Being easily amused as I am, the sun-tolerance of some plants (or lack-thereof) and their willingness to completely abandon their reputation as garden bad guys in the face of it cracks me up. Like a bully brought to his knees by a cane wielding grandma,my garden thugs are kept in line  by the sunny- sunshine.

Here in the Burrow we are all about the sun-sun-sun. Trees are allowed if they are on the small side and are  pruned  yearly to maintain sunny borders full of happy sun loving plants. If you come to visit, lather on the sunblock and wear a hat.But that does not stop me from introducing the odd shade plant or two.

The first shade lover to go in was ivy, yes hedera helix. I like it for flower arranging, pressing and as a ground cover. (Before I forget, let me tell you this …..it can infiltrate woodlands via seed carried by birds. The trick is to let it only grow on the ground, once it gets growing  vertical it will fruit, so in my garden it gets whacked back off the fence any time it gets the smart idea to climb.) Tough a plant as Ivy is to manage , it is much easier when it is growing in what amounts to less than 10 square feet of shade bordered  by blazing sun. Like a vampire, the ivy stays hidden back from the light lest it incinerate and after 15 years has yet to creep out of it’s allotted space.

Ditto the lily of the valley. When I was deconstructing my Grandmother’s side yard a few years ago for a driveway to go in, I took little bits everything she was growing to have here in my gardens. The lily of the valley had run rampant over her whole side yard,  barely  held in check from world domination by the very prominent and drying roots of a massive old pine tree.  It was brutal to dig out even a few pips, but I did ,and relocated them to the very small shaded spot under a juniper in my back garden, where they remain 10 years later. Like the ivy they dare not tread out into the sunlight, and happliy exist and flower in their little copse, with no designs to take over the back 40 at all.

In case I was not clear , I will further emphasize the FULL sun part of the full sun garden here. It is not part shade, no dappling, or even shadows. Sunflowers grow tall straight and true. No plant leans over to catch some rays, or fails  to bloom in the darkness. I think in any part sun scenario, I would ,like so many other gardeners I know, be cursing the day I ever brought the lily of the valley home ( even if it is the cutest little thing and sweetly scented too) and gnashing my teeth and wailing over the ivy that ate the yard.

In the last few weeks I have been asked repeatedly if I know how to get rid of lily of the valley by poor gardeners who are inundated with the stuff. Well, sun is the answer. Not my kind of sun as as that may be excessive for those of you who own large trees, but solarization, which is covering the plants( after you cut them back as low as you can )with clear  plastic cloth in the heat of the summer when the sun is at its strongest to essentially cook whatever is underneath. If  you think the sun is not strong enough where they are planted then cut them back and cover with black plastic cloth ,and then mulch or dirt on top of the cloth  until they die from not being able to photosynthesize. Too much sun,or the  complete lack of it , either will do the trick, time consuming but effective.

In the tiny areas here that are part sun/part shade I grow much more well behaved specimens of solomons seal, hostas, heuchera, epimediums, bleeding hearts and ferns.Last fall I resumed my shade experimentation with a few plants of corydalis, another shade plant known for its aggressive tendancies.Time will tell if it stays politely in the area I gave it, or bravely starts to go where no sane shade loving plant dares to venture.