Planting a Circle Garden Around a Tree

I have this beautiful white flowering dogwood in my front yard. Over the years I have been careful to pinch off the suckers that attempt to grow every year. As a result, as tall as I am, I can stand under it comfortably.

One year I watched carefully the way the sun hit the ground around it. I wanted to plant a ring of flowers around it and needed to see how much light there was.

I noticed two important things. One was that the tree came into leaf so late that I could safely plant some tulips around the tree. The other was that there was enough light all summer that I wasn’t limited to only deep shade plants!

Two of my favorite plants for shade and semi shade are coleus and caladium. Both have beautiful leaves in various colors. They are a staple for adding color to my shade gardens.

Alas, I do not live in an area where either caladium or coleus will survive the winter. To say I’m not a dig them up and take them inside kind of person is something of an understatement. A friend once gave me some gladiola bulbs and told me to be sure and digs them up for winter. I couldn’t remember where they were planted. No matter, they kept coming up anyway. I think they did it to spite me.

Anyway, I decided to plant dusty miller around my tree. If you aren’t familiar with this little plant, it’s a nice plant that grows to about 10 inches tall and is nothing but leaves. Bright silver fuzzy leaves. They are absolutely beautiful and I often use them as a background in pots and containers.

I planted the dusty miller almost completely around the tree leaving only the space right dead center of the front open. There I planted a beautiful coleus. It thrived there, as did the dusty miller. As soon as it started to get gold, I covered everything with about 10 inches of leaves. The next spring the dusty miller and the tulips were beautiful. I added a new coleus.

What is important to remember here is that had I not watched the light around that tree and had I not paid attention to when that tree came into leaf, I would never have planted what I planted in that location. I would have stuck to old reliable shade plants and missed out on color and texture.

Many people make the mistake with they move to a new location of landscaping immediately. You need to live there a year to observe the seasonal changes. You need to pay attention to where the wet spots are, the overly dry spots and how the light hits certain areas of the yard. Do this and you will know exactly what to plant and were to plant it.