♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Aaron Steil: Welcome to Gardening with Steil.

Shade gardens have always been popular and most people have a shady spot where they find it difficult to get plants to grow.

For some of us it's our entire yard.

Today, we'll visit two thriving shad gardens, each with a completely different approach to conquering their shady situations.

Aaron: For our first stop, Cindy Haynes takes us to meet Don Draper to get his take on creating a shady haven.

Cindy Haynes: Thank you so much for allowing us to visit Draper's Hillside Hosta today.

It is a true collection of hosta.

How many hosta do you have here?

Don Draper: Well, Dr. Haynes, we have over 1,600 plants, hosta plants, and we have 950 different cultivars.

Cindy: Wow.

That's a lot of hosta.

And you've been here about 40 years so plenty of time to -- Don: 44 years.

Cindy: -- plenty of time to accumulate hosta.

One of the things I like about hosta in the shade is that you can mix all these different types and they all work well together.

But one of the things I like about your garden is that you have also introduced some other things as well.

Don: We have a lot of different shade perennials that we have incorporated into our design.

Cindy: Yes, so things like Coral Bells, which have some nice kind of interesting foliage colors, mimic some of the hosta colors.

Cindy: Then Lenten Rose or Helleborus.

Don: Right.

Cindy: Blooms in -- Don: This one was blooming in early May, late April actually.

Cindy: Late April, early May, so it's blooming just as the hostas are coming up.

Goat's Beard, which just finished blooming.

Don: Just finished blooming.

Cindy: Creamy white blooms in June sometimes.

Don: Right, adds great texture to the yard.

Cindy: I know, it gives that kind of ferny texture doesn't it?

And then the blue, gray, green leaves of Heartleaf Brunnera.

This one is a really nice one because it pulls into the gray of some of the others.

Don: Right, mm-hmm.

Cindy: And then Doll's Eyes.

Don: Doll's Eyes, that is a unique plant.

Cindy: It is a very unique plant, very big, gives you that kind of difference in texture, nice flower.

And then they call it Doll's Eye because it has this really unusual fruit that is white like an eye.

Don: White like an eyeball and it's got the little black dot for the pupil.

Cindy: Right, it's got the pupil as well, which is kind of cool because that's usually a fall thing.

Lungwort, which has the spotted foliage.

How do you determine how you put the hostas in here?

I see some tall ones.

I see some short ones.

Don: We try to put the taller plants in the center of the bed or in the back of the bed if it's along a fence or a border.

And then we put the medium-sized ones in front of that.

And then the smaller hostas that you can see here, they form the border of the bed that way.

That way you can get different, quite a few hostas in.

If you had them all tall you wouldn't be able to see them as well.

So this way you're able to see the individual plants.

And so they will tell you how tall they're going to get and how wide they'll get.

Don: For example, this plant will probably get another 6 to 10 inches tall and probably another at least a foot wider than what it is now.

So it's going to be a very large plant.

Cindy: It is.

So when you plant, you plant for plenty of room, even if it takes three years for it to get there, three to five years.

Don: And that's something that most hostas take to get to their mature size, it's usually about 5 years.

Cindy: Okay, so give them the time to get there.

Don: That's right.

Cindy: Excellent.

I love it.

Astilbe's look great in here too.

More Doll's Eyes.

And then just more hosta.

Don: Cindy, here's something that you may be aware of, but a lot of people that are growing hostas, they're trying to introduce red into the plants.

And so we have a plant here that has red petioles and sometimes that red color can extend out into the leaf and into the veins.

So if you pull this up -- Cindy: Oh, I'll let you get it.

Don: If you pull that up you can see the leaves or the petioles in there how red they are.

Cindy: They are very striking kind of burgundy red.

Nice, very nice.

So not a whole lot of red on the top yet, but that is the newest thing is red petioles and they're trying to get some red or burgundy into the leaves?

Don: I would say within probably 5 years we will see hostas with red leaves.

Cindy: Ah, another color to add to the garden.

I like it.

I like it.

Let's go see some other new things.

