Becky Cody's half-acre woodland garden seems as natural as can be. Wildflowers, ferns, Japanese maples and moss grow beneath a canopy of poplar trees. Paths meander alongside azaleas and past bogs sprouting delicate irises, ferns and foam flower. But all of this is according to design and is what Cody calls her "29-year work in progress."
Cody, who works part time as an operations manager with Chesapeake Corporate Advisers, dispels the notion that you can't grow anything in the shade. She has been a fan of woodland gardens since she was 6 years old and would wander in the woods near Victory Villa in Baltimore County where she grew up. "My dog and I would go out checking the wildflowers," she says.
When she later married and moved to Edgewood, Cody had her first shade garden, planting azaleas, red maples, dogwoods and conifers. When her husband, Phil, suggested they move to a new house in Bel Air, she was reluctant to leave her garden. But he promised she could take her garden with her and much of it they did, digging up and transplanting 60 favorite trees and shrubs to start her new garden.
Their new yard had some trees and wildflowers. Cody drew up a plan of where everything else would go and her husband helped dig and gather rocks. "This was a wonderful thing we could do together," she says. Her husband died in 2004, but Cody continued to work on her shade garden, and she came up with a idea for a new feature: "I had always wanted a place where I could have a bog garden," she says.
Her wooded lot didn't have one growing naturally and wondered if she might be able to build one. She did some research and found that, indeed, she could. She dug a hole, lined it with plastic and filled it with rich well-drained soil in which she planted delicate irises, foamflower, ferns, and lizard's tail.
Although bogs need to be wet, she said they don't necessarily require a lot of water. "It's like a potted plant in a plastic pot. It holds the water a lot longer," she says. "I don't have to water that nearly as much as the things that are not in a bog."
Cody, who is a Master Gardener, also found that bog gardens don't require exotic or expensive plants. "You look at the Rodale perennial book and a good 50 percent of all the plants in there want consistently moist, well-drained soil."
Don't talk to her about roses, daisies, black-eyed Susans or any of those other sun-loving beauties. "Shade gardening is wonderful," she says, "once you get by the warning you can't grow anything in the shade. ... It's 15 degrees cooler; you don't have the weeds."
Favorite plants: Japanese iris, all types of ferns, moss
Tips: "Know your site. How much sun you've got, the soil you have and the plants to go along with that site."
Cody, who works part time as an operations manager with Chesapeake Corporate Advisers, dispels the notion that you can't grow anything in the shade. She has been a fan of woodland gardens since she was 6 years old and would wander in the woods near Victory Villa in Baltimore County where she grew up. "My dog and I would go out checking the wildflowers," she says.
When she later married and moved to Edgewood, Cody had her first shade garden, planting azaleas, red maples, dogwoods and conifers. When her husband, Phil, suggested they move to a new house in Bel Air, she was reluctant to leave her garden. But he promised she could take her garden with her and much of it they did, digging up and transplanting 60 favorite trees and shrubs to start her new garden.
Their new yard had some trees and wildflowers. Cody drew up a plan of where everything else would go and her husband helped dig and gather rocks. "This was a wonderful thing we could do together," she says. Her husband died in 2004, but Cody continued to work on her shade garden, and she came up with a idea for a new feature: "I had always wanted a place where I could have a bog garden," she says.
Her wooded lot didn't have one growing naturally and wondered if she might be able to build one. She did some research and found that, indeed, she could. She dug a hole, lined it with plastic and filled it with rich well-drained soil in which she planted delicate irises, foamflower, ferns, and lizard's tail.
Although bogs need to be wet, she said they don't necessarily require a lot of water. "It's like a potted plant in a plastic pot. It holds the water a lot longer," she says. "I don't have to water that nearly as much as the things that are not in a bog."
Cody, who is a Master Gardener, also found that bog gardens don't require exotic or expensive plants. "You look at the Rodale perennial book and a good 50 percent of all the plants in there want consistently moist, well-drained soil."
Don't talk to her about roses, daisies, black-eyed Susans or any of those other sun-loving beauties. "Shade gardening is wonderful," she says, "once you get by the warning you can't grow anything in the shade. ... It's 15 degrees cooler; you don't have the weeds."
Favorite plants: Japanese iris, all types of ferns, moss
Tips: "Know your site. How much sun you've got, the soil you have and the plants to go along with that site."
