Hosta Luego

• Posted on 12 May 2022
• 0

Vast vegetable plant selections soon disappear; say ‘adios’ to voids in your shade garden!

It seems strange, but it’s true: vegetable garden plant selections will soon be in short supply.  That is partly due to shortages of ‘things’ in general, but primarily due to the time of year. Even though it may seem that warm season vegetable gardening has only just arrived, the general availability and extensiveness of selection will wane.  This happens every year to some extent, but it will likely be exacerbated this year.  If you are planning on planting a vegetable garden, shop now, while we still have a vast selection to choose from.

Mid-May normally ushers in warmer temperatures; this May is no exception.  The blissful cool of early spring inevitably gives way to this pre-summer transition period.  If you have been wishing for greater warmth, it has been officially fulfilled.  Fortunately, the current brand of warm temperatures is not of the ‘swelter’ variety.  It will be noticeably warmer, but not quite hot.

I say it won’t be ‘quite hot’, but that is a matter of prospective.  The first signs of heat will send many into the shade, as it should.  Probably the best part of shade gardening is just that; it is done in the shade. 

Gardening in the shade is an easy transition for us humans, but by reducing the amount of available light, the palate of available plants, narrows dramatically.  It’s one thing to buy a beautiful plant, but it means little if your new selection is not suited for shade.  Whether shade or sun, you should be planting pollinators.

It’s clear where the shade plants are: under the shade cloths.  We devote a lot of space and a lot of resources to shade gardening.  With so many folks having copious amounts of shade, you deserve to have a diverse selection of flora from which to choose!  Additionally, having plants clearly ‘under the shade cloth’ (or not) helps you to know intuitively whether a selection under consideration by you, is a worthy candidate for the spot you have in mind.

David Bates