Don: Okay, we've got a few more things to show you.

Cindy: Awesome!

(nature sounds) Don: Dr. Haynes, I'd like to show you one of our newest gardens.

The bed that you see over here on the left, this will be its third year.

And some of the plants in here are, were moved in and many of the plants were all new like two years ago and there were a couple that were put in just this spring.

Cindy: It doesn't look like it's a new garden.

I mean, look at those Bleeding Hearts, they're big already.

Don: That is a unique Bleeding Heart because the foliage stays bright on that all summer long.

Cindy: Right.

I can see a few open spaces, but there's lots of things that are going to fill this in, like the Martagon Lillies and Thalictrum.

Don: Thalictrum, right.

Cindy: Right, or Meadow Rue, that is a pretty one.

Of course plenty of hostas, ferns adding nice texture, very cool.

And then is this one new as well, this side?

Don: This bed is a couple of years older than that.

There's some Solomon's Seal over here on the right-hand side.

Cindy: I love it.

I love it.

And then lots of other shade plants in here as well.

Now, I notice you're not using any mulch.

Don: Yeah, we don't use wood mulch.

I can show you, if I can pick some of this up and I'll just drop it for you, it's ground leaves is what it is.

We grind that up and we put about, every fall we put it on and cover the beds and it turns into compost and it adds a lot of nutrients back into the soil.

Cindy: So you collect all the leaves that drop and shred them.

Don: We shred them and then put them back on.

Cindy: So you do have a mulch, but it's not your typical wood chip mulch.

And that actually saves you quite a bit of money I bet.

Don: Well, it does.

Cindy: And it's organic.

Don: It's organic, right.

It's returning some very important nutrients back into the soil.

Cindy: What's in this little woodland garden?

Don: Well, this is a true woodland garden.

This is a place that we converted several years ago from a forest into a beautiful hosta glen.

Cindy: Ah.

And I see the woods on one side and then manicured, managed hosta glen on the other.

Don: That's right.

It's a very striking image.

Cindy: It's beautiful.

Don: It has lots of unique opportunities to display shade plants.

For example, the ground cover that you see here is really a good one for -- Cindy: It's Galium.

That's awesome.

It's a great ground cover.

Don: There's another ground cover right here on the right, the Astilbe Pumilas.

Cindy: That's a good idea to have the ground covers underneath the hostas because that helps control your weeds and the hostas grow through them.

Don: Right.

There's some Wild Ginger underneath the hosta.

Cindy: Another good ground cover.

(nature sounds) Cindy: I just love how you have combined all of these different types of hostas with all these different textural plants as well.

So it's something interesting to look at around every corner.

Thank you so much for inviting us to Draper's Hillside Hostas.

Don: Well, you're so welcome.

Come back again.

Cindy: I will.

I will.

♪♪ Aaron: The Draper's traditional collection of hostas creates a serene oasis and took many years to become fully developed.

Ed Lyon's shade garden is a much younger example and a more eclectic mix of plants that do well in the shade.

Ed Lyon: Hi, Cindy.

Cindy Haynes: Hi, thank you so much for having me in your garden.

Ed: Well, welcome to Lyon-Hart Gardens.

Cindy: Oh, I love it.

I love it.

Now, you've only been here a few years.

Ed: This will be my sixth season.

Cindy: It is packed for six years, that's amazing.

And I love the trees around here.

So this is a good example of a shade garden.

Ed: It is and the problem that creates the shade in the first place.

Cindy: This is true.

Show us your garden.

Ed: So there's a lot of shade but then there's also some transition to sun areas.

So, when you're designing a garden of this nature you kind of have to keep in mind where are some of the deeper shade spots?

Where are some of the spots where you might be going then into some sun?

And so it's kind of tricky sometimes getting that transition from one area to the other.

Ed: One of the things I do, though, because we rely so heavily on foliage for the color, the shape and form for the visual interest in the garden is then I will also use annuals.

And you'll see shade tolerant annuals to give that color all season you might not have otherwise.

Cindy: Right, so you just tuck them in here and there until things fill in.

