My front shade garden

I love my front shade garden. It is peaceful and of course, shady. I am not a sun worshiper, and since my back yard faces full west with very little shade, I spend a lot of my time on my front porch. After work I sit there, sipping a martini (gin, of course!) and planning my future gardens with the help of magazines and seed catalogs. I usually have lush, colorful containers on my porch, but this year I had a big problem with spider mites. I bought some annuals from my neighborhood Jewel grocery store, and I think those were the culprits. I had to destroy one container, and cut back several other containers in the beginning of the season. They look OK now, but I will never by plants from Jewel again. I'm sticking to the Farmer's Market in downtown Chicago, every Thursday, right down the street from where I work. Growers come in from Michigan and Wisconsin. They have gorgeous plants at very reasonable prices. I'm just going to have to tote them on my trek across the loop and home from the train, but that's OK.

I love my caladiums and my hakone grass. I have them in containers, because the soil is not the greatest in my front garden, I really need to work on amending it. My lamium groundcover looks good most of the season, but my poor old violet clematis really struggles. It doesn't get enough sun, and I only get 3 or 4 blooms. I really should move it, but it has been there, doing it's best, for about 15 years. It's a trooper!