Glorious Shade: Dazzling Plants, Design Ideas, and Proven Techniques for Your Shady Garden Kindle Edition

This book promises everything in its subtitle: Dazzling Plants, Design Ideas, and Proven Techniques for Your Shady Garden. The book is divided into sections, the first one stressing the importance of learning the shade patterns in your garden. Jenny Rose Carey describes the various types of shade and the plants that benefit from each kind.There is a section about soil and roots. I so agree with Jenny Rose Carey on the importance of adding organic matter to encourage root growth and promote healthy plants -- a great way to improve soil structure. She gives clear directions for making 'fabulous, friable, or crumbly leaf mold.' She explains the purpose of roots, reinforcing the importance of avoiding the application of high rates of fertilizer around trees in order to maintain a healthy relationship between microscopic fungi and roots. I learned some tips, such as building a tree pit to avoid smothering roots when I change the soil level with each new lasagna garden that I make.Jenny Rose Carey gives very inspirational descriptions of several design styles in her section called 'Designing in the Shadows: Bright Ideas for Shady Spaces.' She discusses woodland gardens, moss gardens, Japanese- or Chinese-inspired gardens, rock gardens, xeric gardens, tropical gardens, water gardens, walled or courtyard gardens, container gardens, and orchard gardens. Whew! In this section she also talks about designing with paths and includes gardens that attract wildlife. My personal favorite is about designing areas for children and I love the whimsical teapot water feature she added to her own garden.There is a gardener's calendar in one chapter and numerous techniques and maintenance tips in another. The gardener's calendar describes the garden through the year with tasks for each season. The maintenance chapter gives an in-depth guide to taking care of your shade garden. The final chapter tells you how to choose plants that thrive in the shade. Jenny Rose Carey describes 200 genera of plants with photographs for each genus. They are stunning.I love the 'substantial' feel of this volume with its glossy pages that are loaded with colorful illustrations. In this review I touch upon only a small fraction of the valuable information that the book contains. In every chapter, the author's voice comes through as passionate, enthusiastic and inspiring. It is as if Jenny Rose is speaking to the reader one-on-one. This is a perfect book for anyone who gardens in the shade.

I must have ordered the wrong book. So very disappointed. Waaaaay too many pictures from England, Spain, etc. As for places in the US, Pennsylvania is the state receiving most attention. I was very wrong to assume that because this book was published in the same state in which I reside (Oregon), there would at least have the flavor of the Northwest. Additionally, every page is printed on such shiny paper that the book is extremely difficult to read, the pictures difficult to appreciate. The glare on the page was so great that it made for constant rearrangement of how I held the book in order to read even 2 facing pages. Last but by no means least this product was printed in China. To summarize: I had waited with great anticipation for this book and found myself, sadly, disappointed. If returning this book weren't such a hassle, & such an expense compared to price, I would return.

We lave a lot of shade in our garden and I am always looking for a good guidebook on shade plants. Such guidebooks are very hard to find, and the few I've read (before this one) have actually provided very little useful information. I found Glorious Shade at the library, and after reading all the way through it, I had to order my own copy.This book is full of useful information about shade plants - it offers info on a huge variety of plants (trees, shrubs, flowers, color and leaf-shape varieties) with lots of excellent color photos. It also provides good amount of information about gardening successfully in shade areas.

I was very excited to get this book after seeing the reviews. Druse's book on shade had been my first learning tool, and there are too many exciting things about shade to learn about, so I was ready for more resources. Glorious Shade, however, was not what I expected. The introductory text is good, but certainly not detailed enough to really teach me about designing the shade garden. It whets the appetite, but left questions. The pictures were nice, but some of the larger ones were clearly pixellated, and all seemed to lean to the yellows in color, which was odd. I did purchase this book from Amazon, and have considered calling Timer Press to see if this is expected. Overall, the books is the standard some-beginning-text-about-gardening, followed by a large plant database. The plant database is nice, but many of the pictures are so close-up that I have to research the actual habit and appearance of the plant, which has been frustrating. I don't know enough about to shade to target the plants I need in the database, so i find myself going back to Druse book to learn about shade gardening, and using this one as a side resource.

Wonderful book! Many beautiful and informative pictures mostly all taken by the author so you know this book is not just a cut and paste from other sources. I bought the book a year ago for inspiration with my 'Fairy Garden' under two 50 foot Christmas trees planted 40 years ago by a former owner of my 100+-year-old house in SE Pennsylvania. I had a few sad ferns and not much else. The garden is between the house and a well-traveled sidewalk so I want visual interest for passing dogs and their owners. Glorious Shade helped me pick plants - mostly bulbs and some hellebores so far - and I am planning Season 2 to implement much more color and four-season interest. The chapter 'Planting for Success' was particularly helpful in getting stuff in the ground. Plant list there is great. Everyone has shade so plant something that will grow there, install a bench, fix a cocktail and relax. Great book. Well worth the $$$.

This was such a fun book to read! I love the practical advice and fun stories. The photos are beautiful, and I am so excited to try some of these plant combinations in real life!

Packed full of useful tips from design to improving soil quality. I loved the plant references with pictures. Had no idea I had so many beautiful options for shade!

Bought for a gift. She enjoyed the book.

If like me you have a border with a high fence blocking the sun this is the book for you. Great to get a gardening book that caters for plants that grow in the shade

I found this a very good book.