Ed: It's actually wherever there is a hole.

Cindy: That's good.

I also see lots of ferns, Jack-in-the-pulpit.

Those are some typical woodland shade, native perennials that you can include in here.

And I see shrubs and trees.

Ed: Absolutely.

There needs to be all of the various layers in a garden so visually as you're walking through it's not all flat and above.

Our eyes are at this level so we should have different plant materials that also meet our eyes that way as well.

Ed: You also might notice I use my hostas a little bit different than a lot of shade gardeners do.

I use them as specimen plants as accents in the garden.

So, as you go down through you'll see they're almost like little exclamation points that come up and out rather than just simply having them in masses.

Cindy: Right, you see one here, one there.

Yeah, there are never a cluster of them, they're all the way dotted throughout.

Ed: And it draws the eye more than if you're massing them.

And then the other great shade garden plant, you have to have the fern, because you're contrasting textures.

So you have the very bold of the hosta and the fine of the ferns and they work so well together.

Cindy: Right.

And you've done also a really good job of putting things that bloom at different times.

So, I know we're here in the middle of June or July, we're looking at things, but I know in October the Toad Lilies are going to be in bloom, later you're going to have Oak Leaf Hydrangea's in bloom.

So there's these nice little surprises in bloom throughout the season.

Ed: Yes, and I tell people, don't always shop only in the spring because you tend to buy what you see in bloom in the spring and then you don't have a summer or fall garden.

Cindy: You're right.

Ed: And many of the trees you see in here, they were selected because they will have beautiful fall color as well.

Cindy: So all seasons represented.

Ed: Absolutely.

Ed: And then you get some of your grasses, that's a whole other architectural form.

One of the suggestions I make when I'm teaching classes about shade is if you look at my garden you'll recognize a lot of maybe more common shade plants, I use them as the foundation.

But intermixed in here are all kinds of collections of more rare type plants.

But doing it this way, if I lose some of those plants, I still have a garden structure.

Cindy: You're right.

There are a lot of plants in a fairly small amount of space just providing that nice texture and color and interest.

Lovely.

♪♪ Cindy: I really appreciate, Ed, how you have used every inch of space.

You have plants packed in everywhere.

It's so cool.

Ed: I think that is in part because I'm a fanatic about plants, but there is a practical reason as well.

And everybody is always concerned about weeds and all the weeding they're going to have to do.

But when you put plants in like this, the weed seeds are not going to be able to get down in and germinate.

So I actually have far less weeding than most people do because of that philosophy in planting.

Cindy: That's a great idea.

And then you end up with these combinations that are so fantastic.

So here's Bugleweed, which is a pretty common ground cover.

Japanese painted fern, which is an easy perennial to get at a garden center and they look great together here.

The ferns, the peony, the Bugleweed, it's just great.

Ed: And when you've got a shade garden, you're not missing the flowers when you have that kind of combination.

Cindy: I love it.

I think it's fantastic.

Cindy: Do I see Mullein in the garden?

Ed: You sure do.

And you're probably commenting because that's a sun plant, not a shade plant.

Cindy: It is.

This doesn't do so well in the shade.

Ed: No.

And so I must have done something right with my transition from shade to sun that you didn't notice that there was a transition.

Cindy: That is nice.

And they're beautiful, they're doing very well.

I also notice a lot of other Alliums and look at the Lilies that you have in here.

So, you're right, this is transitioning to sun because these Lilies need at least six hours of sun.

Ed: Yeah, the more sun the better.

Cindy: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

And then look at these, I bet this was gorgeous in the spring, look at this Allium there.

Ed: That is a Schubertii Allium and it looks like a little explosion or firework.

Cindy: It does, it's almost alien-looking.

And then I bet this was absolutely gorgeous with those Alliums there.

Ed: Big purple balls floating through the garden.

Cindy: Which Allium is that one?

Ed: That is Globemaster.

Cindy: That is gorgeous.

Cindy: So, what happened here?

Ed: That is sunburn.

And a hosta is a good, cheap, easy plant.

