Looking out your window every day and seeing lush gardens is a sure sign that spring has finally arrived. Now is the time to get your hands dirty and start transforming your lawn into a garden space. But if you’ve always dreamed of owning a garden space of your own, you might be a little hesitant to start. After all, the typical home garden is much more than just a space for growing colorful flowers. You need to consider your space and how much time and energy you’ll be willing to put into it. A great way to pique your curiosity and get you started with a home garden is by thinking outside the box. Instead of going with the typical flowers and vegetables, explore ideas for mini backyard farms that don’t require a massive amount of time and space. One of the best ways to start is by thinking about the plants you already have in your home. For example, you can grow herbs in your kitchen window, or plant creeping vines in areas of your home that are not accessible to the garden. Here are 5 shade-loving shrub ideas that you can incorporate into your garden space today:

Mint

Mint is a fragrant plant with a variety of uses. You can use the leaves in tea, or to make homemade desserts and drinks. It’s also an attractive plant that will brighten up your garden space.

Basil

– Basil is a popular herb that can grow to be over 6 feet tall. It’s best used in soups and sauces, but you can use it as an aromatic tea or ground into pesto sauce. Shrubs

Forsythia

This is a small shrub that flowers in the early spring, which makes it perfect for your garden if you live in a colder climate. It features beautiful white bell-shaped flowers, and can grow up to 5 feet tall. Forsythias are quite popular for their bright colors, so they would be perfect for an area near your front door or on your porch.

Morning Glory

Morning glory is a vine that will cover any surface it can reach and produce a flower in the morning. It’s perfect for climbing up the side of your home and can be used as a living wall with the right support structure. Morning glory is also easy to grow and propagates through cuttings. You can plant them anywhere in your garden, but they grow best in damp soils or heavy groundcovers like ferns or ivy.

Oleander

Oleander is a vibrant plant with dark green leaves and pink or white blooms. It grows to about 8 feet tall and can take up to 5-6 years before it becomes full-grown, so this shrub works best for those who have the space. Oleander is known for attracting wildlife, so you might come home from work one day and find some birds nesting in your bushes.

English Ivy

English Ivy is a shade-loving plant that can grow up to 20 feet in height. It’s a great option for adding a bit of greenery to your garden, but it also has the added benefit of being excellent at absorbing and filtering water. In addition, they are known to be deer resistant, which means they will not destroy your plants like other plants might.

Shrub Care Guide

There are a wide variety of shrubs that you can plant in your garden space. And while some simple methods will work for most shrubs, some need more specialized care and attention. Here are some basic guidelines for caring for different types of shrubs: – For evergreens, prune back to the base when necessary and remove any dead or diseased branches. – For deciduous plants, do not prune until after it has finished blooming. – For groundcover shrubs, divide in spring every 3 to 5 years.

This article is provided by https://www.gardenbeauty.co.uk/shrubs