When you begin planning your shade garden, you should take into consideration the type of shade you'll be working with. Remember, the amount of moisture present will have a significant impact on what type of plants and flowers you'll be able to grow. Essentially, unless you want to be bitterly disappointed, you should make a point of matching your plants to the type of shade you're dealing with.

Dry shade is perhaps the most challenging condition of all when it comes to shade gardens. However, don't for a minute believe people who try to convince you that you cannot grow anything under trees such as pine, fir, cedar or spruce. Some gardeners will tell you that this is because the needles which drop to the ground end up turning the soil acidic, but the truth is that there are several types of plants which actually thrive in these conditions.

If you have a garden in the shade of coniferous evergreen trees, then you need to compensate by adding organic matter to the soil, and by watering thoroughly at least once a week. You should also use a few inches of mulch on the soil in order to help retain moisture.

Those who are dealing with dry shade under large trees should seriously consider using a drought tolerant ground cover such as sweet woodruff, ajuga, lily of the valley, periwinkle or pachysandra. You could also use Bishop's weed but I have found it to be quite invasive. Likewise, providing you have eight to ten inches of good soil, you can also grow hosta, hardy geranium, bergenia, and hellebore.

On the other hand, if you're dealing with a wet shade garden then you may want to try sedges and rushes. This is because most of these actually enjoy having wet feet and plenty of shade. Astilbe, primrose, perennial lobelia, witchhazel, spicebush, jack-in-the-pulpit, Indian pipe, rue, spiderwort, bleeding heart, and Japanese iris are some others which also tend to do well in wet shade. If you're wondering what type of shrubs you can plant in wet shade, then I would suggest ones such as oakleaf hydrangea, red twig dogwoods, and forsythia.

If you're really lucky then you'll have a shade garden which is neither wet nor dry, and if so, you'll be able to plant any plants mentioned in this article. However, you'll also have the advantage of being able to plant ferns, forget-me-not, Scotch moss, campanula, epimedium, leopard's bane, foxglove, and pulmonaria.