We talked about doing that transition, testing that transition and how much sun you're getting into.

This plant has shown me I've probably come out a little bit too far, we're out of the shade, we're now in the sun.

Cindy: It's good to do this with a hosta because it can take it.

Ed: It can.

Cindy: And it will probably be fine.

You may have to move it into more shade.

Or next year it may be just fine.

Ed: Absolutely.

Cindy: That's kind of cool.

All right.

So what else do we have in the garden?

Ed: You haven't seen my brand new crevice garden and many people probably don't even know what a crevice garden is.

Cindy: This way?

Ed: Absolutely.

Cindy: Excellent.

♪♪ Cindy: Oh, I think I see it.

Ed: This is it.

Cindy: That's amazing!

Ed: This is a rather unique garden to the United States, although you'll find it quite a bit probably in Colorado and areas that do more of the Alpine plants.

Alpine plants are those that are above 10,000 feet and they are more difficult for us to grow so we need a very specialized way to grow them.

Cindy: So you have amended the soil?

Ed: Actually there's no soil in here at all.

You place the rocks and everything that has gone in it is a mix of sand and pea gravel because these plants in their indigenous areas there is no soil and they have adapted to grow in this type of substrate.

Cindy: That's amazing!

A great idea for showcasing some of these little plants as well.

Ed: A whole new kind of collection, a whole different group of plants.

Cindy: And most of them are hearty so they come back year after year because they're Alpine.

Ed: Right, you will notice that some are in terracotta pots.

Now, those do go inside.

But I do like the look that they also provide.

And then in the winter I have these beautiful potted plants to enjoy inside.

Cindy: Oh, that's fantastic.

I have learned so much from your garden.

Thank you so much, Ed.

I might just have to bring my students by, give them a quiz in the garden.

Would that be okay?

Ed: That would be absolutely wonderful.

Cindy: Excellent.

Thank you so much for having us today.

Ed: You're welcome.

♪♪ ♪♪ Aaron: Cindy shared with us some gorgeous examples of well-planned and executed shade gardens.

They can be beautiful, colorful spaces.

But sometimes they're a little monochromatic and one-layered.

So adding color and height is beneficial.

And containers are a great way to do that.

Today I'm going to show you how to put together a nice shade container for your shade garden.

Aaron: Let's start with the container itself.

You want a nice, large container, something at least this big.

It helps with the watering later on in the season to have a large soil mass.

A large whiskey barrel or even bigger is great.

And it also really helps with adding in the height.

We'll put regular potting soil in this and now we're ready to add our plants.

Aaron: When we look at plants we want to select those that have the same growing requirements.

That is the same light, water and soil requirements.

The light part is relatively easy for us.

We have already decided everything here needs to grow well in the shade.

The soil here is important too.

All of the plants we're using here today like the same moist, well-drained soil.

And we want to be sure too that they have the same soil and water requirements because that way they can all grow and look well together.

Aaron: The other big consideration when we're putting together a container is color, texture and size.

We want a nice blend of all of those things.

For our shade garden in particular, we want to look at color very carefully.

Lighter colors like silvers, whites, pinks and chartreuses really pop in the shade and darker reds and purples can sometimes blend away.

So we want to use those very strategically in our container to help highlight the brighter colors.

Aaron: Looking at texture we want to mix the textures between really broad-leaf things like this and really finer foliage like this fern.

We also want to make sure that we're varying the size.

And if our container is meant to be viewed from all sides the tall stuff will go in the center.

If it is meant to be viewed from one side we'll put the tall stuff towards the back.

And we want to try to vary not only the size but the shapes of those plants too.

So upright and moundy and trailing plants are all nice to mix.

A good blend of all of those things makes a very attractive mixed container.

Aaron: When we talk about the types of plants we can use in a shade container, there are a couple of different options.

We can start with the tried and true annuals, things like these Coleus or Impatiens or Begonias.

These are very easily found in garden centers and greenhouses all over and they make great, easy additions for a shade container.

Aaron: There are other options besides those typical annuals.

