Ladder

 

 

Flowers need sun, at least half a day, to look their best.  A plant uses a lot of energy to produce a showy flower and they capture that energy from the sun.  

 

In a shade garden, color can be hard to come by.  Some plants bloom in the early spring before the trees leaf out.  Summer blooming plants often produce flowers that are small or few in number.  Some plants have colorful foliage, but without enough sun, even they revert to green over time.  A shade garden is predominantly green.

 

One way to get color into a shade garden is to use yard art.  I make my own.  

 

Here's my work this summer: 

 

 

 

Title:  Orange Ladder. 

 

I like the way it draws the eye to the back of the yard. 

 

Here the ladder echoes the color of the fritillary butterfly on the abelia.

 

 

 

I decided that a set of 3 orange ladders would be perfect, so I posted a note to our neighborhood email group and a man on Bentwood brought me another old ladder.  

 

I painted the new piece yellow, but I used cheap paint from the sale bin at the hardware store and the finished product did not look good.  So I bought more orange paint. 

 

 

 

I love having a matched set.  This one is taller, thinner and less sturdy than its mate.

 

 

 

Much of the foliage in this area of the garden is blue-green and the orange ladders make a spicy contrast.

 

 

 

Yard art makes me smile.