and use bricks, wood rounds, or other objects as stepping-stones.

Opt for Shade-Tolerant Trees

Create layers to keep your garden interesting. Many shade gardens feature relatively low perennials, such as hosta, bleeding heart, and astilbe, underneath a canopy of tall trees. Bridge the gap by using tall planters or architectural features, such as pillars, or grow shade-tolerant trees and shrubs to provide your garden with various heights.

Select a Shade Garden Color Theme

Maximize the power of color in your shade garden by choosing only one or two hues. This garden, for example, relies on tones of pink and burgundy from hydrangeas, impatiens, and Japanese maple foliage. With the wide range of shade plants available, you can create a theme in almost any color.

Related: The Best Types of Hydrangeas to Grow in Your Garden

Frequently asked Questions

How do you shade a garden from the sun?

You can grow shade-providing plants around the perimeter of your garden or plant larger trees in the area to create natural shade. You could also grow climbing vines on awnings, pergolas, or trellises.

How often should shade plants be watered?

Overall, shade tolerant plants need less water than plants that require full sun. Make sure that you provide enough water to keep the soil in your shade gardens moist but not overly wet.

Do any vegetables grow well in shade?

Yes, there are plenty of vegetables that will grow in partial shade. This includes kale, carrots, potatoes, and lettuce. Just keep in mind, they may grow more slowly or produce a smaller harvest than they would in the sun.

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