Things like perennials can be used in containers.

So I have here a nice Coral Bell, a miniature hosta can work really well too.

These plants usually are cheap enough that they make sense to put in a container.

If you want to save them for the following year, pull them out of the container in early fall and establish them in your garden before winter.

If they were cheap enough you might just be able to treat them like an annual or give them to a friend.

Aaron: The other group of plants that are really good in shade gardens that we don't always think about are houseplants.

These tropical plants grow well indoors because they take really low light well.

And so in our shade gardens they can do well too.

And houseplants are very easily found in garden centers and greenhouses and big box stores all over the place.

So I have a nice assortment here of different tropical houseplants that I might use in my container.

Aaron: So we have all the plants here ready to go.

We're going to assemble our container keeping in mind I'm trying to mix colors, textures and sizes.

So I'm going to kind of lay out what I hope to do here.

I have my fern.

I like the way that this more bold texture here mixes with the fern.

This is a nice fine texture.

And this Mukdenia here is a nice kind of bold texture, coarse textured plant too.

Aaron: Now, one of the things to keep in mind actually this plant may not be a good cohice for us.

Remember I mentioned that growing conditions, matching the growing conditions is so very important.

This plant really prefers full sun and well-drained soil.

And my container here is in much more shade than that and probably holds a little bit more water than that.

So I'm going to swap it out with something different.

This Carex, this Sedge here has a similar look to it, kind of drapes over the side, and will work really well for that.

Aaron: I have kind of laid mine out here.

I think we're ready to get planting.

So all we really have to do is just pull these out of their containers and put them in the soil.

If the root balls are really compact we can pull those apart.

Aaron: Sometimes folks wonder how many plants to put in a large mixed container like this and it really depends on what your preference is.

Sometimes it can be really nice to fill it up really quickly and have something that is relatively full.

And that is what I'm doing here, this is going to be relatively full right off the bat.

But what that means is that later on in the season it may get a little big and crowded.

Aaron: So I can approach this in a couple of different ways.

I can decide to trim things out.

Or later in the season I can replant it and start over with something different and new.

There's nothing wrong with either of those approaches.

Both can be fun and be a nice way to introduce some variety.

Aaron: So there we are.

We have our container all pulled together here.

The next thing we want to do is water it in and move it to its new location.

Fertilizer will be important throughout the season.

Often these containers have potting soil that has a little bit of fertilizer in them, but if you wanted to use a slow release fertilizer or a water soluble fertilizer at half or full strength when you water, these plants would really take off as a result.

Aaron: The great thing about plants is that they always look nice together so experimentation never ends in failure.

Don't be afraid to try something bold or new.

As long as all the plants have all of the same light, water and soil requirements you'll have a container that looks good all season.

Thanks for joining me on Gardening with Steil!

♪♪ Coming up on the all new Gardening with Steil Special.

Today, we're talking totally tomatoes.

A lot of these wonderful heirloom tomatoes have amazing stories surrounding them.

It's called Willie's Garden Tomato.

It's a fairly unique because it's a yellow pace tomato.

Every year since I've been married, planting in the garden and my wife says they're good.

So here we are.

So what do you think makes a tasty tomato?

Something that's good on a sandwich?

We've made this beautiful piece of land that's abundant with food, and we want to embrace that and host people here at the farm.

The diversity of perennials that can be grown in Iowa is huge.

I decided to try to plant my garden for fall color.

Oh, look at all the bees.

It's only his second year, but what a butterfly magnet.

I work on the perennial bed, and we try to feature perennials that bloom throughout the years.

Great things come in little packages.

And tiny house plants are great additions to the home.

My plant passion came from working in the garden with my mom when I was little.

People have felt compelled to incorporate more natural elements into their living spaces.

Terrariums are a great way to grow houseplants.

A layer about an inch thick on the bottom of the jars, there's lots of cool, colorful things in it, and I like using this stuff because it's so fun and color.

Don't miss the all new Gardening With Steil Special premiering Saturday, February 19th.

Only on Iowa PBS.